For our end of summer break last hurrah, we took a trip to Flaming Gorge reservoir.  All loaded up and on the road, Kacho is enjoying the wind.

On the water.

Tim and Suzanne joined us for the trip too.

We invested in some fishing gear for this trip. I was the tackle master.

Even Zoey got in on the action. These kids all practiced casting for hours at home with practice weights. They were so looking forward to fishing.

And continue to practice casting they did.

We tried all sorts of things until Eliza eventually caught a fish stick.

Day 2, we boated all the way from Lucerne marina to the dam. Landon and Suzanne drove the entire way while the rest of us relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

We hopped out on the rocky shore and explored the visitor center and the viewing area. It’s always impressive to see such a huge structure holding back such potential.

In the visitor center, they had rocks for sale. You can tell what this girls favorite color is! She found all the pink rocks in the place.

On the way back up river, it got a little blustery.

But then it decided to get nice again and we tried our luck fishing again. This time we came prepared with juicy worms. After trying for a while, we caught what I believe was the only fish in the reservoir!

Later on, Kathryn caught a surprise. She sunk her worm to the bottom and after a little while, felt a very gentle tugging on it. She slowly reeled in her line and discovered a crawdad snacking on her worm!

It finally calmed down enough and we got a few toys out.

Day 3. We went up river a little farther up in to the high desert part of the lake. After cruising for a while, we saw what looked like a sandy beach and we decided to investigate. We were quite surprised when it turned out to be a shale beach. We had a ton of fun skipping rocks and finding all kinds of interesting things.

We found another cove and dropped the lines in again. This time Ashley was the lucky one and pulled up another crawdad.

He went nuts for the Dorito!

Great times!

Family pictures from the Family Reunion this year.

And a good bit of the gang here for Gerald and Nancy’s 70th wedding anniversary!

Some Early Summer 2024 Happenings.

Kathryn and and our rapidly growing Ashley girl.

Picking walnuts out of the grass.  Each one was worth a penny, just like old times.

Constant creativity

Lake Powell Young Men’s summer camp. One of our incredible evening devotionals led by the boys.

Canyoneering

Standing as backup to the sand anchor, hiding from the sun.

Early morning leaders skiing outing. Cutting up the glass.

Fathers day love.

Precious gifts from the kids. They are all so sweet.

Kathryn helping Eliza with piano practicing.

Classic sprinkler aerial photo from the trip to Idaho. Kevin and I had fun remembering what it used to take to get a picture like this.

My copilot.

FHE trip to BYU.  Full of memories, stories, and encouragement for the kids to keep working hard in school.

Lego exhibit at the library. They had some incredible projects on display. We enjoyed remembering our wedding dinner on this corner of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

One of the class rooms in the Clyde building that I frequented a lot. Is this a sign of what’s to come, with each kid showing off their personality…

After working so hard and saving up big time, Eliza got her bear from Build-a-bear. When that girl gets motivated, she’s unstoppable.

Girl Scout horse camp!

Zoey has loved hanging out in the basement and helping me work on projects. She especially loves handing me tools.

July 4th at Lagoon! Ben & Emily, James & Marta, and Sam & Hanna all came too.  It was a beautiful day and a blast.

The rite of passage car ride.

Later that evening, we went to the Stadium of Fire. It was an experience. Not quite sure our kids are ready…

Laura went to a volleyball camp at BYU. Josie and Jimmy and their kids stayed with us for a few days.

Jimmy pulled out the classic uncle card and bribed Eliza to go down an intimidating slide at Splash Summit.

The garden is growing. Seems like we’ll have quite a few pumpkins this year. And we got our first zucchini.

I got my first big hike of the season in. Santaquin Peak.

The girls at the halfway point home after spending a couple of days at Farm Camp.

We have a flushing toilet in the basement! We’re getting so close.

We took a weekend trip down to Bryce Canyon. We’ve driven by it several times over the years, but never stopped. This year we decided to change that.

We started off with the Mossy Cave hike.

The real attraction here was the Tropic waterfall, which I found to very interesting. When the saints first settled the region, they dug a 10 mile ditch to divert water from the East Fork of the Sevier River. Once the water crossed over the threshold, it flows down through what is now Bryce Canyon National Park and on to the town of Tropic. The Tropic waterfall was a great place to cool off on a hot day.

This rock looked a lot like an elephant.

We did some more cooling off in the hotel swimming pool.

After a quick bite of dinner, we went to Sunset Point to enjoy a majestic evening.

We couldn’t just look at that incredible trail and before we new it, we started walking down the Wall Street trail.

Really cool switchbacks

Cutie pie

I took the three older kids and we cruised down the trial a ways and into the slot.

On the far (lower) side of the slot, there were these incredible trees. What a life they have lived. I was blown away seeing them as we came through the narrow slot.

A view of some of the switchbacks from the lower side.

Such a cool place.

Afterwards, we stopped by the Old Bryce Town shops for some ice cream and fun.

Lock ’em up!

The night was almost a new moon, so the sky was especially dark. I took Ashley and Eliza and we went to a Sky Party at the park. It was pretty incredible to see the sky so full of stars. This is not my picture, and I don’t think it looked quite like this to the naked eye, but pretty close. We got to look in some really nice telescopes and see some fun star clusters. It was a neat experience to have with A and E.

The next morning, Landon was not feeling well, so Kathryn took another one for the team and stayed at the hotel with him and got us all packed up. She needs two gold stars, and some rain checks for sure. Meanwhile, I took the three other kids and we went and did the Queens Garden & Navajo Combination trail. Notice the inset picture of the queen on the board.

And here is the one we took.

Here is the explanation to help you see what you’re supposed to see.

We saw this Rattlesnake on the trail too.

Two bridges. There are two stone bridges going across this slot canyon.

Making the most of a difficult situation.

Hiking up the switchbacks.

We did it! It was fun to have such a cute talking backpack buddy too. Later that night, Zoey told me thanks for taking her on the hike and she had a fun time. It was already worth it, but that made it extra special and melted this daddy’s heart.

After getting the whole family back together, we came back into the park one last time to see Bryce Point. It was spectacular.

What a great trip, and an incredible place to visit!