| We
spent some time looking back at some of our past photos of trips
we had taken over the last 10 years, and Ended up compiling them.
I thought it would be nice to put them together in one place so we
don't loose them. 2008 In 2008 we were living in Taylor and we took a trip to San Diego & Sea World. If memory serves me correctly, we went with Sabrina & Braxton. They were living in Tucson at the time and actually talked us in to going. This was the start of our yearly traditions of venturing out and seeing what was to be seen around us. As you can see, Rachel is about 5 months old. This picture was taken at Sea World. We also went to the beach and seems like we did something else, but I just don't remember what. Terra just reminded me we went on a tour of the USS Midway. I would like to go back and spend more time there. Maybe with older children. |
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2009 In 2009 we were living in Arkansas and were not able to make it back to Arizona for the Labor Day camp out. As we were not able to make the trek west, we decided to do something and we went down to Dauphin Island, AL. While on the island in the bay, we played at the beach and toured an old civil war fort. I believe it was called Ft. Gaines. Last year (2016) Terra and I visited Orange Beach, AL (the other side of the bay) and visited the fort on the other side as well. |
| 2010 In 2010 we were living in Arkansas, and our "trip" was going back to Arizona for AJ's wedding. This year Landen was born and our travels were back and forth to Arizona preparing for a 4-kid life. We also moved out back to Arizona at the tail end of this year. Not too much to tell, but I think this is one of the best photos of the kids we ever took. |
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2011 In 2011 we were talked into joining Karen & Bill Black on a trek out to Disneyland. Karen is Terra's closest sister in age. Her kids are slightly older than ours and her youngest is the same age as Kyle. Karen & Bill for a few years had season tickets to Disneyland and they frequented that place often. We went with them and it turned out much better than I thought. My favorite description of going to Disneyland as an adult is similar to going to the DMV. This was not the case on this trip. As they were very adept and knew the in's and out's, they took all of our tickets and their oldest kids ran around and acquired fast passes for all of us to attend the faster rides without having to stand in line. It worked out very well. Some of Terra's other nieces and nephews also attended at the same time as well. Karalyn, Celeste & Josh all came too. |
| 2012 This year's trip was my idea. We left from Tuscon and planned to visit northern Arizona/Southern Utah. We went to Canyon De Chelly next to Chinli, AZ. We hiked down to the White House (seen in the back ground). Landen actually hiked with us. We brought a backpack to carry him in, it was used, but lightly. We also went to Muley Point, Monument Valley, Valley of the Gods, Mexican Hat & the Petrified Forest. I enjoyed this trip, but I was probably one of the only ones that did. This trip inspired Terra to provide more of an opinion on where we go. This was evident on future trips. |
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2013 I really enjoyed this trip. We made a trip of trains. We started off by going to Williams, AZ and taking the train to the Grand Canyon. Then we took it back and headed over to Durango, CO and took the steam engines up to Silverton. Being on a coal fired steam engine was a real thrill. We rode on the open car gondolas and the scenery was incredible. You could hang out the sides and really take in the views. Also soot would drift back and land on you. We were all speckled at the end of the ride back to Durango. |
| 2014 Again, I had a lot of input on where we were to venture this time. As Terra remembered my last viewing trip, she had an influence. This time we drove up through Las Vegas and up to Bishop, CA. That was a really neat little town. It had a charming bakery that we ate breakfast at the next morning. This was just a convenient town based on geography, but was a fun place to visit. The next day we headed into Yosemite valley. I was very impressed at the valley and wished we could have spent more time there hiking and exploring the falls. I would still like to go back. Then we went over to the Sequoia forest and admired the large trees. We did a short hike (~2.5 miles), but again I wanted some more time there to spend looking at the scenery. After this we went down to Los Angles and played at the beach and went on a whale watching tour. This last bit was Terra's influence carried over from 2012. I must admit I really liked the boat ride. |
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2015 This was another trip where I tried to squeeze in some sight seeing while doing something that the kids might enjoy. This year we went to Arches National Park on our way up to the Salt Lake City area. Our goal was to visit Golden Spike - which we did the next day. Then we went to Lagoon which is an amusement park north of Salt Lake City. This was very enjoyable, cool, and not very crowded. The next day we went to a candy factory for a tour (Mrs. Cavenaugh's I think) and then headed back south. We attended the Manti pageant (Terra's flavor) and then took a tour of Glen Canyon Dam. We had planned to try Antelope Canyon, but needed to make better pre-planning arrangements. Karalyn Ollerton also went with us on this trip. We picked her up on Snowflake and then dropped her off on the way home. |
| 2016 This was a trip back to San Diego, CA. Our plan was to visit Sea World. Not that I really wanted to go back, but Rachel loves animals and Sea World had announced they would be getting rid of the Okras. So we built a trip around letting Rachel get a view of these killer whales. In hind sight we should have also gone to the San Diego zoo. While living in Arkansas went to the Memphis zoo and they had Panda Bears and Komodo Dragons as well as a train that we rode around the place in. Then after Sea World, we went up to Los Angles and spend a day a hunnington beach and a day a Knott's Berry Farm. The amusement park was the kids favorite event of this trip. |
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2017 This year Mia and Wyatt talked us into joining them for a trip our to California. AJ and Brittney also came along as well. We stayed in Santa Cruz and made a trip up to San Francisco. I really enjoyed seeing some of the sights. I was absolutely fascinated with the bridges. We drove over them and rode a boat under them. We also took a boat around Alcatraz. That was very fascinating. Also the cable cars were neat. I was amazed and the ingenuity of people to come up with downtown transportation about 100 years ago. It was neat to see it still operating albiet as a tourist attraction now. We also went to a grove of coastal redwoods. These are the tallest trees in the world. I think they were slightly smaller than the ones in the northern grove on the California/Oregon border. We also spent a couple of days at the beach and looking at tide pools. |
It is really neat to see the progression of the kids as they age. When we started we had 3 and now we have 5. It is fun to look at how they age and change
over the years. Also it seems like I just bought that wide brimmed hat, but clearly it has been around for almost a decade.
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