Disneyland October '08

Here we are at the castle on a hot, sunny October 18th.

We couldn't have asked for better weather.

Ethan and Hadley loved Minnie Mouse's house. The dishwasher and oven do some pretty cool tricks!

Toon Town is so surreal!

Brother Bear and Chip & Dale joined us for breakfast.

I think we rode just about every ride they have!

Ethan loved Big Thunder Mountain in the daytime - put his hands up a lot and then wouldn't want to get off. In the night it was a little different. A little too scary in the dark!

The kid in the orange is Tad's cousin, Jake.

Katie was an angel for the whole trip. Only complained when she had a legitimate reason.

I wasn't quite right after the Teacup ride. Whoowaahh!

The new Nemo ride is amazing. I just wish they hadn't put

the angler fish in it, those are dang scary!

Ethan was loving it until that part!

Too many of the kid rides have really disturbing elements in them.

You can't see him, but E is on the Dumbo ride and loving it.

Halloween is a fun time to do Disneyland, though I think the throngs of Utahns we saw there rules out U.E.A for us in the future. Too crowded on a weekend, too. The Haunted Mansion was all Halloweened-up with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme.

Ben can't resist the water fountains at The Bug's Life land in California Adventure.

Our hotel (The Grand Californian) had a great pool.
Ethan loves a good toss from Daddy or Grampa.

In the SLC airport as we arrived home, Ethan found

a faster way to get around. Cling-on carry-on.

Summer Recap - Flaming Gorge '08

Here's a bunch of pics from our good times at the Gorge in August.

Here's our Ethan (or just E, as we often call him). He is quite the water baby. Jumps in and kicks around like a frog. It just comes second nature to him. When we watched the Olympic swimmers this summer, he'd go nuts with envy, making us promise to take him to the pool that very instant. It took some coersion to get him into a life jacket.

It never was hotter in the water.

A bunch of cuties just floatin' around

Tyler, Ethan & Kale get ready to ride the Water Rocket.

Ethan & Cynthia (SEEN tee uh) as E would call her.

Brooke and Jean do their part to help with our crayfish hunt

by taking care of the snacks and babies ashore.

You can't do the Gorge without a little Scrabble in the mix!

Dad shows us all a good time in the Malibu

Ethan loved Judd and Jean's four-wheeler, of course!

I love this shot of Brandon. I got a lot of great ones in this series,

but this is the best one.

Muddy buddy.

Speaking of buddies, this is what you get if you're
buddies with Kale - he's quite the mudslinger!



Katie loves attention from kids.

Brooke took some beautiful shots of us all in the boats on the way to and from the rope swing at Sheep Creek, and some more awesome shots while we were there.

Brad strikes a pose in his boat on glassy water

We cruise along in Dad's Malibu

A bow-full of bronzed babies

Ben & Tad shiver and enjoy



Breezy makes a graceful leap

Here are Brooke's great action shots of the guys on the rope swing at Sheep Creek Canyon at Flaming Gorge. I posted a shot of each different guy in progressive shots to tell the story...

Judd starts the climb

Brad scales the rocks

They've reached the jumpin' off place



Tad gets hold of the rope



Brad makes a powerful launch

Tad starts the downswing.

Judd swings wide

Alan lets go for the money shot of the day, in my opinion -

and among these, that's saying something!

Judd on his way out

Tad makes a splash

Katie loves to fly in the sky.

Crawdad fishin' on the rocks - nobody wants to miss out on that!

The kids wind down around the fire as the sun sets.