OH 29...

Officially 29 today! Wanted to share a photo of Dance Party Friday on my birthday! 11:11am on 11/11/11!

Where is Waldo?

Just wanted to share a quick photo of the work crew yesterday. We were the land of Waldos :) Enjoy.

Christmas 2010

So.. yes Christmas 2010! It has been forever since I have updated my posts, but from here on out, I will do better :)

Our Christmas events began this year with a trip to hunt down a Christmas Tree. We headed outside of Sisters, Oregon for our search. This was also the first time we had both tried out our new Snow Shoes, which we both enjoyed. I happened to get a couple of shots of the journey, but not of the actual tree... hmmm?

Trying out the new Snow Shoes for the First time.


Colin on mission. It was so gorgeous out.


Results of a small snow ball fight we had.

Christmas eve came quickly. This year we again had our friends over for dinner, drinks and games.

 
Lynnea, Abby and Sarah relaxing on the couch.


Cinder : Sarah and Greg's pup felt right at home in the cat bed.

Christmas Day we spent with Colin's family at our home. We enjoyed a yummy dinner, exchanging of gifts, and visiting.

Finn, Kealin and Cedar

 
Colin got Lynnea a Snuggie :)

 
Call of Duty...

 


Finn reading a card.


Colin's new gloves to match his hat :)

October 2010 Road Trip!!

And Colin and I were off (with all the needed navigation/phone/entertainment devices)...for an eight day road trip! 

 

(Colin with the Droid hooked up to the charger and the aux cord)

We left our town Bend Oregon on Saturday the 23rd of October. Of course we did not get out the door as early as wanted but we definitely brought everything we would need without forgetting anything. The weather was suppose to be rainy and gray all weekend, so we were happy to head for warmer country. 

 

(near LaPine, OR) 

 

(near Summer Lake Hot Springs, OR)

First destination to be Zion National Park in UT. Neither of us had been, but had heard good things about it, so thought it would be fun to go check it out. The first day the driving went smoothly. We decided to stay the night in Winnemucca, NV. Colin had a free night stay at the Best Western so that is where we decided to bunk for the night. 

(the back of the truck packed up : Winnemucca, NV)

 

 (Colin enjoying the cozy bed : Winnemucca, NV)

 

(Before we went out to dinner : Winnemucca, NV) 

We also went to the "Winners" Casino that night after dinner.  We were there for about 20 mins playing Craps when Colin announced that he was ready to leave. He was up $175 ! So we left and went back to the room. So at this point in the vacation we had not really spent any money in a way :)

The next morning we were off on about a 9 hour drive to Zion. There were some gorgeous skies along the way.

 

Unfortunately we arrived at Zion past dark and the one camping area by the parking lot said it was full. So we thought we would attempt camping in the back of the truck until morning. However, about an hour of getting this situated we were confronted by the Park Security and were told we may not camp in the parking lot and that we would need to locate a campsite. He let us know about another campsite that he thought had spots. Sure enough we were able to find one! In the morning these were our surroundings:

 

 

 

This campground was amazing. It was super clean and there was a rule that you had to be quiet by 10pm, but everyone was silent at like 8pm! It was so bizarre, there is even over 100 spots!  That first full day in Zion we decided to do a few hikes.   

(One of the views on the drive up to our first hike)

The below photos are from our first day of hiking. We completed two hikes this day and they were considered Moderate Hikes.

 

Our next day of hiking was an all day adventure. We started off on a trail called Angles Landing, the last .5 miles is on top of a huge rock with 2000 ft drops on either side so they provide chains to hold on to. I could just not bring myself to do this part of the hike, too scary! So we went on hiking other trails.

 

 

 

Our last day at Zion we decided to do two more hikes. One was a short river walk (The Narrows) and the other was considered an advanced hike (Hidden Canyon), again with the addition of chains. :) I worked up enough courage to do this one. It was still scary though! Colin took all the photos :)

 

(at the top you could go into a canyon, but there was too much water)

 

After Zion, Colin and I headed for the Grand Canyon. Neither of us had ever been, so it was a neat experience. We stayed on the North Rim for one night. It was really chilly there! About 26° in the morning when we woke up. We did not get the chance to do any hiking this trip but next time!

 

On the "way" home we stopped in Vegas for two nights. We were able to stay at our friend's Britt's place, which was very nice of her, considering she was not able to join us because she was staying in California! While we were in Vegas we visited with my friend Tex and also ran into a friend from Bend. 

 

(Tex and Lynnea)

 We left Vegas on Saturday morning and made it home Saturday night, so we had all day Sunday to get re-organized at home.  Overall we had a great vacation and can not wait for our next road trip adventure.

Elk Lake Resort Camping

September 18 & 19, 2010.

Colin finally got two days off work, after working a 13 day shift, so we decided we needed a little break from home. We searched around on the internet for a last min adventure out. Everything we were looking into was booked! However, we finally found an available Cabin Rental up at Elk Lake Lodge Resort. It had been dumping rain all day, so the drive up was very wet and foggy. Gorgeous actually.  

 

When we got there it was still dumping. Elk Lake looked very cold and or course there was no one out enjoying it. We went into the lodge to check in. Here there was a Jazz band playing and a good group of people enjoying them selves. 

 

We then ventured to our cabin. These are considered camping cabins. They have a propane heater and lantern and beds! So it was like" luxury" camping, minus a personal bathroom. It was very cozy and warm. it was too wet to build a fire so that was a bit of a bummer but we had fun. Luckily Colin had his 3G phone so we were able to get internet and keep entertained playing triva games most the night!

 

 

 We had dinner there in the lodge while listening to the jazz band! Their special was a full rack of ribs, Colin got half a rack and I had some WAY TOO SPICY elk chili, it was good though...

 We were hoping to get out and do some hiking all day on Sunday and maybe some target shooting but it was just way too wet. We ended up going back home and stacking some wood :)