Summer Vacation - Part 10 - White Sands

We stayed the night in Las Cruces, then went to White Sands National Monument in the morning. We stopped by the gift shop on the way in a picked up a couple of saucer sleds, then drove out into the sand dunes. When we found a good spot, we parked and started hiking.

There was more scrub grass than I was expecting, but it was still a beautifully desolate place.

When we found a good hill, we decided to try out our sleds.

Everyone gave it a shot, with varying degrees of success.

When the kids got tired of the arduous climb back up the hill, we started exploring the area a little (Miles is the little dot in the middle).

With the sun reflecting off the sand, though, it was very hot. It's easy to see how people have died here.

Even with lots of water, we were all worn out pretty fast.

After only an hour or two, we were all ready to get back into the air conditioned car and watch the Lego Justice League movies for the millionth time as we headed back to Texas.

Summer Vacation - Part 9 - Russell

We drove all day from California to Mesa and stayed the night with Russell and Lisa and their family. We knew we were getting close when the car thermometer started doing this.

We got there in the evening, introduced dog Russell to Russell, then they took us out to dinner at a Chinese buffet. Emily and Chris came over, and Katie was also in town, so it was a good crowd.

We played some Apples to Apples and Twister, then got the kids to bed.

We didn't have to leave until noon the next day, which worked out really well. I took the van in for its "Required Oil Maintenance" (which the mechanic we took it to before the trip failed to mention was coming up soon), while Amber got her "blonde" dye job fixed by hairdresser extraordinaire Emily, who actually made it blonde this time instead of brown with gray streaks.

Meanwhile, the kids were happy to play on the computers or try out the voice modulator in Russell's man cave.

It was a fun visit, but eventually we had to get back on the road, so we said our goodbyes and were off to New Mexico.

Summer Vacation - Part 8 - Sequoias

On Sunday we attended Amber's parents' ward with Grandma Anne, then spent the rest of the day at Glade E.'s house in Visalia, which I hadn't seen yet. We had dinner and chatted until it was time to put the kids to bed.

On Monday we drove to Sequoia National Park. Julie and her kids wanted to come too, but didn't have a car, so Grandma Roper drove them and we took Evan so everyone would have a seat. On the drive in we got to see some nice scenery, and stopped to climb around on Tunnel Rock.

We also saw lots of "Jucy RVs", and the kids thought it was hilarious that they came "with everything, including the kitchen sink" (painted on the side) and giggled themselves silly with existential questions about what "everything" included (can a Jucy RV could contain the whole world? another Jucy RV?).

As we got higher into the mountains we started to see giant sequoia trees scattered here and there. There was no cell phone reception and no one knew the park well enough, so the two cars ended up going to separate places next. We stopped at the Giant Forest Museum first, where we got our first up-close look at some of the trees on our walk from the parking lot.

Everyone was duly impressed. The museum had some interesting displays about the trees, but I thought it was more interesting to just go see them. This one is right outside the museum.

We drove from there to the trailhead leading to the General Sherman tree, the biggest tree in the world (by volume). We stopped to eat lunch there (and met the others, who had just finished seeing the tree), then hiked down to see the General.

It is a very big tree; I had to stitch together two pictures to get an complete shot of it.

We happened to be there when a park ranger was wandering around, and he was very nice and answered all our questions, like how this branch(!) that the kids are sitting on fell off the tree a few years ago and apparently shook the ground enough to be felt a mile away.

This cross section we found on the way back gives a good idea of the scale of these giants.

They are shorter and squatter than the redwoods, and the base reminds me of an elephant foot.

As we were using the restrooms at the trailhead after hiking back up, Amber thought she saw someone familiar. Sure enough, it was the same Danish family we had met on the shuttle bus at the Grand Canyon. In one of the most unlikely occurrences I've ever been a part of, we had met again 6 days later in a different state, hundreds of miles away. Like the father said, "It's not like it's a big country or anything." Of course we had to take a picture.

We met up with the other car at a pre-decided location, then drove to see the General Grant tree, the second largest tree in the world. I really like this area, it was just full of enormous trees.

We had a hard time getting the kids out of this fallen sequoia, hollowed out into a tunnel.

General Grant was very impressive.

We hiked around the area a little bit and the trails looked beautiful. I wish I could have stayed for a few more hours.

But by this time, the kids were starting to wear out, and get very dirty (it's hard to tell, but these guys are brothers).

The other car went home, but I wanted to stop one more place to find the "Big Stump". We found this one at the trailhead and took turns climbing up on it.

We hiked the trail until we found another stump, but it wasn't as impressive, so we turned around and went home. Since we came out of the park a different way we entered, we ended up taking some very windy back roads back to Porterville. There were reports of vomiting from the other car, but we managed to make it back, slowly, but unscathed.

Summer Vacation - Part 7 - Reunion Day 2

We started off the second day of the reunion with a service project at the old church building Amber's grandparents helped build. It has since been bought by the city and is being rented out as a cultural center, so we helped clean up the grounds and got a tour of the building.

Next was a tour of the home that Amber's mom grew up in (and which Amber also grew up in). We went in groups and each sibling would talk about a section of the house and the memories associated with it.

It was fun to hear all their stories, and neat to hear the second-generation memories from Amber. Here she is sitting in her favorite tree.

And here she is sitting on "the rock", the punishment for bad behavior, with her brothers.

In the afternoon, we prepared and performed our family history skits. Our family was assigned "I want what daddy wants", the story of how Amber's uncle traded meals with Amber's mom after she foolishly ordered the same low-budget meal as her father.

I think the whole reunion went really well and it was fun for me to get to know some of Amber's cousins better and for our kids to meet some extended family.

Summer Vacation - Part 6 - Reunion Day 1

We drove from the Grand Canyon straight to Porterville. There's not really a lot to see on that drive, but we did hear a couple of sonic booms as we drove past Edwards Air Force Base.

When we got to Porterville, we stopped at Amber's parents' house to take a dip in the pool (ostensibly to cool off, but mainly to wash off three days worth of grime), then over to Grandma Anne's house where we were stayed for the several days we were in California. She was a wonderful host and it was neat for the kids to be able to spend more time with her.

Amber helped her mom with preparations the following morning, then the reunion kicked off in the afternoon with an informal pool/pizza party at a community pool.

The festivities really got started the next day. First, we met at the church building and took a family picture in our family-color-coded reunion T-shirts (designed by Amber, her "one" job for the reunion).

Then the kids rotated through a series of stations, each with an activity relating to something about the life of Amber's mom's parents, like his mission journey to Germany.

And her study of chemistry.

In the cultural hall, we looked at several tables full of mementos from their lives, then were treated to a fashion show of notable clothing, such as this wedding dress, modeled by Amber.

After lunch and a few hours of free time, we sang family songs (which Amber compiled) and Amber did a charades-inspired presentation about Grandma Anne.

Summer Vacation - Part 5 - Grand Canyon Day 2

After a night's sleep, Flash and Superman were ready to go. They got lots of comments in these outfits.

I, on the other hand, was apparently not ready, because I hopped onto the shuttle without my camera, and had to ride back to get it. While waiting for me, Amber and the kids looked around the visitors center, then got attacked by this audacious squirrel.

With camera in hand, we descended on a trail down into the canyon.

We weren't sure how far we should go, because we didn't want to have to carry Miles all the way back up.

Everyone was having a good time and we were all kind of disappointed when we decided we'd better turn around.

As it turns out, we could have gone further because Miles was actually the Flash.

And he and Superman hiked all the way back up without any help.

After our hike we rested on the shuttles as we rode to the west side of the park. On the way we met a very nice Danish family who was taking a tour of the American west (who you'll hear about again in a future post). The rim trail on this side was more remote and it was half nature walk, half canyon views.

The nature was interesting, but the views were better. From this angle we could see the river at the bottom of the canyon.

Eventually everyone was worn out, so we just stopped at the major shuttle stops to see the featured views before heading back to the campsite.

We still had some daylight left when we got back, so we took a hike along the campsite's nature trail before hitting the sack.