August Trip/Williams Reunion 2013

James and I have been debating purchasing a tent trailer for a lot of years.  We finally decided it was high time to do it, while the boys are at such a great age for camping.  James found a terrific deal, and we dove right into a trip with it.

We headed down to Utah in a circuitous route this time.  James' brothers and families were also traveling down so we combined plans and had a great time for a couple of days.  First stop was the Louis and Clark caverns in Montana.  These caves were amazing!  We were in there for about an hour and a half.  The guide was great--pointing out all sorts of interesting formations.  For the record, stalactites hang tight to the ceiling, and stalagmites might reach the ceiling.

Before entering--I was disappointed to learn that Louis and Clark actually never went into the caves.  As we entered, bats were flying around.  The boys thought that was really cool.  I can't say that I did, but it didn't bug me too badly.

We made it out again!  The Last hallway/tunnel was kind of stuffy/freaky--with old wooden doors at either end of it to protect the cave.  That's the only time I got claustrophobic actually.

What are they all staring at?  Wish I could remember.

This is a picture of the one pool that was in there--its very reflective, so its really hard to tell what this picture is actually of.  But you get the idea of the cave--dark with lots of things in it, poking up, poking down, etc.  

We pulled into our campground pretty late and set up the tent trailer so we could eat.  It was interesting setting up in the dark...but we managed!  I think we ate supper at 10:30 pm.  That's a first for us!  The next day we took down in the morning and headed to Yellowstone.  It was hot hot hot there, but fun too!  We saw some smokin' (and stinkin') rocks, for sure!

Tommy is camera-shy as you will see in future pictures.  We keep telling him he will always wonder what he looked like as a 6 1/2 year old but it doesn't seem to bother him!  We sure had fun with all these wonderful cousins, even in the scorching heat.  And thank goodness for the other Spencer's motorhome with the toilet facilities.  Boy oh boy, we would have been in a pickle without that.

Tommy's evil grin--if you watch closely you'll see him move in to either choke, poke, or tackle George.  

We liked this pot the best because we could see a lot of action.  And hear it!  I learned later that we missed the rare explosion of one of the geysers at Yellowstone--no one really knew it was going to "go off" so I don't know how many people were actually in the vicinity when it happened.  Kind of neat!

We left Yellowstone Park and the cousins and headed to our next KOA--Lava Hot Springs.  We had a beautiful spot right by the river and we got there with a bit of daylight left to set up camp.  

The next morning we rented tubes and tubed down the river a few times.  I lost a flip flop, but otherwise we were all unscathed.  George was cute--he wore a life jacket and basically lay horizontally on the tube with a "determined not to be scared" look on his face.  I think he might have smiled a couple of times very briefly.  After a wasp-infested lunch (we wondered why there were no other picnickers around!) we headed over to the water park for some fun in the nice warm water.  I got to go on some high slides (my first time ever on a free-fall type slide) with Owen and Ryrie.  

We set up camp so late that we just had time for one round of Skip Bo, or was it Uno, after dinner and then it was bed.  The boys had big plans for a story from James, (His famous character "Farmer J") a campfire with s'mores, and night games ("kick the candle").  However, none of that happened, to their disappointment.  So the next morning we made a campfire and roasted the s'mores.  The story came later, as did the night games.  Keep it simple, right?

Lava Hot Springs is a very special place and I felt grateful to be there but in some ways it was hard to go.  My dear Grandma Alta Halvorsen passed away there.  I felt very close to her on this trip as we were able to also visit the place of her birth and childhood--Zion National Park.  

It was nice to have a couple of nights in Provo to recover and do some laundry.  And we were all really excited to see Aunt Lucy who just came back from living in Ghana for 6 weeks.  I felt bad that we were still doing laundry when she arrived, Really in need of a washing machine.  Sorry Lu!   Abi and her darlings were there when we arrived which was really fun.  It was good to see them!                

The three sistahs

I was totally captivated by Sadie, as is anyone who meets her.  She can stare you down, but she has the most winning little spirit about her.  Beautiful girl!  I miss those cheeks already!

Logan and George played so happily together.  It was quite wonderful, actually.  We all had a lot of laughs watching Logan imitate George.  It must have helped G's ego to have someone want to follow him around, for a change!

After a much needed rest stop, we headed out to California, caravanning with Grandpa, Nana, and Aunt Lucy.  Sadly, we had to leave Abi's family behind, but luckily, we got to see them again a few days later.  This time the boys knew what to do to pass the time in the car:

We dropped our tent trailer off in St. George at our cousin Greg Davies' house.  Thank you Greg and Noni!  Then we continued through the mojave desert to Baker, CA where we stopped for lunch and literally BAKED while trying to make the sandwiches before jumping back in the car.  Here is where James got sucked into the billboard advertising and bought some Road Kill Beef Jerky.  Pretty crazy stuff!

We were happy to arrive in Oceanside, CA after about 12 hours on the road (I felt like a failure because I thought it was only supposed to take 10--that's driving Gpa Dade style though, haha).  Greg, Kassie, and beautiful baby Hinckley were there to greet us!  

Ryan had been there, as we saw from the copious amounts of groceries he left behind as he went to pick up his family.  The first thing we all did, before we even unpacked the car, was to walk across the street (literally, a one-laner) to the beach and basically get totally wet.  It was so awesome! My hair was straight one minute, and a total bush the next.  I would have to be bald or next to it if we lived in So. Cal, but I think it would be worth it!

The amazing house we stayed at--pinkish one, with black suburban

The incredible view from our amazing house we stayed at.  We were so amazed at how fast the sun sets.

I was totally captivated and in-love with the ocean, beach, waves, sand and all.  I would be a total beach bum if I lived here.

Ryan and fam soon returned and we settled in for a ton of fun.  What a great week!  We ate, visited, swam, boogie boarded, and got sunburned.  James and I ran on the beach barefoot a couple of times, we all walked out on the pier one night and saw a diver using a flashlight, we saw some people right beside us pull in a fish or two, and we caught some amazing waves!  It was a really fun time.

Owen happily fit in one of the wet suits we found hanging up in the garage--it helped him stay in much longer than he other wise would have.

The beach right in front of our house was kind of narrow and had these big rocks backing it, so it was far enough away from the big wide, crowded beach that we really had it all to ourselves.  So amazing!

George proved that 3 year olds can have tantrums, even at the beach.  He had a nice long nap on my lap in the sun one of the afternoons.  Ah, what a nice feeling.

We rented this paddle board on our last day at the beach.  Unfortunately it was the most windy day of all, but we figured out how to do it once we got out past the biggest waves.  You can really lose yourself out on the ocean, on a paddleboard, I discovered.  I could do that all day long, I really could!

And I could do this all day long too--Ryan taught us all the trick of boogie boarding and I loved that too!  I'm afraid other people tended to my children, as I was pretty much the last one in every day from the ocean.  

Sweet little Annie turned two on this trip--what a miracle baby! And as it turned out, another miracle baby was also born that same day--more to follow...

This crew was pretty much ungoverned an unseen during our trip.  They went back and forth between beach, hot tub, and basement.  They had such a fun time together.  Isn't their view amazing?  We saw dolphins swim by a few times, as well as lots of cool looking boats.  We took turns providing the meals and had some delicious stuff.  

A rare quiet moment for the T.

Whoa, there is some major visiting going on here!  And is Nana holding one or two children?

The three oldest grandchildren on the Williams' side!

James brought his Kub game and had the kids decorate them.  They each did a monster (or more) on each Kub "warrior" and that made it pretty fun to try to knock them down.  

The temple of my dreams!  Sophie went to do baptisms for the first time with her parents, Nana and Grandpa, and Aunt Lucy.  The next day, James and I and Ryan and Nicki went to a session.  I have always wanted to go inside the San Diego temple and this more than fulfilled that dream.  It is so beautiful.

While at our reunion in Oceanside, we certainly missed Trent and fam and Abi and fam.  While we were there, as I said, on Annie's birthday, Natalee gave birth prematurely to baby Kate.  We were and are so grateful that things turned out well for them, though it was very scary for a while.  So even though we missed these wonderful people a lot, we are glad they stayed put and didn't come out to the reunion!

We also missed sweet Hallie's third birthday!  She had a good one, we heard.  So now there is just one more 2010-er to turn 3--Logan.  

We drove away from Oceanside Sunday morning and headed back into the heat.  We picked up the tent trailer and enjoyed a visit with Greg and family before heading into Springdale to our campground--literally right outside Zion National Park.  It was super exciting for me to drive that road again.  I think the last time I went through Hurricane was when I went down to a campout with some BYU friends.  Also fun memories of being with the girls from Russia and hiking Angel's Landing.  In fact, I sadly found out after the fact that we drove right past my friend Shelley's house.  :-(

We did stop at the St. George temple for a short time.  George was super excited because of the name.  :-)

They all touched the temple and said how many months/years it would be until they went there.  This is a ritual we now do at all temples we come across with the kids.  It's kinda cool!

Our campsite was right across the little street from my parents' and that was fun.  We had access to the river and the bathrooms.  What could be better?  I have to say, it was nice to set up before dark too.  Zion was super hot--over 100 both days we were there.  It was a bit of a shock, but the boys were real troopers.  We went on a hike to Emerald Pools.  Looked smaller than I remembered, but it was the end of the season, so it was a bit drier than it can be.  Mom was our guide--she knows the park so well--and she said that one of the neat things about Zion is that the trails are so different every time you go.  Even in one day the trails can look different because of the way the sun hits the mountains, etc.  It is certainly one of the most beautiful places on earth.  It was fun for me to take the boys there and have them hear some stories of Grandma growing up.  I think one that stuck the most was of her hanging her feet off of Lady Mountain.  They said they got the butterflies just thinking about that!

They look alike, don't they?

Some fun little man-made formations we saw on the hike

A little Hobbit hole the boys found on the way down from Emerald Pools hike

It's HOT!

After our hike the boys were ready to head back but we persevered and rode the shuttle on to the beginning of the Narrows hike.  The boys complained all the way up, but after that we jumped in the river and all was forgiven.

This apple cooked quite happily on the dash of our car while we were hiking!  We ate it when we got back to the campsite.  Perfectly done!

James spotted this "Mickey Mouse" cactus

He claimed to be soooo tired on the hike up, yet had all this energy once we reached the top to climb around on the rocks, in the trees, etc.  Go figure!

The awesome Zion shuttle--now we don't have to deal with traffic jams and full parking lots.  Its so easy to get around!

More random, out-of-order pics of our first day in Zion:

We headed back to camp and the kids actually got in the river again while we prepared dinner.  It was super fun to be together with Nana, Gpa and Lu.  They made everything so much easier!

I loved all the cat-naps G took on this trip--I got lots of extra cuddles from a guy that apparently gave up on naps quite a while ago,

I stole this pic off of Gregory's blog--don't even know what its of, but it looks like it could be outside of Zion!

stunning view from the visitor's center.  I couldn't figure out why they built the center there--it blocks the view from the road!

Court of the Patriarchs--Day 2 we did this and Weeping Rock.  Two short and sweet "strolls"

Our first time using the awning--proved to be helpful in providing shade and all.

We're getting a little tired of pictures again!

At Weeping Rock.  It is amazing how water just comes out of the sandstone!

Visiting the Jolley-Crawford cemetery and specifically Great Grandpa and Grandma Jolley's graves.

A Pretty special way to end our trip to Zion!  As we drove back to Provo, I read a lot of Grandma Alta's history that Nana has put together out loud to them.  It was neat for them to hear this time around in the context of Zion.

We enjoyed our last couple of days at Provo very much.  We experienced the Provo Rec, helped in the bounteous garden (I can't believe the size of those peppers and tomatoes--to die for!), visited, watched a lot of movies (I sullied Lu with God's must be Crazy and Strictly Ballroom, and we enjoyed 5 People You Meet in Heaven), played games (who knew Teresa was a whiz at Yahtzee!), visited, ate (did I mention I gained 5 lbs on this trip?) and went on walks around campus.  Oh, and we went and saw the Scarlet Pimpernel musical, which made me immediately want to watch the movie again...but I resisted.  We had a super fun day in SLC where Dad and James took the boys and Mom, Lu, and I went bow shopping and I bought a new violin bow from Peter Prier's shop.  It was an amazing experience to hear how different my violin sounded with different bows.  And I had the gut-wrenching chance to play on a 9 million dollar original Strad!  Scary!!  

Here's a funny pic I found on my phone--Georgie's view during the ride.  Poor kid!

Also, we got to see Grandma Spencer and her ALL of her sisters on BYU campus of all places. The boys were so surprised to see them there!  It was quite fun to see their faces.  They were down for Education Week and Grandma treated us to dinner at the Cannon Center--an experience not soon to be forgotten.  

So that concludes the account of the Williams Reunion of 2013.  Some of these good folks were there, and some were not, but we love 'em all!  (Yes, this is another stolen picture from my awesome brother Grey.  Thanks bro!)  We'll start planning the reunion in Canada soon!  :-)