New Flooring

Just wanted you to see the new flooring

Before

After

We have since changed the curtains to a green color and have added a rug. We really like it, however, Chelsea does not. She does not enjoy slipping and sliding.

Chelsea's First Roadtrip

On April 12th we headed out for California taking Chelsea on her first road trip. She actually did very well. She didn't even once ask "Are we there yet?"

We stayed at Connie's. Connie also has a Shih Tzu named Nate. At the very beginning Chelsea was a little afraid of Nate. He was a little over anxious to play.

 As you can see from the pictures Nate is much bigger than she is. They soon became best buds and played till they dropped. We took a number of videos of them racing around the living and dining room after each other, barking and biting at each others paws. They put on quite a show.







                                                                     Nate at rest.

                                                                          Chelsea at rest.

Blue vs Red

Alan is an avid fan of BYU as you can see by the longer grass forming the letter Y in our front lawn. Well, this week-end BYU played their arch rival University of Utah. We have a certain member of our family that does not root for BYU, but rather the U of U. This is what we found on our lawn bright and early Saturday morning. We also had U's hanging from one of our trees and if it hadn't been for the wind during the night there would have been "Go Utes" on the garage door.

So the feud goes on.

New Addition to the Family

This is the new addition to our family. We picked her up on Tuesday, June 4th. She was born on April 4th. Her name is Chelsea. You may wonder why we chose this name. Alan's favorite soccer team is Chelsea FC from London, England. While we were trying to come up with an appropriate name, she began to chase and kick around a very small soccer ball. Well, the rest is history. Here are a few pictures of her.

I have still to get a good frontal picture of her. She seems to be a little camera shy. Well, actually, she doesn't stay still for very long.

Carlsbad Caverns

 

The natural cave opening where the bats fly out of at dusk. We were able to watch this happening. We were not allowed to use our cameras because it is too distracting to the bats. We all just sat there in silence and let the bats fly. It was amazing. They came out in swarms of 50 - 100 at a time and it lasted about 25 minutes. The bats are Mexican Free-Tailed Bats.

This one is called the Witches Broom. If you look on the right you can see it. This is located in the Papoose Room off the King's Palace Room.







This formation is called "Rock of Ages". It is massive.

Lion's Tail

Chinese Theater

  This trip was a walk down memory lane for Alan. He spent a summer here in Carlsbad, NM when he was 10 years old. We spent time driving around trying to locate the places that he remembered. Down by the Pecos River there had been a rope swing that would drop you in the water, a Merry Go Round, and a slide that would also dump you in the water. All of those have been removed, however, they have created a place where families can have a picnic, take a ride on a paddle boat, water ski and just play in the water.













We also drove to Roswell, NM to see the Museum dedicated to the UFO landing in 1947. Here are just a few photos from the museum. 

Gettin' Out of the Cold in January

Alan and I took an opportunity to escape from the cold in Utah this month by booking a cruise to Hawaii. The weather was wonderful and the trip was fun.

Shot of the beach from the balcony of the Miramar Hotel where we were staying in Honolulu.

The Pride of America. Our home for the next 7 days.

We set sail on January 5th, 2013. We were welcomed to our cabin by a towel  bunny.

Our first excursion was on a scenic journey through upcountry Maui to the top of the world's largest dormant volcano, Haleakale. At the summit is a vast crater measuring seven and a half miles wide. The views from the top at over 10,000 feet above see level are magnificent.

Haleakale Crater

Alan walking out of the Thurston Lava Tube.

Taken at the top of Waimea Canyon

These chickens are all over the island.

Shopping at Hilo Hatties

Waimea Canyon

US History & Church History Tour

We started out our tour flying into Washington DC. There we took a whirlwind tour of the famous city. 

South Side of the White House

Sandy standing in front of the Jefferson Memorial.

We were able to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. 

Washington Monument

Washington DC Temple ( It is under repair from the earthquake a year ago.)

Liberty Bell

Then we moved on to New York and spent some time at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Alan standing in front of the South Pool at Ground Zero.

New York Temple in Manhattan

Niagara Falls

Monument to the birthplace of Joseph Smith in Sharon Vermont.

Entrance to the Sacred Grove in Palmyra.

Kirtland Temple

These pictures are just a few of many of our trip. We had a wonderful time learning about the importance of our US history in the furthering of the gospel. Being able to attend the Hill Cumorah Pageant was super!!

Our Seaside, Oregon Vacation

This is the first lighthouse that we visited.  This one is called the North Head Lighthouse. 

This one is called Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. Its black horizontal stripe was added later to distinguish it from the North Head Lighthouse located just 2 miles north.

 

Picture taken from our balcony. 

We were going to go to the Portland Zoo, except that it began to rain and so we decided to check out the Portland Children's Museum. Chris and Nathan spent a bit of time building the track for the train.

In March of 2011 there was a tsunami in Japan. This piece of pier, measuring 66 feet long, 8 feet tall and  about 18 feet wide floated in on the tide early Tuesday, June 5th just north of Newport, Oregon at Agate Beach. We decided this was too cool not to go see. We arrived on Friday morning. By that time all the barnacles, metal side pieces and Japanese plaque had been removed. While we were there a newsman from NBC interviewed Jen and Nathan regarding what Nathan thought about it.

Jen, Vii and Nathan.

Sandy and Alan

Chris even climbed on top and took a few pictures. Shortly after we left the tide came back in and no one could get as close as we did for a while.

This is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. It is located 3 miles north of Newport.

Sunset from our balcony.