Vegas!

Nothing like a free trip to Vegas (well free hotel stay at the gruesome expense of an endless time-share presentation)! We went with David and Hollie. We had a fabulous time! We did a lot of relaxing and a fair amount of eating and overall, had a lot of fun!

Colette and I flew down in the morning and were about to satisfy our (time-share) obligation early so that we had the rest of the weekend to relax. For those who are curious, we are still time-share-less. Although the idea appeals to us, we're just not there yet. We want to focus on getting a family (children) before we worry about how to spend time with them. And that was our excuse we used for them.

Here I am with Caesar! I had to climb up on the statue to get the picture with him. No trip to his palace is complete without a photo op!

We went to the Shark Tank - Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It was quite impressive, and surprisingly extensive for a hotel. Of course this is Vegas - everything is bigger in Vegas. We had a lot of fun there.

Here is an artistic view of our hotel that we stayed at. This is a picture from the pool. Alas, I have no pool pictures to share in a public forum. Now if we were water skiing then that would be different...! It's time to get the boat out - it's boating time!

Little Sahara

Sand Dunes! I went down South to the sand dunes of Little Sahara near Jericho this weekend. Since it was Easter weekend, it is Mecca weekend for many sand enthusiasts. When I say 'many' that is an extreme understatement! As of Friday there were 14,000 people there and they expected as many as twice that!

I went with Sarah and Neil etc (family and friends).


Self portrait with Sarah in the background

Timer Photo: Neil, Brian, Mike, Sarah, Kevin

Overlooking the valley with a HUGE drop off behind us that we wend down!

The stuckest I have ever been in my 4-wheeler. That's because I was driving through the hill. I stopped on the uphill slope (lost momentum) and I wasn't about to back down - hah. So I essentially drove through the cap of the hill. Made for a cool picture - thanks Neil.

Cute Sarah and Neil

Me overlooking the "City" below. - oh and I enlarged the helicopter so that you could see that there were helicopters circling around.

Moab in the Winter - Part II

Part II is complete with pictures of snow! Our snow day consisted of mostly the windows section in Arches. We decided to stick to short hikes and call it good after that. I took a lot of landscape pictures covered in snow and you'll have to ask for a private showing because I took way too many pictures to put on the blog. Here are a couple of our snow in April in Arches pictures.




AND - for those jeep loving fools out there - what is a trip to Moab without some cool Jeep pictures? Well first of all this guy wins the 'Coolest Rig Award' and below is definately a nominee for the 'Jeep that I'm going to own one day Award'.


Then when it was time to pack up and head out the sun came out and we stopped for one last picture.

Moab in the Winter - Part I

After our first day we had a couple of Wintery Days. We didn't let a little rain or snow stop us from having fun.

We did a bunch of hiking in Arches in the weather. Our first hike was the Delicate Arch hike and it was raining when we got there and we almost chickened out but decided we'd do it anyway. It was in the mid 40's and the entire hike we went back and forth taking off our extra layers of clothes, then putting them back on. It was fun.



Dr Shurtleff suggested that we go on a hike up Mill Creek Canyon a while ago, which is a hike to a watering hole with a waterfall. Last year we tried it out, and apparently missed the Y in the trail at some point and never found the watering hole. Well being determined to find it this time we set out in the afternoon and when we started at the trailhead it was sunny and pleasant. Well we did find the watering hole and about the time we got there the rain came tumbling down. Since it was awesome weather a mile and a half ago, our rain gear was still in the car.



And finally - here is a picture of our destination. We almost froze to death, but we didn't die, and we lived to tell the tail. Sure was a pretty place! Would love to go back on a warm day and go cliff diving. Sounds fun!

Moab in the Spring

Moab is a destination that is sought after quite frequently in our family, and it's almost exclusively a destination in either the Spring or the Fall. The summer months becomes pretty much unbearably and oppressively hot. I've never gone in the Winter because it's not as much fun to camp in the snow. So April has been considered an ideal time.


Day one was gorgeous and we couldn't have asked for better weather.


We planned this trip on very short notice and we're really glad that we were able to get away for a couple of days.

This is the Corona Arch hike that we love to hike. Above is the "Lizard Arch" or so it's affectionately referred to as. Last year we came across it and James took a picture with his hand through it, so naturally I had to do the same.


I love Cacti in bloom. We evidently missed the blooming season this year, because we only saw this one. Turned out to be quite pretty.

I want to go to Mars!