Yosemite National Park

A couple weeks ago, May 1-3, Kade and I drove to Yosemite National Park in California. Because neither Kade nor I had ever been we thought this would be the perfect vacation before the busy summer months. As usual, I looked up all the information about the park and the best things to do and trails to hike. I also kept checking the weather because our trip relied heavily on good weather. We were not going to spend anytime wasted indoors. Up until the night before we were leaving weather.com showed partly cloudy or sunny with a high of 60. Thursday night I checked the weather once again just to make sure and sure enough it changed to 80% chance of rain on Saturday. Wonderful. We seriously considered canceling the hotel reservation and going another time. I checked out reservation and we were too late to cancel so we left the next morning.
On the way to Yosemite we stopped in Reno to do a little shopping. We continued on south through Carson City and into California. Our hotel was in Angels Camp, CA about 2 hours from Yosemite; any closer and there weren't really any hotels for us to stay in. Angels Camp was a small mountain town famous for its Frog Jumping contest, very weird. I read that it was made famous by one of Mark Twain's writings. Angels Camp was also surrounded by a lot of caves and caverns. The closest about 5 miles away was Moaning Caverns. Saturday morning we woke up to rainy conditions so we spent the morning taking the Moaning Caverns tour. The cavern was really deep and had a huge metal 100 year old staircase you had to climb up and down. The cave was pretty cool, but the staircase was scaring me.
Thankfully after taking the cave tour the rain had let up almost completely. So we started heading to Yosemite. By the time we got there it was barely sprinkling but it was extremely foggy. We didn't have much of a view of Yosemite driving in because of the fog but it stopped raining completely. We stopped in Yosemite Valley first to hike to Yosemite Falls. We couldn't believe the amount of water in the park. There was water everywhere! flooding the trails and blowing you over next to the waterfalls. It was a really pretty place. We even saw a couple taking their wedding pictures in front of another famous waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls.
After taking a few trails and driving around Yosemite Valley we started heading down to Mariposa Grove, the biggest collection of giant sequoia trees in the park. It was about a 45 minute drive with a spectacular view. The absolute best part of the park was the Tunnel View. Pulling into the full parking lot off the road, we stopped in front of the famous view of Yosemite Valley. It almost didn't seem real it was so beautiful. At that time I really wished I hadn't forgotten the battery to our digital camera because all we had was two disposable cameras to capture the view.
Mariposa Grove had huuuuge sequoia trees throughout the trail. We saw the grizzly giant, the California tunnel tree, the bachelor and three graces, and the loyal couple. We were trying to find the fallen tunnel tree (the one with old pictures of cars driving through it) but the signs were not very helpful and we got very confused. After a while, we started heading back to the parking lot. It was crazy how ginormous those trees were! The pictures do not do them justice.
Even with the rain the trip was great and the park was beautiful. I really hope to go back someday. Oh, and Kade and I celebrated our 3rd year anniversary right before the trip. It's crazy how time flies, it has already been three years??

You have to check out the rest of the gorgeous pictures!! --> Click Here!

The best birthday ever!

So, as many of you know I just had a birthday on February 4th and I got a brand new piano for my present. The piano didn't actually come on my birthday but I was so excited I didn't care. The piano was delivered yesterday when I should have been in class; I did eventually make it to class though. I got a Essex 48" polished ebony upright. It is so beautiful I just have to put it up for all to see! We don't have a very big house so we squeezed it next to the TV in the family room. Not a very ideal spot when someone wants to practice and someone else wants to watch TV. So last night Kade had to listen to me pound on the piano and watch his show without sound.. Of course he said he didn't mind.. :) The piano company also sent the movers with some very pretty flowers for me. Last Saturday we drove to Reno in search of a piano. Unfortunately, Reno has a total number of 2 piano stores, so not much of a selection. I had originally planned on purchasing a nice used piano to save money. But there were no decent used pianos to be found in either store. I did find a couple sad looking used spinets at the Steinway store, but I was set on a taller piano. After fending off the salesmen at Steinway we went to the other store. This store had some nice pianos too, but we found out the salesmen at the Steinway store was actually giving us a pretty good deal. Kade was excellent at haggling with the goofy salesmen and eventually agreed on a price. We left spending more than we planned but getting an excellent deal. For my birthday I asked Kade for a fruit pizza instead of a cake. So he made one and put candles in it. It was delicious. :)
There are a few more pictures, you can click here to see them.

Christmas at the Bloods

Our vacation didn't end with the cruise, we headed for WV the same day we got off the boat. It was pretty traumatic coming from 70 degree weather in Fort Lauderdale to below freezing in WV. But it was so great to see everyone (except Aaron and Stephen who are on missions). We arrived that night to a very full house. There were 17 people packed into my parents house, but each couple managed to get there own room. And we got to meet the cutest little babies Megan and Seth for the first time. The next week we had a great time with my family, playing games and the Wii. Mary and I went to the Y to go running because it was so cold outside. Then on Christmas Eve, we woke up to Mary and Scott gone. Mary had started having contractions early that morning and started heading back home. No, she didn't have her baby that day, but we did get a call Christmas morning from Mary after she had delivered little Rebekah! How exciting! We got the call while eating Christmas dinner. That morning we had gathered everyone for a family picture and then opened presents.As a present to Kade, my mom had gotten a friend with paintball guns to organize a day for all of us to go. We went up to the Powell's house and played in the woods in front. It was really fun, Kade, Jonny, Timmy, James, Jacob, and Joanna went with and one of the Powells and his friend also played with us and helped out. I also got to see Whitney and her boyfriend, which was awesome considering I haven't seen her in years!! We went to Applebees and then to her apartment where we played Rock Band 2 (very fun!) Unfortunately we did have to go back home, we had been gone for over 2 weeks! That Saturday dad drove us to the Charleston airport early in the morning. We had a connection to Chicago, which was a mess. We left our flight there like an hour late and had to run to our next flight in San Fransico. But we made it! This was such a great trip, I can't wait until we all get together again! :)
To see all the rest of my wonderful pictures--> click here!

Cruise

We are finally home from out 2 week vacation! We went on a Royal Caribbean cruise the first week and spent Christmas at my parent's house for the second week. The vacation was awesome, but its also nice to be back home.
So, Fri Dec 12 we left Reno airport for Fort Lauderdale airport. The flight was extremely long, 3 different planes. But we did meet up with the rest of Kade's family in the Salt Lake airport. Friday night we spent the night at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Because we had been on a plane for hours we were starving. Sadly the fast food restaurants across the street from the hotel only had their drive thru's open. But someone managed to get some burgers, and we ordered pizza.
Saturday morning we headed to the port to get on the cruise ship. We were going to be on the ship, Independence of the Seas, for 8 days (Dec 13-21). The ship we were one was a new ship with tons of stuff to do on board. It took a while to figure out where everything was. On board there were three pools, about a million hot tubs, a flowrider, rock climbing wall, ice-skating rink, sports court, and tons of other stuff. The food was delicious, too. Our honeymoon cruise on Carnival wasn't nearly as good. For dinner I had some incredible seafood dishes (my favorite!) and heavenly chocolate desserts.
The first full day of the cruise was at sea so we got to do all the stuff on board. The third day we landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Kade and I had went to San Juan on our last cruise and wasn't impressed. But this time we didn't take the taxi tour, instead we walked to the awesome fort and castle and took the tours. Much better. For the rest of San Juan's pics --> click here!
The next day we were in St. Thomas. We took a taxi to Magan's Bay and swam in the ocean. The beach was awesome, great waves, just a little too crowded. This picture was on the road during the taxi ride.For the rest of St. Thomas pics--> click here!
The next stop was St. Maarten. We also went to the beach here and did some shopping. Kade and I rented the Jet Ski for a half hour. It was fun, but I got scared of falling off a few times... For the rest of St. Maarten pics --> click here!
After St. Maarten we had another day at sea and then we landed in Labadee, Haiti. Royal Caribbean owned the island, actually it was a peninsula on the island, so it was really nice. The beaches were kind of rocky though. The shops there were insane. You would walk through them and have a million people telling you to look at their stuff. We got a pretty cool picture of all the paintings against the hill.For the rest of Haiti pics--> click here!
After Haiti, we had a day at sea again. This day at sea was pretty fun; there were different sport contests going on all day. Like best flowrider, basketball, dodgeball, and volleyball tournaments. I entered the Rock climbing speed contest with Kade, Brandon, Brian, and James. And I got gold! lolOk, so guys and girls were separated. And there were only three girls in the competition...
The next day were landed back in Fort Lauderdale and headed to the airport for our flight to WV.....
For the rest of the pics from the boat--> click here!

Ryan's Homecoming and Krista's Wedding

So, November 21st we all traveled to Salt Lake City airport to welcome Ryan home. Everyone was excited to see him and curious to see how he changed. After the tears and pictures were over at the airport, we went to Chuckarama for lunch.
After eating we all went to the hotel people were staying in so all the kids could go swimming. Once Kade and Brandon decided they wanted to get in the hot tub we went to the mall across the street to get them some trunks. Unfortunately, we did a lot of walking around, going from store to store. Who knew stores stop selling swimsuits in November... We did finally find some. After swimming, we all went to one of the hotel rooms. It didn't take long to get a headache sitting in a small hotel room with six screaming kids and twelve adults arguing about politics... haha family gatherings are the greatest :)
The rest of Homecoming pictures --> http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2227337&l=baa4e&id=17806428

On the 22nd Kade and I stayed in Utah for Krista's wedding. Her wedding was awesome. I was soo happy to get to go to her sealing in the SLC temple. Because we didn't know how long it took to get from Lorrie's house to the temple, we were running late for the sealing. And then we drove around temple square a couple times trying to remember where we were supposed to park. We ended up parking under the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and running to the temple. We made it just in time. I felt better when a guy slipped in the sealing room after the sealer started talking.. haha..
After the sealing we went back to Lehi for the reception. It was at the Northampton house in American Fork. The house was gorgeous! They did a great job, very impressive. I got there early for pictures but nobody was ready. Because I was a bridesmaid, I spent the time when we were supposed to be taking pictures to curl my hair. Too bad it didn't last long.
The reception was awesome, especially when Natalie and I (and our husbands) decorated Krista and Jared's car. I wonder if she knew it was us...
The rest of Krista's wedding pictures http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2227327&l=2e808&id=17806428
So, pretty much an awesome weekend..

Elk sighting on the farm

Kade was so excited to see these elk on the farm that I just had to post the pictures he took for him... You see, elk are not in this area so it is a very rare sighting, so Kade got his camera and got some pretty good pictures. Too bad he can't just hunt these, that would save him a trip to Colorado...


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Utah Trip 9/27

So, the weekend of September 27th I traveled to Utah to see Krista! It was so much fun. I left Friday and came back on Sunday. Kade couldn't go because he had a Young Men camp out to go to at the farm. He took the Young Men to the farm to shoot rabbits and camp out for the night. So I traveled to Utah on my own. Friday night I got to Lehi, Saturday morning Krista shot her bridals in Salt Lake at the Memory Grove Park.
I had never been to that park, it was absolutely gorgeous! I was so jealous of the people that get to run in that park everyday! It was so much fun helping Krista with her bridals. I didn't do bridals for my wedding, and wished I had after seeing how much fun it was!







Saturday night we went to Cornbellies at Thanksgiving Point. It was great; there was a corn maze shaped as (no joke!) David Archuleta. We were trying to find his face, but gave up and cheated to get out. There was also a huge blown up haunted monster. You would go through the mouth and come out the butt, we were too chicken to go through! We had a lot of fun acting like kids haha :) Sunday I drove back after church.
I guess Kade had a lot of fun with the YM. He said the boys got so excited they started mutilating the wounded rabbits with knives and machetes. Good thing I wasn't there..