On June 23rd, we left for Arizona to attend my brother Matt's wedding.

Mom and Dad were with us, with Dad (the truck driver) the designated

driver. About an hour after leaving town, Dad asked if wanted to make a slight detour and see the Shoshone Ice Caves and/or the Craters of the Moon Monument. We ended up not seeing the ice caves. We stopped there and discovered that there was quite a wait for the 2-hour tour. We decided instead to save that for a weekend trip and head on to Craters of the Moon.

(Mom, Dad, Emmalee and Ryan)
Many, many years ago, when I was in the fourth grade, our class
took a three-day, two-night bus trip around the state. One of the stops was
Craters of the Moon. I remember being amazed by the vast quantity of
lava there. As we were entering the monument, there's quite a bit of vegitation. It's amazing that the plants would grow with little or no dirt.

The ground at this point was made up of little lava pebbles.

It was covered with the white flowers above and the pink

flowers below. Gorgeous!

Pink flowers everywhere

This was at an inferno cone overlook.

Ryan and Emmalee asked if they could climb this...they went all

of the way to the top. It was quite the climb.

Nice workout!

Once we were in the park, it was lava as far as the eye could see.

There are over 1/2 million acres of lava here.

Our family

We discovered that there were caves out along this pathway.

Luckily, the summer has been mild. During a normal (hot) summer, the surface temperature at the monument can be 150 degrees!

We found "Indian Tunnel." You have to climb down into the cave and then travel 800 feet under ground to the exit. Bob, the kids and I went though.

It was amazing how cool it was inside. Some people believe that

the local Indian tribes would travel to this tunnel to escape the heat.

As we were leaving, we tried to imagine walking across miles of

hot lava while barefoot...we were pretty glad that we live when we do.

the exit

next stop::Bryce Canyon

Gone again...Home again

Since my last very short post, we've been gone again. We're all glad to be back at home tonight...with no more trips planned in the near future.

Here come the photos...bear with me.

{{and home again}}

...and we're home again.

Just a few snapshots from our trip.

More to come...

Convention Weekend

We were priviledged to spend four days

with dear loved ones obtaining bread for our souls.

Fishing Weekend

This is the seventh year that we've traveled to La Grande for

the annual boys' fishing weekend. It's the only time during

the year that most of the men/boys on Bob's side of the family

are able to spend time together. This year, we celebrated J's 11th birthday first, and then they were off to the mountains.

For the first time, this was an all-boy plus one-girl fishing weekend.

Emma's old enough to rather be up with the guys than sitting back

at the house. As an added bonus, I was able to enjoy

a few quiet days.

The small group that left from the house.

The rest met them at camp.

Can you tell that she's excited?

And these two, too?

(The remainder of the photos were taken by my bro-in-law)

They went to a new place this year as the boys had outgrown

the ponds. The water was roughly 30 feet up the bank due to the

amount of rain they've had this spring, but they still had a great time.

Emmalee, Paul, J, and Ryan

The whole gang

Emmalee...totally worn out!

A pause

Just a short note that my posts are going to be

very sporadic over the next several weeks.

We'll be seeing relearning old lessons, spending lots

of time with family, witnessing a wedding,

enjoying the sunshine (hopefully).

And when it's all over, I'll be back with

LOTS of photos and stories to share.

::

See you soon.