Jedi Master

Jackson went through rigorous Jedi training at Disneyland. Don't let the polo shirt and sandals fool you the force is strong in this one.

OK, there are a couple of odd things about this picture.

1. The Canada shirt to Jackson's right has a bunch of beavers playing golf. Does Canada distribute any shirts that don't have an animal mascot? I thought their mascot was a moose, turns out its a beaver.

2. There are a creepy set of eyes under Jackson's right armpit. Weird huh?

3. The guy behind in the black shirt, enough said..

Fighting Darth Maul...

The Beach

We stopped at the Beach for the younger boys this was also a first. I'm still finding sand in obscure, hard to reach places.

We told the kids they could wade in the surf but not to get very wet or dirty ha, ha, ha..

Pleasant Creek Petroglyphs

I took the family on a hike this year we hadn't been on before to see a petroglyph panel on Pleasant Creek in Capitol Reef National Park. This was courageous on the familys part as last year I took them on a hike that turned into something similar to the Donner Party. Well there wasn't any of that cannibalism stuff we had plenty to eat, it was more like dehydration, hallucinations, ants hauling off the smallest children and more than a little crying. The petroglyphs were quite cool and anytime I run across pictographs and petroglyphs that include hand prints it really adds a personal element to them.

Here is some bear prints and what looks like a rare spotted aardvark.

Las Vegas

On the way to Disneyland we stayed the night in Vegas. For the first time ever I came out positive in the casinos of course it doesn't make much difference if your wife loses big. We stopped at the Coca Cola shop and ran into this furry feller. Declan was not happy to see a polar bear inside of the store and wondered why the rest of us wanted to take a picture with him. At least the bear wasn't standing on his foot.

Disneyland

This year we all got to go to Disneyland and stay at the Disney Hotel. For the kids this was their first trip and for all of us it was the first time at the Disney Hotel. We had a lot of fun and nobody wanted to come home.

On a side not the gates to hell might just look like this (we got stranded in this bad boy for about 30 minutes):

The shrub shaped like a Bison was a hit.

Peekaboo and Spooky

This July we took the family down to the Boulder and explored some slot canyons that have been on my bucket list for awhile. We headed out on the Hole-In-The-Rock road that is getting pretty washed out in spots and lost Mom and Dad for awhile but finally we made it out there. Here are the kids eating lunch before the hike. They look excited don't they? Hunter is even picking his nose.

These slots are pretty impressive and from the road it doesn't look like there is anything out there. We were somewhat confused as to whether or not the first slot we encountered was Spooky or some other canyon. This is the slot we thought was Spooky (turns out this is the end of Dry Fork not Spooky)...

It was a bit rainy so we went all the way back in this one until it got real narrow. Entering slot canyons with rain threatening is always exciting. Peekaboo's short but well worth it, what an amazing little slot. Here is a picture of those who were old enough to climb up into it.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip Declan looking off the edge with his cousin Easton. This was taken the day previous at Capitol Gorge in Capitol Reef.

My Blog

Well I guess now I'm blogging. This blog will discuss all of my exploits and a whole bunch of other stuff I don't know anything about. Gotta love the muttonchops.