Highlights Of Our Vacation

The last 48 hours we spent doing the following:

Camping

You would think from this picture that we all slept so peacefully that first night... and you would be very very wrong.

George Eccle's Dinosaur Park

You have never actually seen a child so totally uncontrollably giddy with delight unless you have seen Joshua walk into this Park. This may have been my favorite part of the vacation - just watching Joshua's face!

They had dead dinosaurs - Joshua's favorite, the Allosaurus

And live dinosaurs - Abby is not very impressed.

It's pink, so of course it is hers

Swimming and Canoeing in Pineview Reservoir

She took her swimsuit off herself. There was no point in fighting to get it back on.

But she refused to take off her sandals!!!

Visiting a Monastery

We went inside the chapel to hear the monks sing but I didn't take photos of the monks and my photos of the chapel and stained glass didn't turn out

These are the graves of the monks who have lived here. This used to be a self sustaining monastery. But now there are only 15 monks left and 11 of them are 80 years old or older.

Campfire and S'mores

Awful quality photo - fabulous quality time.

A PINK marshmallow. This may have been Abigail's favorite part of the vacation. She had about 4! (mallows, not smores)

Hill Air Force Museum

Derek and I have wanted to come here for a long time but it is always too far away to drive in just one day. This museum, however is AWESOME!! And it is free. Very very well done. This was probably Derek's favorite part of the vacation.

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

On our drive home Joshua asked why our vacation had been so short. Wow. I don't know. I'm pretty beat. It was so much fun. You know it's a good vacation when you were only gone 48 hours but you feel like you've been gone all week - and when you were only 2 hours away from home but you felt like you were miles away from all your troubles. Thanks to the Christensen's for the invite.

Free hair cuts for Everyone

Literally.  First Derek cut Joshua's hair. It was too thick to use the clippers so I had to take the scissors to it. After a while it was short enough to kind of even out (kind of as in it's still not actually even) and make it look presentable. You get what you pay for. Then I cut Abigail's hair. Yes, she is 2 1/2 and this was her first hair cut and I have NO photos of it. It only lasted maybe 10 seconds because I only cut maybe 10 hairs.

Then Joshua decided to try his hand as a hairdresser.

And so did Abby.

Impersonations

Lukas impersonating an old bald toothless man.

Still Life Photography

This is my attempt with my little camera at some still life shots. The emphasis here is not really on my photography seeing as I have NO (as in not even amateur) training whatsoever and know only to point and shoot. The emphasis is on the LIFE part - as in I haven't killed my garden yet!!

Swiss National Day

Growing up I knew I was Norwegian. In fact, I was pretty sure I was just Norwegian and that was all that mattered.  Well, I dropped the ball on Norwegian Constitution Day (May 17th) so my kids missed all the Norwegian celebrations. But it is impossible to miss Swiss National Day (August 1st) because of all the Swiss in our midst. If I don't come up with something pretty good for Norwegian Constitution Day next year, my kids might think they are only Swiss, which is pretty good too (although not Norwegian :).*

Swiss Crafts

Swiss Cookies  - not attractive but very tasty!

A little Swiss history

A little Swiss Humor/Fun/Adventure

A Swiss table...

...with a Swiss table setting...

...for a very Swiss dinner (Raclette!)

A real living Swiss taking a photo of said Swiss dinner.  In attendance we had 5 real Swiss, 1 real German, 3 half Swiss, 4 quarter Swiss, and 3 others - I was an other :(

A Swiss miss requesting a Swiss chocolate

A Swiss miss enjoying her Swiss chocolate

2 half Swiss make 1 whole, right?

The fireworks

Festive Swiss colored - although in no way traditional - clothing. I didn't get a chance to get their photo yesterday on the holiday so I made them wear the same clothes again today.

And a little bit of Swiss Bliss

*My kids are 1/4 Swiss and 1/8 Norwegian, which doesn't actually sound like a lot, but considering I can still calculate those percentages without getting a headache, that's pretty good. We've also got German, Irish, and Welsh in the background but I'm not going to try and figure those percentages out today... or probably ever. As long as we know they're there, that's good enough for me.

5 Years

By some standards we may still be newlyweds... but by others we are already old and moldy.

THEN...

This is the engagement photo we used in our announcements (I think)

This is our shameless ad for BYU - come to the Y and get married!! (it only took us 6 years)

Obviously didn't make it into the wedding album, but somehow qualifies to be on the internet?

Another internet worthy photo

I'm not sure why I think these photos are so hilarious! I hope someone else enjoys our less than photogenic photos as much as I do.

And NOW...

Less than a month ago.

Missing Lukas

Missing Joshua

August 1st, 2011 (Yes, this photo was staged)

From Derek (I got Derek the 10 person tent - ok, we got that for each other)

What will the next five years bring?