November hiking in Utah

In November had a great trip to Capitol Reef National Park in the top picture.  The next stop was Goblin Valley in the 2nd picture.  We were able to get a place in the lottery to hike TheWave.  The drawing was in Kanab.  It was a 3 mile hike in and 3 miles out on an unmarked trail on the rocks.  Very Beautiful!  We had tried about 5 or 6 times to get a place.  Only 20 people can do the hike each day and 10 are from a drawing the day before the hike.  The day we were in the drawing there were 67 people trying for 10 spots.

Gohar's visit Oct. 16-22, 2013

We had a great visit with Gohar.  We visited Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce National Park, and the grandmother and relatives of a sister who served in Armenia.  We had wonderful Armenian food when Pres. &Sr. Carter came for lunch.  She loved the deer on our lawn.  We saw a 3D IMAX movie with Ashley and Aaron who served with all of us.  Great time!

Kentucky Oct. 10th-Oct. 15

We flew in on Thurs., Oct. 17th.  Mike's scheduling was a challenge with the government shut down of parks, etc.  We visited Cumberland Falls, Eagle Falls, Natural Bridge, Diamond Caverns, Churchill Downs and Mike's favorite places around his house and Louisville.  Great trip.  We came home on Oct. 15th.

Minnesota Sep. 26th-Oct 1st

Had a fun trip to Minnesota to see family.  We did the kids favorite activities which were the water park in Wisconsin and the Mirror Maze at Mall of America.  The top picture is the wave pool and the lazy river is next.  Loved the new black kitten, Shadow.

Sep. 2nd, 2013 Mom's birthday

On Mom's birthday we drove to Burley to have lunch with Mom.  She opened presents and blew out the candle on the cupcake.  We had lunch at Jack in the Box with Ralph.  We got into Salt Lake to visit the new Trader Joes!

Sun., Sep. 8th, 2013 Denver Trip in August

Carl's class reunion was in Arvada the last of Aug.  We drove over through Wyoming and drove back through the Colorado mountains.  The snow fence was in Wyoming.  The reunion was Fri. and Sat. nights and on Sun. we had dinner with Carl's brothers and their families and their 3 dogs.  Lots of fun to see everyone!

Aug. 22, 2013 Book Group, Camping, and Mom

I really enjoy the flowers we buy each week at Costco.  These are the flowers we had for the book group meeting which was held at our house on Aug. 6th.  14 attended and Alicia Timms helped with the dinner we had before the review.  The tables were outside on the patio.  We went camping on Aug. 7th near Mirror Lake which is up past Kamas.  It was a new tent and we could stand up in it.  Pretty amazing after our backpacking tent which is tiny.  We forgot a can opener so I used the axe to open my can of green beans.  The picture of us and the 5 boys with Mom was taken in June.  Fun summer!

June 2013 Family photos

How amazing to get all of us together in one place for a picture!  We had a great week as well.

Sun., Aug. 3, 2013 Busy at Home

We arrived home on Mon., May 27th.  We spoke in church on Sun., Jun. 30th  The night before we had a picnic for our family and Ralph and Nancy's families and Mom.  The picture is part of the group at the picnic at our house.  Hadlee, Dave and Joyce's daughter was blessed in church that day.  In the afternoon Nelson was ordained an elder.  We drove to Sacramento in July to hear Nelson speak before leaving for his mission to Chile. The missionaries singing are elders who served in Armenia.  They sang at a picnic the Sun. that Pres. and Sister Carter spoke in church.

Bulgarian Sights May 2013

As we were driving between cities we were able to stop at these rock formations called The Rock Forest.  Many of the rocks looked like columns from ancient ruins.  The Madara Horseman was carved into a cliff.  The warrior is spearing a lion and is followed by a dog.  It was early 8th century.  We climbed the 373-step staircase to the top of the mountain to see the ancient fortress.