To Cali and Beyond - Vacation Part 2

When our TN time came to an end we packed up our car and headed across the country to Sunny California!  We camped a couple of nights on the way.  We camped the first night in Missouri where I got bonus points for having chosen a campground with a neighboring Disc Golf Complex!  3 courses in one park - it was pretty awesome.  When I made our reservations I  had no idea that the campground had disc golf  complex but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise and Kyle got to add Missouri to his list of states that he has played disc golf in.

 

We camped the next night in Nebraska where we woke up to our tent being leveled on top of us by a wind storm.  It was pretty crazy.  I was planning to take a picture of our campsite before we left but the wind sort of stopped that from happening.  After Nebraska, our next stop was Utah where we got to attend my friends wedding!

Jade & Chris

Jade's mom and my mom were mission companions in Taiwan and are still best friends today.  Growing up, our families would take turns visiting each other in Utah and Tennessee.  Jade and Chris got engaged while we were living in West Jordan and I had the honor of taking their engagement pictures!  It was a ton of fun to be able to also attend their sealing and celebrations.  I love weddings! They are so fun!  Of course I had my camera with me so I got to snap some fun shots... I've decided I'm ready to photograph weddings!  It wasn't as scary as I'd thought it would be.  Of course I was taking photos for fun and not for real, so there was no pressure.  After the reception we drove up to Panguitch where we picked up this cutie:

Pepper

Kyles aunt Tracy's dog had puppies and this one was promised to April, Susan and Brian.  We got the honor of driving her to her new home.  When we got to Kyle's house we took her to the back yard, let her loose and then waited at the side of the house until we heard April say "Um, mom. . .there is a dog in our backyard"  :)  I can't wait till Kyle and I are no longer renters so we can get a cute little puppy.

Our time in California was packed with lots of adventures.  April got to take a day off from school and the 3 of us went to . . .

It was the first time Kyle and I had been to an amusement park together and we had a lot of fun!  April was a great tour guide and made sure that we got to do all of the best coasters.  The park was busy but not too bad and the lines weren't too long.  One of our favorite rides turned out to be the Perilous Plunge which actually had the longest/slowest line and looked really scary so we weren't sure if it would be worth the wait.  But it totally was

April took this of us - the drop for the Perilous Plunge is directly to my left

If you don't get wet enough on the ride you can stand at this overlook and you'll get a good spray every time the ride goes.

We also spent a day with Susan at the Wild Animal Zoo Safari Park.  I love zoos.  We got to watch a show where they brought out one of the cheetahs and set it to chase after this toy.  Before they had the cheetah run the track they had a dog and a kid run the track so we could get time comparisons.  The cheetah was soo much faster.  It was cool to watch.  The zoo safari park also has a safari ride you go on witch takes you through all of these exhibits where the animals are living together in wide open enclosures like they really do in the wild.

A baby giraffe we saw while on the safari ride, we also saw a baby zebra

Right at the end of our day at the zoo we checked out the Gorilla exhibit.  We saw a cute baby gorilla out playing around and we saw Half of a Giant daddy gorilla. . . hehe.  The opening to the "gorilla" cave was half taken up with the daddy gorilla.  He didn't move the whole time we were there watching.  It was slightly scary but I think if he had moved it would have been terrifying. :)

While in California Kyle and I also got a groupon to go on an ocean kayak tour.  That was also a lot of fun.  We were lucky and went on a day when the water was pretty calm.  We left from La Jolla shores and paddled out to some ocean caves and back.  I did not take my camera because I didn't know if we'd end up getting knocked out of our kayak or not.  Before our group left we watched some other groups coming and going and saw several people flip over.  Getting through the waves breaking close to the shore is the hardest part and that's where a lot of people went down.  Kyle and I ended up making it out and back without flipping though and I totally should have risked taking a camera out.  Next time we go to Cali I'm just going to have to get one of the water proof disposable cameras for us.  If we lived in California I am pretty sure we would end up owning a kayak, it was fun.
And now I want to share with you one of my favorite tickets we used while in Cali. . . .

Tickets to the Flea Market!!

:)  We went to the flea market a couple of times while we were there.  It  happens every weekend and it is so awesome!  Here are a couple of our great buys:

An awesome bonsai tree and a great Ninja blender!

Isn't the bonsai tree the coolest?  We got the 2nd smallest size available but they were selling them in all sizes and it's going to look even more awesome in about 15 years.  And we love our Ninja blender too!!  We ended up getting our Ninja for $50!!  They were asking $80 each but we talked them down to 2 for $100 (one for us and one for Kyle's family).  At the store the version we got costs about $150.  It blends like nothing else and we make great fresh fruit smoothies!  And while we were there Susan used hers to make cinnamon rolls!  Yum.  Flea markets are awesome and I wish Pocatello had one.

While in California Kyle and I were also very good about running and training for the upcoming 1/2 marathon (stay tuned for a future post about that!).  And we got to celebrate Susan's birthday before leaving California!

But the fun doesn't stop there!  We left California for the Ranch where we had a great 4th of July reunion with more of Kyle's family.  On the 4th Mitchell, Kyle and I took the boat out to Panguitch lake and had a Fantastic time fishing!

Showing off our catches

The fish were biting like crazy.  Mitchell got a 16" fish which was by far the biggest.  I think I hooked like three 20+ inchers but they all broke off the line before I could get them into the boat.  Seriously. I fought with some Big ones but they never made it in.  We had one of the only successful boating trips that happened while at the ranch.  Mitchell, Kristy and David took the boat out another time and the engine died on the . . . then Kyle and I tried to go again later and the boat was flooding - someone had taken a stopper out that we didn't know about. Then when we realized what was happening and tried to put the plug back in we ended up losing the plug all together.  Hehe.   But, the boat didn't sink and hopefully there will be some more successful boating/fishing trips in the future. 

We also took a day trip to Bryce canyon and got to do a couple of hikes. 

Here we are at the top of the canyon

Walking through some arches

The whole Bryce gang: David, Kristy, Susan, Kyle, Myself, Mitchell, Tom

Some of the "Hoodoos" (awesome rock formations)

And we found these Hoodoos in a tree!  

A whole section of a trail that we did had these man-made Hoodoos hidden around.  It was pretty cool and we made our own to add as well.

We also spent a day walking around the town of Panguitch.  Of all the times I had been to the ranch before this was the first time that I got to walk around Panguitch.  Kyle is not a big fan of walking through little town shops so he hadn't taken me before.  Luckily Susan, Kristy and April were there this time and wanted to walk around town too.

Me as a Panguitch Cowgirl

Taking turns in Panguitch jail. . . I was the only happy prisoner

Panguitch also recently restored their old movie theater and we got to go with Kyle's family to see The Amazing Spiderman there.  It's a fun theater with a game room and ice cream parlor. 

We also went on a 50+ mile four wheeler ride.  Brian had always wanted to ride from Panguitch to Parowin and get a hamburger and then ride back.  So while he was with us at the ranch we made that happen!  We rode up and over the mountain and down through some back roads into Parowin.  When we got there we ate some burgers and headed back.  All together the trip took about 4 hours and was a little over 50 miles!  I didn't take any photos on the trail. :(  Before we started the ride though I spotted this little guy:

 It's a horny toad lizard!

Before going to the ranch Kyle would tell me about how he always caught horny toad lizards when he used to go to the ranch as a kid.  He had decided that the lizards just weren't around as much as they used to be.  But then I found this one . . . and his younger cousins were finding them all over the place too.  

And finally, before our vacation ended, I had to get these two pictures:

A picture with Pepper, Pepper

and

A picture with Kooz

Some of you may recognize Kooz from the back window of our car.  Kyle and I won Kooz on the way home from my first trip to California with him.  We stopped at a gas station and decided to try our luck at the claw machine game.  We got Kooz on our first try!  We were jumping up and down celebrating and the rest of the people there thought we were crazy.  But we knew we were just cool.  While we were in Cali for that 1st trip there we had gone to a Padres baseball game and one of their better players was Kooz.  So when we won this guy we knew just what to name him.  He decorated the back of our car for a couple of years and got a little sun faded in the process.  We finally retired him to the toy bin at the ranch for the kiddos to enjoy while they are there.

Thank you to Kyle's wonderful family for all of the adventures in Cali and at the ranch!!  That pretty much sums up our travels for the summer.  We had a great time!    We are now in wonderful Pocatello, ID and things are going just fine.