The Grand Canyon

After Channing and Cody's wedding, my girls and I climbed in with my parents and Chandra to head to the open house reception at Cody's home in New Mexico.  We stopped at four corners on the way there and on the way back to Vegas (where my parents flew flew home from), we hit up the Grand Canyon for a day and a half.  It was a fun little road trip.

Four corners!

In four places at once!

At their open house reception.

The Grand Canyon!

It was a little windy

Chandra doing some exploring.

Our second day there, Kylie finally posed for a picture.

Dad out on a ledge.

What fun with Grandma!

Kylie and Teacher Tracey.... at her preschool for dress-up day.  

The only downside of summer starting is the end of preschool.  Kylie loved going this year!

Pre-wedding Hike

Yes, it has been over two months since we were all in St. George for Channing and Cody's wedding, but these past two months have been busy!  We have been in and out of town a lot-six states in seven weeks!  (And that doesn't include the ones we drove through on our way back from Wisconsin).  So, needless to say, I have a lot of catching up to do.  I think I will just do the highlights though from the last two months..... and Channing and Cody's wedding was definitely a highlight.

The day before the big day, we hiked around Snow Canyon, which is located in Northwest St. George.  It is beautiful there.  The girls of course loved it....and wanted to do everything all on their own.  Here are a few pics....

It was super fun to have Rochelle and Andrea with us!

Kylie was super excited to go on a hike.....we all had been dying for some warm weather.  

One out of the two times Ellie allowed me to carry her.

The girls and their awesome aunts! 

Group shot

A handstand picture is a tradition

The girls

The one thing that the girls were most excited about was swimming!  Our hotel had this awesome kid sized swimming pool that we all could just play and relax in.  Yeah for sunny, warm weather!

That evening, we all went to the temple while Channing went through for the first time.  It was wonderful.  And we grabbed some good Mexican food afterwards.  It was a very good pre-wedding day.  Filled with lots of fun, family and of course pedicures.

March Vegas Trip

Chris, as a photographer for the Daily Universe Newspaper, had to shoot the West Coast Conference Basketball Tournament down in Vegas, so we made it a family trip.  We are very lucky to be able to see Chris's family so often.  Even though it was a bit chilly for Vegas's standard, the girls loved being able to play outside.  As we drove down to Nevada, Kylie got all excited about her great idea....going on a hike there.  So even though it was quite windy, we went "hiking" in the desert near Grandma and Pa Bunker's house.

It was a treat to be able to picnic at the park with Pa.

Grandma and Kylie

Kylie hiked up anything and everything.

Ellie was eager to climb up everything too.

Cabin Time (August)

We made our annual trip to Grandma Rowe's cabin in Island Park, ID back in August and good times were had by all.  We definitely had a full cabin with all of us Bunkers there and it was fun to be all together.  Kylie and Ellie both loved being outside, taking walks along the river and going on a canoe ride.  Saturday we all went into to West Yellowstone to walk around/shop, eat the best pizza ever and get some yummy ice cream.  Sunday, Chris took our little family on a drive to the headwaters of the buffalo river.  We saw a couple of moose on our drive and quite a few more around the cabin that weekend.  Monday we went into Yellowstone and this year Firehole was open for swimming.  This was my first time sliding down the natural water-slides there, which, even though it was a bit cold, was so fun!  Even Kylie did it.  I wish we had taken some pictures.  We also did the usual jump off the tressel, in which Kylie wanted to do too.....see pictures below!

 

Their canoe sprung a leak!  

Grandma and Kylie were sitting in water at this point and had to join our canoe.

 

Before everyone else was brave enough to get into the chilly water, Kylie had jumped in several times!

  

Cold?  Yes, but she continued to jump.

Ellie wanted to jump too of course!

When we told Kylie we were going to the cabin, she immediately asked if she could jump off the bridge this time.  I was surprised that she remembered that from last summer!  But I wasn't surprised that she wanted to jump.  She was so excited.  I went up on the tressel with her and dropped her to Chris. 

 

Since there are rocks straight down from the tressel, I had to swing Kylie out a bit.  Unfortunately this caused Kylie to twist a little and to land on her thigh (as seen in the above picture).  The slap was painful and produced an immediate welt.  Even though our little girl cried, she was very proud...and still wanted to continue jumping into the water from the dock.  As I wrote this post, I asked Kylie if she will jump again.  She said, "when I am a little older, like this tall, but not as big as you."  I think she will do it again.

 

Kylie really didn't want to leave the river, so Chris filled a tub up for her to take an old-fashioned bath.  And the water was much warmer than the river! 

 

We all enjoyed sitting around the fire pit at night.  We let Kylie stay up late one evening so that she could do sparklers (we never did them on July 4th!) and so she could experience her first s'more!  Mmmmm!

 

As always, we loved being up at the cabin and thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the area.

Our Fifth Anniversary

I know that I am very far behind on my posts.  It has been a busy couple of months!  Sorry family!

Back in August Chris and I celebrated our fifth anniversary!  We were able to spend some time together (almost 30 whole hours!) thanks to Casey and then Nicole and Josh for watching our girls.  Over the past year or so, Chris and I have talked about hiking Mt. Timpanogos.  Chris has never done it and both of us wanted to do it before we potentially leave Utah.  Since we didn't have the time or money for an anniversary "get-a-way", I suggested that we go on a hike.  Chris agreed, but 5 hours into our hike, I am not sure he was very happy he did.  J/K.  We had a great time together and both the hike and the views were amazing.
 

It was a beautiful day to hike....not too hot, not too cool. A little hazy though.

There were some pretty cool waterfalls along the hike. 

At the top!

The snowfield we slid down instead of hiking down...faster (and more fun)

 

We of course were quite tired after hiking Timp, but it felt so good as well (and dinner never tasted so delicious).  My legs were sore for a few days, but the memory of our anniversary hike will last forever!  :)