Family vacation and Anniversary highlights

On wednesday, August 22 we flew out to Colorado. Here we are on one of the planes...

My parents moved into a new house there not far from their old house and it was neat to be able to finally see it. We only spent one night there. The next day darren and I got our teeth cleaned and checked and we all drove out to Utah later that afternoon. Here we are with my sister, Lauren in the back seat of the truck on our way to Utah...

We got there very late that night. The following day (friday, july 24th) was pioneer day. That night we set off some fireworks at my sister, Ashley's house in Kaysville. My nephew, Ethan with a sparkler and Ashley in the background. During this evening at one point one of the fireworks went a little crazy and shot sparks out and one hit Ethan on his face poor little guy.

Ethan and Lexi below with Lauren in the background.

Mom, Dad, Emily, Lauren, and Ethan. p.s. I used an old camera and some of these pictures such as this one came out a little blurry/fuzzy/bright :(

Mom's birthday was july 26th. We celebrated with some delicious chocolate cake and strawberries, yum...

Dad went back to Colorado on Sunday. While we were there a stomach virus got passed around which some were fortunate to avoid others not so fortunate. Ashley, Lauren, and Ethan were the first batch to get sick. Ashley also had extreme pain that we thought could be an appendicitis so she went to the hospital and they discovered instead a tennis-ball-sized cyst on her ovary. Well, monday night both chris (ashley's husband) and I got sick. Thankfully we didn't get it nearly as bad as the others for some reason, but on tuesday (which was our anniversary) I didn't feel up to going anywhere. So our anniversary plans were postponed for wednesday. We have been married for two years now! I really wanted to celebrate it in provo. So wednesday we drove to provo and ate lunch at one of my favorite provo restaurants and climbed up to my favorite spot in rock canyon.

The Korean restaurant

Korean food is much different from say Chinese. You get all these little side dishes with your meal. Of course they serve Kimche (spelling?) which I'm not a fan of. It is spicy fermented cabbage which Korean people love but I certainly don't haha. This restaurant seems to be very authentic... they even give you metal chopsticks, impressive. I tried another Korean restaurant once and it didn't even compare, this one rocks!

Here is what I ordered... Chicken Bolgolgi. Darren had Beef Bolgolgi which was even better than mine. You can see the different side dishes here...

Taking a bite! And I got my haircut on monday, before I got sick...

Darren demonstrating...You put the meet and rice and whatever else in the lettuce.

Darren taking a bite!

The food was delicious, but my stomach was still a little weak and woosy from being sick. After lunch we went to Rock Canyon. We only hiked to the spot where I wanted to climb. This is the same spot we went to during the first week Darren and I met in person in March of 2007. I love climbing on rocks and this is the perfect spot to climb when you don't have equipment. Here is the view from the spot we climbed up to. That is the Provo Temple in the valley.

This is the trail below so you can see how high up we were.

This is what we climbed up...

Darren driving my dad's truck.

After climbing up those rocks I was exhausted! That's what a change in altitude and being sick does to your body. My sister, Emily was the last to get sick. And she got it bad. She had to miss her flight and fly back another day because she was so sick. Before she left we spent some time at Temple Square.

In the Joseph Smith Building

Haha Chris

Too bad my eyes are closed in this one...

While in Utah we were also able to do a session at the Salt Lake Temple with my mom and go to Lagoon with Ash and Chris all in the same day. Darren flew back to Mississippi on monday morning (august 3rd). I went indoor rock climbing at the Quarry with ashley, ethan, and Lexi on monday which was super fun. Ethan was a little scared but Lexi loved it. I flew back home on wednesday. And that was two weeks of family adventures!