Happy New Year!

Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of - infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes. Ephesians 3:20

A larger backyard

On Grey Cup Sunday (YAY Lions!) Calgary was hit with winds between 70 and 100+ km/h. Homes lost shingles, Christmas decorations/lights and even 40' tall trees. We however, lost 4-8' panels of fence.

This shows from the neighbors yard looking toward ours. The posts actually snapped at the ground leaving the bottom of the post still encased in cement secure within the frozen ground.

The fence's fall was broken by our downspout (no damage to the siding) and my maple shrub. While about 1/4 of the shrub has been sacrificied, it's fine and like a seat back on a plane about to land, it has returned to its full upright position. It looks like we'll be building a new fence in the spring.

The Results

Good morning bloggers! I was tidying up and came across the answers to the survey I gave our family with regard to our US trip this summer and thought I best not wait in posting them. (MA = moms answers, EA=Emily's, KA=Kaitlyn's & DA= Dad's)

Q. Favorite campground and why?
MA. 2 answers: Island View Resort because it's smaller, the same people go year after year and we've made connections with some, the lake is across the street, the deer come up to you & we were there with the McKellars! And second, the Oasis Las Vegas resort - not because of the parking lot 'campground' but because of the resort feel of the pool area, complete with palm trees of course.
EA. Island View Resort at Idaho - I was reunited with Jillian, a friend I made the year before.
KA. San Diego KOA (at Chula Vista) because they did cool activities. (Mom's note - they really did offer a lot. The pool, laundry, arcade games, crafts including tye dying, outdoor movie, pedal carts etc)
DA.

Q. Best place to swim?
MA. Oasis Las Vegas Resort - the pool area was gorgeous though Pend Orielle Lake (pronounced Ponderray) is always good.
EA. Las Vegas.
KA. Las Vegas.
DA.

Q. Coolest thing of nature you saw (land, water, animal etc.)?
MA. I'd have to go with Bryce Canyon with a close second being the Arches in Moab.
EA. The animals of Bearizona
KA. Bearizona
DA.

Q. When you think of that holiday, what will be the first thing you tell others?
MA. Getting caught in a thunder storm during a 6 mile walk in a valley in Utah. Being 100% drenched and wondering, with each crack of thunder, if rescuers would know to look for us there, (and if my camera would work again).
EA. The flash flood on our waterfall hike in Utah
KA. The Utah storm
DA.

Q. Was the drive too long?
MA.Some sections, yes. But we saw so many beautiful things along the way - desert, cactus, ocean, valleys, and views that included the 'peaks' of Bryce and the Grand Canyon.
EA. Kind of but I survived
KA. At some points yes.
DA.

Q. What did you like the least?
MA. The planning portion of this trip this past Feb/March. It's hard to know where to go and how long to be at each place when you've never been before and don't know others who have.
EA. Not being able to camp with McKellars for longer
KA. The long drives
DA.

Q. Where would you like to have stayed longer?
MA. That's a tough one. I can think of places I wouldn't have stayed longer at (we actually left Moab a day early - we could have stayed - there was more to see, but knew our drive the following 2 days would be VERY long so we altered our route). I will likely be the only one to say Anaheim. I would have liked to 'do' Hollywood by tour bus - the I-5 was SO busy no matter when you were on it. Aside from that, perhaps Vegas. I'd have been happy to spend more time by that pool.
EA. Las Vegas
KA. San Diego KOA & Las Vegas
DA.

Q. Where would you like to go again?
MA.If I didn't have to drive that far to get there, the Oasis Las Vegas Resort. There are so many things to do in Vegas! But as always, take me back to Island View Resort at Hope, Idaho.
EA. Las Vegas
KA. Island View Resort
DA.

Willie Nelson

Did you hear that Willie Nelson died? Ya, he was singing on the road again...

We are off again; this time promises to be a far more relaxing camping trip with 3 campgrounds lakeside... ahhhhhhh, I can hear the birds singing already.

Before we get into those details though we need to offer up some reflections from the last trip. I'll test everyone today and hopefully be able to post either tonight or tomorrow night, depending on wifi connections.

Toodles,

Wrapping it up - otw home tomorrow

8000km
33 nights
13 campgrounds
6 U.S. States
2 Provinces

We head home tomorrow and we are so very blessed and thankful to have had this opportunity. We've seen mountains, hills, valleys and plains. We've been in Cities and have been in much smaller centers. We've experienced the desert and the Ocean. We've swum in lakes and pools; we've felt the power of a wave breaking on the shore and have stumbled upon some pretty amazing things. We've felt God's hand of protection each day.

When we were at Moab and checked out Arches National Park I remember again being so amazed at God's handiwork. He created the world in a mere 6 days and we have definitely experienced the beauty of it on this trip. Think though; if He did this in 6 days, just imagine what those of us who acknowledge Him as Lord and Saviour of our lives will experience when we see Heaven; it's taking Him so long!

Today we had our last dip in a U.S. lake for awhile - this is Flathead Lake, just south of Kalispell.

Thanks again for your prayers for safety; we're almost home!

Photos added - Arches National Park (Moab, Utah)

Hi Friends and Family! We're safe in Dillon, Montana now and are at a campground we stayed at earlier this month. We got confirmation that we had a spot here only 2 hours before we arrived - it was an act of faith even moreso because of a gun show in town this weekend.

Last night we were at Brigham City; a good KOA find complete with a swimming pool. It didn't matter that the water was cool cuz the air was hot. When we pulled out this morning we hit a fruit stand and bought raspberries, blackberries, peaches, cherries and corn which was picked this morning (first pick of the season - salt & pepper variety... it's not black but it is 2 toned like our Peaches and Cream variety. We'll test it out tonight). Clearly we're not at a local (or BC) market cuz all this cost us less than $20.

I hadn't been able to upload photos of Arches Nat'l Park until now so here you go! If you want to see a photo more clearly just click on it and it will enlarge.

A little education for you first... this is how an arch is formed.

How does this happen?!?

From under the arch.

Ahhh, maybe this is how it happens! With a little help from the tourists! :)

To give you a little perspective as to the size of this thing (called Turret Arch), squint and you'll see some adults standing under the arch.

This one is called Double Arch.

Finally... a picture of us!

Another one from under a arch.

I couldn't resist this shot of the sand. Apparently it had rained for the previous 3 days (was 100 degrees when we were here) so this is the reminder of rain in the sand.

Arches National Park (Moab, Utah)

A very quick update since I can't get the pictures to upload anyways... :( YET!

We pulled in 2 days ago and checked into our site to find that the campground we chose in part because of the pool, didn't (can't) give us pool access. There are 2 sides to this campground; one for RV site owners ($99,000) and the other for... well... us and a few others (Campgrounds have been no where near full since we left Anaheim). Since the pool side is owned by the owners we don't qualify to use the pool. When it's 34 degrees out a wee dip would have felt great!

Yesterday we checked out Arches Nat'l Park - wow. Spectacular. If God create this world in 6 days and it looks as amazing as it does - what do we have in store for us with the amount of time already invested in creating Heaven?!?

We changed our plans for our return. Yes, we're still going to but instead of spending another night here in Moab we're going to go to Brigham City Utah today. We feel we've seen what was most important to see and if we wait until tomorrow to go with our original plan we'd have 2 very long driving days. Now we have less than 5 hours today (and a pool!), then to Dillon, Montana tomorrow (4.25hrs) and then as scheduled, 2 nights in Kalispell Montana (4.5hr drive). We'll be home on Tuesday August 2. Thanks for praying with us for safe travels.

Monument Valley (Arizona/Utah)

Yesterday we drove from Williams, Arizona to Moab, Utah - a long drive. Odd at times for more reasons than one. We drove through a couple Reservations and noticed horses or cows alongside the road. One of the horses looked very gaunt while 2 of the cows on the roadside, miles apart, were dead. Sad.
The other odd thing though is as the photos show.

Mexican Hat is the name of this formation.

It makes no sense - no explanation as to where it came from; was it left behind and the others around it disintegrated? I'll try to remember the question when we hit the visitor center today. Today we're off to do Arches National Park.

Bearizona!

Today we thoroughly enjoyed our time at Bearizona. It's 2 miles of road which takes you through various other 'hard to find' animals followed by a walk-through area for mostly younger animals. We highly recommend this attraction!

This is a Kestral Falcon

And this fella is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. We were treated to a showcase of these 3 birds - 2 out of three of them flapped along my hair as they flew over the audience.

Another look at the Eurasian Eagle Owl - this pic looks great enlarged - click on it to see!

Look just about the O in Bearizona and you'll see the Harris Hawk about to flap over my head.

For the drive-thru part of our adventure we saw burros, white bison, wolves, mountain goats, big horn sheep & black bears. We were allowed to have our windows down for each area except for the wolves and bears. It was VERY tempting to lower them for the sake of the photo but we behaved. You'll notice that the grown bears and wolves may appear a little fuzzy because of the window...

This is the view taken through the window and at the side view mirror... Yup, that close! One of these wolves was quite interested in something on the rear tire and stuck his head into the wheel well for a prolonged closer look.

For our walk through area we saw swift fox, skunk, arctic wolves, an Alaskan tundra wolf, baby raccoons, a beaver, bear cubs, bobcat, Canadian lynx, Javelina and in the petting zoo area we saw bunnies, guinea pigs, goats, a 12 week old bison, ponies, chickens, pigs (big and little) and a goose.

There were 2 of these little porkers to pet - Scott named them Bacon & Bits. Together, they're "Bacon Bits".

An Arctic Wolf pup.

Williams, Arizona (Grand Canyon)

Yesterday we arrived in Williams, Arizona, a very cool little town which Route 66 runs through. Today we checked out the Grand Canyon...





Okay, as much as I'd like to take credit for this picture and the one following, I can't. I took a photo of a photo... But I could have fooled you couldn't I have!?

I think it's safe to say that there t'aint many of all y'all who've seen a sign like this before.

We did a bit of a hike down... and then, of course, up.

This, my friends, is a condor. You'll definitely need to double click on this picture to see just how... well, unpretty his head is. Notice too that he's been tagged and bears the number 72. The other animals that we saw today were lizards, deer and squirrels.

Laying down to take a peak from a safe distance and angle... still a little unnerving!

I would have to say that Bryce Canyon is better when compared to the Grand Canyon. In part it was the haze that was in the valley but also that the bottom was so far beneath us that we couldn't get the full experience of how high it was. Does that make sense?

The girls and I posted ourselved on an edge. We'd read earlier today that there aren't many people who fall over the edge but those who do seldom survive the initial 300' drop. There was actually a ledge about 5' beneath us so that afforded us some safety.

Each night in Williams the Cataract Creek Gang put on a gun show and tonight was no different. This was one of the 'bad guys'. The last time we saw one of these Emily, approximately 5 years old, ran out to the bad guy explaining to him that he shouldn't play with guns.

If you have only a vague idea of the history behind the road, let me give you just a little more info. Back in the 20's a road was built to connect Chicago with Los Angeles - this road was Route 66. A movie and a television show which ran in the 50s and early 60s made the road more popular. You'll recognize the lyrics, 'get your kicks, on route 66'.

The girls have been 'penned up' in the back seat a fair bit as we travel but as you can see, they handle it well. Roxy gets 1/3 of the back seat (we lift the seat and she stretches out on the floor - she travels very well).

Ready, Set, Action (Universal Studios)

YAY - With lickety split speed I was finally able to upload pictures! As with the last post the photos are first and some detail follows.

Filming today: Prime Suspect, Parenthood & Desperate Housewives. We went past the set of Desperate Housewives and it didn't look like much was going on despite the number of vehicles in front of the houses. I'm not familiar with the show so some 'celeb' could have walked past me and I would have been none the wiser - is Terry Hatcher in that one?

Katie and I saw a great SHREK 4D show too

When we did our backlot tour (WAY COOL - and worth the 70 minute wait in line), we drove through this "Stage". We were told that it was going to be used for filming yet that day... this is the view on my side, at least for a couple seconds.
Then this. We were warned that we might get wet - considering the force of this water I came out with just a few drips on me. Meanwhile on the other side of the tram vehicles which had been hidden in the ceiling of the stage began dropping and igniting into flame or sliding sideways toward us. Anyone know what movie that was from? Let me know - it's familiar to me but I can't recall.

Other things we saw on our backlot tour was an amazing KING KONG 3D show - again we drove into a 'stage' and the show began all around us. Our tram rocked too. Very convincing. We passed by the Bates Hotel (Psycho) and as we slowed in front of it noticed an older car parked in front of an open hotel door. A man came out carrying a body which he deposited into the trunk - then he noticed us. The lady doing our tour made a big deal about us taking a bunch of pictures as they'd need them for Americas Most Wanted etc... the guy took a knife out of his pocket and started running at the last car. Thankfully we were in the 2nd of the 4 cars - I managed to muster a 'nanananananaaaaaa'.

We also saw the square where Back To the Future 'landed', where the clock tower was and where Michael J Fox and his girl went for sodas. The last set I can remember is Who-ville from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Jaws also made an appearance quite dramatically on my side of the tram.

The girls with Curious George.

And with Scooby, Shaggy and Daphne.

It was another warm day but the girls found a great way to cool off. Universal Studios has large fans blowing mistlike water into crowds all over the place.

Katies' lunch - a turkey leg. A little tough on the outside but good on the inside. She figured this thing weighed a couple pounds!

We LOVED the Waterworld show. See the guy near the top on the right falling and another in about the middle of the picture?

There were many seats with a sign that said "SOAK ZONE" (see Sea World post if you need a refresher) so we decided that we'd stay clear of there. Good thing too - it wasn't just that the show itself might get you wet but the characters involved in the show but killing time before it began took super soakers and buckets of water and would go into the audience of those areas and well, you'd get soaked all right.

The characters in this show were all from different programs currently on air. Such as General Hospital, Hawaii 5-0... can't remember the others.

Here's the view we were treated to when we walked through the gate and onto the red carpet as we exited from Universal Studios.

- - - - - - - - - -

Good Saturday morning to you! I woke this morning to the sounds of whistles being blown; like those used at sporting events. Our campground is in a hispanic neighborhood and I'd noticed that each night many people would go to the sports field across the street to play soccer. It would seem that today is a special clinic or perhaps a game - I haven't been out yet.

Yesterday we went to LA and did Universal Studios. LA is not a City that we would live in unless we lived close to work. The freeways are very busy despite their 3-5 lanes in each direction (there were 7-8 lanes on the I-15 through Vegas).

Oh, when we were at Bryce Canyon a few people told me that it's better than the Grand Canyon because you can easily get to the bottom of it and see everything from that angle. The GC is simply put, deeper (1 mile!), but otherwise the same idea. I just thought I'd pass that on in case you were planning on coming this way and had a limited amount of time. I'll be able to give you my opinion once we've been to GC too.