Family Vacation 2008

Life has been sooo busy over the last year. Last June, we closed on a house and went on a road trip through Wendover to Yosemite National Park, then we camped a couple nights on the beach and ended our stay in California by spending a day at Disneyland. It was exiting, fun, and exhausting--and we loved it!

We wanted to see and capture pictures of as many animals as we could possibly found. It was our first time seeing many of these animals in the wild:

Here's a picture of an antelope bounding away from our car. It wasn't till we slowed way down and opened our window that the animal decided it was time to go. This happened just outside of Wendover.

I've always wanted to see Mustangs in their natural habitat. Heading toward the Sierra Nevadas, we passed several warning signs that displayed horses instead of cows. I kept my fingers crossed that we'd get to see some wild horses; and, as we neared the mountains, we witnessed a small herd grazing in the hills!

Passing through the mountains, we drove amongst some amazing Ponderosa Pines. At one point, we decided to traipse through snowy patches to gather giant pinecones and smell the rough bark. For Damon I think it was chocolate, or maybe it was strawberries. Adam smelled strawberries, and I smelled butter cream. Don't ask me how the scent always seems to reflect a person’s favorite food, but it does.

Yosemite is known for being home to a lot of grizzly bears. When we saw food containers at all the camp sites, I got excited with the hope that maybe we'd actually see a bear or two; but, unfortunately, those containers were the closest we got to seeing the actual thing. So, we just had to make to with our own scary bear picture. Another disappointment happened when we saw a wolf streak passed our car and disappear into the foliage. Not only did we miss the chance to get a picture, but I also think that since it was rather scrawny, it wasn't a wolf at all. Rather, it was just a coyote; and living in Southern Utah for half my life, seeing one of those isn't what I'd consider exciting. Oh, well, it was fun anyway, and I really couldn't expect to see every wild animal on my list in just one day...

Here are some beautiful landscapes we came across. The mountain passed leading to the park were nothing less than majestic and when we finally rolled into Yosemite, fog hovered over the valleys making it seem even more incredible and mysterious--almost like it hadn't even been touched by human life. I could understand why it would be so sacred to the Native Americans--it certainly seemed like sacred ground to me.

The Beach was a blast-minus our campsite. Instead of falling asleep to the calming sound of rolling waves, we—correction—I was kept awake by loud semis and rumbling trains. How could we so misinterpret the campsite map? While I thought we were booking a spot near the sandy beach, we’d in actuality reserved one just off the freeway. Trust Adam and I to do something so hair-brained as that…

The water was freezing
and Damon had to do
what he could to keep
out of the water.
Disneyland was our last hoorah as we left California. Damon was big enough to go on some the scary rides such as Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Star Tours.

Damon was so tired that he practically fell asleep walking.

One thing we just had to do before we left was ride the teacups. For the first half of the ride, Damon didn’t even blink. When he finally woke up, he just looked at the twirling world around us with a straight face.

Then he finished the night with a Mickey Mouse Lollipop, which made him feel very awake for a few minutes.
On the way home, we stopped in Vegas to stay with The Brady Family and they took us to Lake Meade. The water was so warm, the fish were huge, and their boat was awesome.
Adam tried wake boarding. He almost got up a few times…We’ll have to try again.

David, Deanna, and Bridget