TyandNat trip to Utah

We're now home and still recovering... that was a long vacation and we crammed more into it than we probably should have. But, we also had a blast. Here are a few highlights, you'll soon find a more detailed breakdown at www.tyandnat.com/blog. I've also created four slide shows found here: video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4.

Vacation one was our trip West. We spent a day in Lincoln, Nebraska and went to their Children's zoo and ate Runzas. Eli also had a great time at one of many Cabela's found along the interstate.
Vacation two was backpacking with my family in the Wyoming Uintas, at a place called Lake Alice. Of course, the best part of going West was seeing family and friends, most of whom were meeting Sharon for the first time and seeing Eli for only the second or third. It was really pretty cool seeing Eli start to understand what "extended family" is--he thinks Dallin is the coolest uncle ever. And, as cool as it was just being there with family, you can't discount how totally tubular it was seeing Eli catch his first fish. He was pretty excited (and his dad was kinda happy about it too). He also got to ride mules and got a free back ride the two miles in and out of camp. We left the mountain prematurely because Sharon couldn't sleep at all up there (which meant her parents couldn't sleep at all). She cut her first two teeth and that coupled with her being in a new environment didn't work too well. We went and recouped in SF where we went to church and also where we had Eli's 3rd b-day party with his Bloomington friends that are currently in Utah.
Vacation three was the gathering of the Barlow family. Every single one of Natalie's siblings (she has ten) made it to AF for the reunion. We had a great time playing games, meeting new nieces and nephews, family auction, and all this, of course, with lots of food.
Vacation four was the trip back via Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. We first went to Martin's Cove and Independence Rock in Wyoming (LDS church history sites) where we learned a little more about our pioneer heritage. We spent time at Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug, and the Mitchell Corn Palace on day 2. All of these stops were short as we drove 7-12 hours each day. Day 3 we saw Carl Sandburgs home in Iowa as well as a train museum. We arrived home late on Wednesday and I was back to work Thursday morning.
And that about sums it up. We also had good visits with all our living grandparents, some former roommates and high school buddies, and of course got ice cream cones at Maceys.

I've now loaded all the trip photos into Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/tylerbchristensen