Texas, Day 2 and 3

No pictures were taken on day 2.  It was a day of travel.  We the alien country of Roswell, New Mexico and pulled into Richmond, Texas around midnight.  We were lucky to stay with Annika's uncle in a gorgeous house that one day I hope I can afford at least a quarter of that house.  So we'll just say our stay was VERY comfortable!!! 

The next day we woke up and drove out to Houston to spend the day.  Our first stop, an aquarium downtown.

We wrist banded up and headed in!

Jellyfish! The boys are fascinated with jellyfish and we're surprised to find out that they actually existed in real life and not just on the Spongebob cartoons!

A river boat picture spot right in the middle of the amphibian section. Kind of reminded me of "Swamp People." LOL...

This aquarium was AMAZING! There were so many cool things. Koen was in awe because the tank went up over his head!

Now for the hands on section.... I think they were petting some sort of crab-by thing here. Not the coolest thing to be petting in the tanks.

The "Coolest Thing to be Petting" award goes out to the sting rays, hands down! We hung out there for a while, watching and petting the sting rays.

They would swim right up to you and even come up out of the water for a little attention. They were VERY friendly rays.

You could go underneath the tank and watch them swim right over you!

Koen, old school diver-style.

Kael, ecstatic to be "swimmin' with the fishes!"

Now, I don't know how white tigers fit in with sting rays, sharks and other aquatic animals, but hey, I'm not complaining. It was awesome! They had a little picture area and the boys were scared to get close.

...and if they weren't cool enough to look at, the tigers had an "argument." We used to going to the zoo and seeing docile animals who look half dead, but this... call it a trip to the aquarium/zoo/thing, on crack!

Yes there is a piece of glass between child and animal. I'm impressed with their glass cleaning skills. This particular white tiger loved Koen. He sat there for a few minutes and just looked at him... so cool, creepy, but cool.

SMILE!

We hopped on a Ferris Wheel-style ride that took you pretty high up.

Jace is not too excited by the height.

All aboard! We hopped on a train to sharksville. (that's not really the name, I just added it for entertainment purposes, you're welcome.)

The train stops in a tunnel where you're surrounded by various kinds of sharks.

Even amongst the sharks they manage to keep their cool...

Onto the Carousel!

...and just when you thought the place couldn't get any cooler you find this! After a very hot (and humid) day we let the boys unwind in the fountains...

Koey

Kael dousing Jace

We worked up quite the appetite so we headed across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe, and no, we didn't get a t-shirt.

We had so much fun we dried off and went through again! Here we go!!

All aboard!

Shark Tunnel

The Shark Train

Koen driving the boat...

Kissin' a croc.

When we went back to the sting ray exhibit we pretty much had the place to ourselves. So we spent another hour chillin with some rays.

After a VERY eventful day we went back to the house and crashed!

Texas!!

Destination #2 in our massive summer road trip was to Texas. A great family friend (who's really more like family) got some hair-brained idea to move to Texas after she graduated from BYU. After throwing numerous tantrums and laying on a pretty heavy guilt trip we decided to help her move.  So after returning home from the Michaelson Family reunion, we had a 24 hour turn-around and headed out the next day with myself, the twins, Annika and just so I wasn't making the 18 hour road trip back by myself I brought along another one of my favorite people, Raquel and Jace!

After a couple hours on the road we decided to stop and unwind a bit at "Hole N' The Rock."

Here's Kael goofing off inside the store.

Jacer-Guy chillin

 cowboy style...

The boys LOVED hangin' out with Mater.

They spent a good deal of time at this mine car, trying to get it to move. We didn't stop them. They were very dedicated in their work.

Not sure where the bunny came from, but once he was spotted, a chase ensued.

We found Big Foot after following the signs, and passing by it a few times (even thinking that the bunny was meant to be "Big Foot" at one point).  There's a blond joke in there somewhere....

This was just too awesome, I had to take a pic to pass on the laughs.

A very cool rock chair.

Raquel....such a cutie!

Me and the guys!

LOL! Get it?

There were so many cool gadgets and fun stuff to look at we spent a great deal of time at the "Hole N' The Rock" in stead of posting every little thing, you can go"> here and see the collection of pics from our trip.

Day one on the road we left Lehi at 10 and settled down at 2am in Roswell, New Mexico which is a VERY interesting, funny and strange place. I did have a bunch of pictures but the Aliens came and cleared all those images from my camera.... **enter spooky music here** :)

Bear Lake **one of the many trips taken*

This is the first of many trips taken to Bear Lake this year.  We have gone back several times to fix up Barry's Grandma's house.  This trip, however, is the first time we were able to hop in the water.  The spring run-off was so overwhelming to the surrounding rivers and lakes that there was hardly any beach this season.  I've never seen the lake so high.

 Kael playing with an umbrella...

The line-up. 

 

Stewart Falls and Such...

Stewart Falls.... a hike I try to go on every year.  It's a gorgeous hike up Provo Canyon.  Since we had colder than usual temperatures the snow wasn't completely melted. What we're standing on is all snow and ice!  The ground is still a couple feet below us.  So it was a little chilly in the shade.... standing on snow.... with mist from the falls blowing by.  It also rained on us while we were hiking in, made for the most awesome lush, mountain aromas.

Reed, Raquel and Jace in the backpack.

David (Reed's childhood friend I've known him since he was 6, we've pretty much adopted him into our family), and his brother Taylor.

The boys at the bottom standing on a pretty big rock.

Baby Tolson.  We went and visited our newest nephew in the hospital.  Uncle Mike and Aunt Kyrsten had their 3rd baby boy!  Welcome Tolson!

Feeding the ducks. 

I love this pond not only because of the fun scenery but there are turtles that live in this pond too! 

You can see some of the turtle swimming around with the ducks!