Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trips. Show all posts

Monday, April 12, 2010

Camping in April!

Another great weekend with friends. We stayed in one of the cabins at the Holland State Park. The cabin was nice (aside from the fresh varnish smell) and cozy. Here are the girls: Julie, Amy, and Kristin (and "Kramy", my unborn daughter, whose created name sounds very familiar to "Kristin and Amy"... hmmm...)



A gorgeous blue sky by Big Red:

The whole group at the end of the pier: (it was a little windy, okay... a LOT windy!).

Monday, December 21, 2009

Milford Sound






Claire, Jason and I went to Milford Sound in October. I have been a massive slacker, so now I am finally putting up some pictures. For those of you who don't know, Amy and I tried to go last year, and we got about half way down and found out the road was closed because of an avalanche. This time I made sure to check that the road was opened.

We went on a cruise, which was awesome! We saw dolphins, seals and penguins!

It started raining at the end of the cruise and rained all night, so the next morning there were waterfalls everywhere.
We spent the night at the Milford Lodge, which was set in a beautiful valley, next to a river with huge mountains going up on either side, which was really cool! back we stopped at a few different spots, including Mirror Lakes and The Chasm, where a river flows through a narrow gap and has carved it out.
The drive was almost as cool as the cruise. We kept going "look at that!" and slowing way down to look out the window. We also pulled over about a million times to take pictures. All in all we had about 400 photos from the two days. Milford sound was breathtakingly beautiful with spectacular views of the mountains, and close ups of waterfalls.

Friday, August 14, 2009

New Zealand



New Zealand's been great! I've been teaching snowboarding with kids this season which has been an adventure. I've only taught adults before this season, so I'm used to explaining the technical stuff and have have been trying to get better at explaining stuff in ways that make sense to 8 year olds.
These photo of Jason and I are from early morning riding last week. I had to get up at 6, but it was worth it!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Our Trip to Utah

Right after school got out we headed to Utah for a vacation. I didn't post any photos yet because our summer started out so busy but now I'm catching up. :) What a beautiful place Utah is! We went with friends from church / college. The hot tub was great! Smile guys! Derek and I went hiking one afternoon up in the mountains. At 10,000 feet it is still snowing in June!

We saw a real live moose!!!!!! (from our car). I went to the white mountains and Isle Royale and never saw one. Now I've seen one. (sigh).
Beautiful drive, beautiful aspens, beautiful everything.
Near Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. Highly recommend it! We saw a moose here too, from a distance.
Driving rentals through the mountains on extremely well-maintained dirt roads: a dream from Derek. These dirty cars are like a trophy:
We (not me) caught some fish for supper that night. I came from a family that did a little bit of hunting and fishing for fun but not like this. We didn't have anything planned for dinner that night and really needed to catch some fish. It was so good and "fresh"! Here's the whole group:
This is the reservoir at Flaming Gorge, a gorgeous blue color:
We stayed at a condo in Park City and went to the Olympic park one day. Some skiers were practicing their jumps into the pool!
This is not a postcard. Derek actually took this photo when we went into Salt lake City to hear ad see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse.
We took the chair lift up in Park City to do some hiking.

An old abandoned silver mine up by the ski runs. We explored a few of these old buildings.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Cruise in Review

Here is a recap of our cruise. I'll try to keep the words to a minimum because I tend to like looking a photos more when I read other blogs. Safety first! Everyone looks ridiculous when you have to go to your emergency muster station. :) Derek actually went to a scrapbook workshop with me! He was in charge of the glue stick while I assembled the pages. There were pretty basic supplies and the Brazilian leader did not know what acid-free was when I asked him a question. We had a lot of fun though (and sticky fingers!).
Derek and I went on the climbing wall. It feels a little strange to be climbing when the ship is swaying. There was a really good view at the top though!
Oh, those handsome guys we brought with us (or...err... let us go...).
Our first port was Aruba, we went on a sail boat that took us snorkeling. We saw some really neat fish and a ship wreck. It was fun because they had a swing that you use to do flips into the water and they fed us. (Yes, of course there was free bar service.. wink, wink)

Curacao was our second port and it was so beautiful with all it's brightly colored buildings on the canal. It really does feel like the Dutch Caribbean!

After our wild 70's Dance Party we cooled off and calmed down at the piano bar. This was a favorite of our group and the piano player seemed to like our presence and requests too.
This ship has it all. I was amazed that the ice skaters could do their jumps on such a small rink on a floating and swaying ship!
We got a little dirty on our hike in the rain forest on Dominica. It was a blast though. All 8 of us went on the hike.
We hiked to Middleham Falls and could jump down into it! Do you see Derek in the photo?
Okay, just kidding, that was our guide jumping from 40 feet up. We did jump though. See that "cave" on the side? We climbed up into that and over and up a little. It still felt very high up!
We went to most of the shows and games that they did at night. Reuben (one of our friends) and I helped in the game The Quest. It was a crazy game but we won the gold medal! Okay, we're just a little competitive...
Our last port/day was St. Thomas, one of the US Virgin Islands. We spent the 4th of July at Magens Bay and some of the locals shared their beer and brats with us. A perfect ending to a wonderful trip.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Dresses That Made the Cut

The black and red dresses were the winners! We had a lot of fun on our cruise. We went with some of the girls I lived with in college and their husbands. I'll probably post some other pictures of the cruise and our trip to Utah in other posts but here is "the dress post". Thank you for voting!

Day 1, Jenni and I drinking something good before the dance party:

Day 2, all four of us at the Captain's Champagne Toast:

Day 3: a dress I purchased in Curacao:
(I think it looks better when I'm standing up)

Day 4, 70's Dance Party with the Village People:

Day 5, what a great group of friends (sigh)

Day 6, Derek and I after dinner: two lobster tails for me (gulp)

Day 7: Now we are starting to look tan:

Monday, December 15, 2008

Announcing Mr. and Mrs. Joyner!

What a beautiful wedding, beautiful weekend, and beautiful couple! Pictures say more than words so I'll keep it very brief. This is the family praying around the couple at the rehearsal.

Party time at the rehearsal dinner. We're just CHILLIN' here right Amy?
Some royal treatment for the princess:










We love you Mrs. Joyner!!

First Dance with Tate:

"Cinderella dancing" with her father:


Amy and Becca show off some moves:

Congratulations you guys! We love you!