1. 1. OUR SUMMER VACATION2009
   UTAH
   NEVADA
   ARIZONA
   CALIFORNIA
   8-6-09 TO 8-19-09
   
2. 2. LEAVING ON A JET PLANE
   5:30 am ready to board!
   A view from above-oooh! crop circles
   Whens breakfast?
   
3. 3. Whos flying the plane?
   
4. 4. Natural History Museum
   Salt Lake City, Utah
   
5. 5. Dinosaurs,rocks,andfrogs.OH MY!
   
6. 6. Park City, Utah
   
7. 7. Amy & alexsWedding8-8-09
   
8. 8.
9. 9. SUNDAY MORNING BRUNCH
   
10. 10. BINGHAM CANYON, UTAH
    KENNECOTT COPPER MINE
    
11. 11. GIANT TRUCKS!
    YES, THE TIRE BELOW IS THE SAME SIZE THAT IS ON THE TRUCKS IN THE PICTURES
    
12. 12.
13. 13. MOAB, UTAH
    
14. 14. HELLS REVENGE-OFF ROADING
    Hell's Revenge trail exposes great expanses of "Slick Rock" (sandstone) with slopes so steep you will wonder if your tires can maintain traction. The very steep climbs and descents on the slick rock are not for the faint of heart and cannot be bypassed
    
15. 15. A steep hair-raising descent on a narrow ridge allows no room for error left or right. As you start the decent your 4X4's hood will drop a long way before you can even see the narrow ridge top in front
    Lions Back Rock
    Dinosaur
    tracks
    PUSH ELI, PUSH!
    
16. 16.
17. 17. Rafting the Colorado River
    
18. 18. Sights from the river
    Tow-truck rock
    Walking tree
    Colorado River
    
19. 19. SUNSET AT DEAD HORSE STATE PARK
    At 6,000 feet above sea level you can see 360 degrees all around the Moab valley. 4,000 feet below is the canyon carved by theColorado River. After the sunset, we stargazed-we saw 10 billion stars, the Milky Way, and the Perseid meteor shower.
    
20. 20. Can you find
    the big dipper?
    
21. 21.
22. 22. Moab fault
    La Sal Mountains
    Layered rock
    3 Gossips rock
    Puppy rock
    Park Avenue fin
    Pertrified dunes
    
23. 23. Can you see the kids above?
    Balanced Rock:
    A boulder of slick rock Entrada Sandstone sits atop a pedestal of Dewey Bridge. The total height is 128 feet. The boulder is 55 feet and weighs 3,577 TONS!
    
24. 24. fun with perspective
    
25. 25. Delicate Arch
    Panorama point
    Salt Wash
    Petroglyphs of the Utes
    Wolfe Ranch
    Fiery Furnace
    
26. 26. Look at the earths layers in the rock
    Skyline arch
    Fred Flintstone rock
    Delicate Arch-306 ft long
    Fossil ofdino s tail
    Resting on the Devils Garden Trail
    
27. 27. Zion National Park
    
28. 28. Lower Emerald Pool Trail
    Ave is eaten by a cave monster
    Behind the waterfall
    Lower Emerald Pool
    
29. 29. Middle Emerald Pool Trail
    A tadpole with legs crawled out of the pond!
    Wow! Thats cold water.
    
30. 30. Upper Emerald Pool Trail
    Mom figures out how to carry water up the hills.
    Avery islike a little goat scampering up the giant boulders with ease.
    Yes! I made it to the top!
    
31. 31.
32. 32. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
    
33. 33. LAS VEGAS BLVD.
    THE EIFFEL TOWER LOOKOUT
    DID SOMEONE SAY CROISSANT?
    BELLAGIO
    
34. 34. Paris
    NY NY
    Venitian
    Mom found the best BLING in Vegas to buy
    Moving statues in the Venitian really creeped Roxy out!
    NY,NY-rode the coaster
    
35. 35. LANDSAILING ON IVANPAH LAKE
    Landsailing is the sport of moving over sand and land using a sail for propulsion by the wind.
    A land-yacht is basically a sailboat that travels on small wheels on the surface of land.
    Setting up the land-yacht
    Last minute instructions before take-off
    With the right size sail and small gust of wind you can go up to 55 mph!
    Setting up the sail
    
36. 36.
37. 37. Our Grand Canyon Adventure
    Limo service to the airport really excited the kids.
    
38. 38. HELICOPTERING To
    GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA
    
39. 39.
40. 40. WestRim-SKYWALK over canyon-This glass bridge is suspended 4,000 feet over the Grand Canyon.
    Lake mead boulder basin
    Hoover Dam and new suspension bridge construction
    Indian Pass-
    the depression between the mountains is where early settlers would drive their wagonsin to the west. Only to be ambushed by Indians lying in wait.
    
41. 41. 4,000 feet below the rim into the Grand Canyon, we land next to the Colorado River for lunch on Indian land.
    Helicopter views
    of the canyon.
    
42. 42. HOOVER DAM
    
43. 43. Every state contributed rocks to build the dam.
    When does the dam tour start?
    The dam wall
    Standing inside the dam wall,
    looking out into river
    Dam generators
    New dam bridge
    
44. 44. We got the specialdam hats for the special dam tour
    Dam observation deck
    Looking straight over the edge of the observation deck, mom got this shot of the gates that open to let water into the river
    Unfortunately, she alsolost her hat. It fell all the way to the bottom near the water
    she found it with the ZOOM lens
    (see black box)
    Looks like I wasnt the only one to lose my damn hat!
    
45. 45.
46. 46. SAN DIEGO,
    CALIFORNIA
    
47. 47. A toasty fire kept us warm each night
    We saw fireworks from Seaworld every night
    Noah is great at
    hide & seek!
    
48. 48. Seaport Village
    
49. 49. U.S.S.MIDWAY
    Into the brig with you scallywags
    Eli, thats not a chair its a bomb
    
50. 50.
51. 51. On board
    the ship
    
52. 52.
53. 53. After flying 5,402 miles,
    Driving almost 1600 miles,
    and 14 days of traveling,
    what do you get
    
54. 54. THE END