Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Valley of Fire

We spent a fun day off from school and work yesterday. Dad drove Maddie, Julie, Ally, Jimmy, Allyson, Sydney, and me to Valley of Fire in the motorhome for the day. The weather was cold and clear, the scenery was beautiful, the company was great, the picnic was yummy, the exercise was good and not TOO strenuous, and a good time was had by all!
Nobody thought to bring the baby backpack (!) so we had to take turns carrying Sydney on our short jaunts into the red rocks. Good thing she's little and there were so many willing participants. Thanks, Julie!

Ally feels victorious after scrambling up some large rocks!

Walking and exploring...

You've heard of cliff-diving into the lake? These guys are "rock jumping" into the sand. Allyson FLIES!
Little Ally takes her turn...

...and Sydney scoots off too!

Maddie jumps! (I'll probably be in trouble for posting this one. This part of the trip was quite warm and Maddie had just shed her two sweatshirts and sweater. She won't appreciated being posted in her undershirt!! Sorry, Maddie.)

We loved all the fun cubby holes in the rocks.

Julie and Ally climbed to these high ones.

Dad took us up a short but very difficult climb, through an arch, and around a bend to this really cool "stairway to heaven." This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a steep and scary climb.

Good thing we had Dad to hold the staircase open for us!

We remembered this natural stage at the Seven Sisters formation as about three times this big, but it was still roomy enough for this lovely rendition of the can-can. Even Jimmy joined in. Later he said, "I don't why I did that..." The girls enjoyed it!

By the end of the day the girls (Maddie especially) were exhausted.


They did manage to summon up enough energy for one last show with Allyson.

I'm so grateful and glad that we live in a place where we can get out and enjoy the beauties of God's creations in the middle of winter! It makes those hot, hot summers worthwhile!

6 comments:

Amy said...

Man, I wish I had been there. It looks like a lot of fun!

Loretta said...

It is great to see everyone having fun and to see the scenery of the west. We had 4 inches of snow on Thursday. A nice wet snow good for snowballs and snowmen. Sunday the artic air came in and it has been zero and below. Burr!!!

Andrea said...

That picture of Jeff reminds me of missionaries at the MTC. Do you know what I'm talking about? Seems like all of them take a picture of them doing that in a hallway.

Amy said...

I especially love Julie's hat and Allyson's pose in the play. :)

Michele and Todd said...

I have been to the staircase that you have pictures of and we know it here in Logandale, as the "the Indian Staircase." It truly is harder to climb that you think, and it is difficult to find and get up to it, but I never take anyone to the Valley of Fire without showing this to them.

Jill Iroz said...

Hi Linda! Wow, It's great to see your cute family climbing rocks and enjoying snowless ground. It's been awhile since we've seen a blade of grass or dirt. We have a ton of snow this year. Casey & Aimee didn't show up to church today and we thought it odd. Little did we know, their van got suck in their driveway on the way to church due to blowing snow drifts. Imagine the all effort to get 6 babies ready for church at 9am, Just to go 20 feet!