Back in the US

Puerto Vallarta!

We arrived here on Saturday at 3pm and were greeted by the Beach family at the airport. It was so great to see them and have such a warm reception! They took us to our hotel/resort, the Villa del Palmar, and we wasted no time getting out the the pool and beach. My mom and her husband had arrived the day before and were there to greet us too.

Here are a few pictures from the last 4 days:

On our way to Puerto Vallarta!

Greetings from Dallas

Sarah's first experience with PHO

Woodinville All Fool's Day Parade

Lydia doing her routine

The Shooting Stars

The girls carry umbrellas and perform to "Walking On Sunshine"

Lydia's coach and the owner of the Gymnastics Connection, Kim

Lydia & teammates are in the Woodinville parade this morning!

Excuse me...what month is this?

Crazy weather...here it is almost April and it snowed for several hours today!

Sarah Gets Her Braces On

AFTER! Isn't she beautiful? Donations gladly accepted!

Sarah Gets Her Braces On

This is how you watch a movie at Sullivan Orthodontics!

Sarah Gets Her Braces On

BEFORE...

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Celebrating our anniversary out on the town - here is Dean Waiting for the Interurban

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Dean & I celebrated our 16th Anniversary by going out for Greek food in Ballard at Costas Opa - it was awesome! They even had live belly dancing!

Fun with my friends!

Lorena, Amy and I went out for sushi before the Ladies Game Night

Shooting Stars @ the UW

Here we see Lydia doing 6 back handsprings...

The Washington Coast

Sarah

Each of the girls brought a friend - Sarah and Brittany

Lydia

Lydia and Olivia

Me and my Shmoopie (and Zoe)

Home Sweet Home

We are finally back home after 16 days on the road! We thank the Lord for such a great trip and for safety and our van that ran perfectly no matter what we put it through! We will never forget this vacation and feel so blessed that we could go!

Thankfully Dean & I both have tomorrow off and can spend the day unpacking, washing the van and doing laundry before we have to go back to work.

We actually are going on a 3 day trip to Long Beach this coming weekend, so we will need to be getting ready for that too - we will give the van a break and take our RV. So stay tuned for photos from the Washington Coast next week!

With Our Cousins at the Waterpark

Today was a great day - I got to spend time with my 2 cousins - Donna, who I have only seen once since she moved to Utah 12 years ago, and Katherine, who I have not seen since I was like 4 years old! Donna has Steven (12) and twins, Abbie & Emma (4) and Katherine has Amber (12) and an older son who had to work today, so we didn't get to meet him. This was the first time most of the kids had ever met (Sarah & Steven were preschool-aged the last time they saw each other.)

Back row: Lydia, Steven, Amber & Sarah.

Front row: Abbie & Emma

The kids all seemed to hit it off with each other...of course, how can you not have fun on a beautiful, hot, sunny day at a cool water park?!?

And I enjoyed getting to know Donna & Katherine better - I am hoping I can get them to come visit us next!!!

Me, Katherine & Donna

Heading North thru Utah

We spent last night in Page, AZ right by Lake Powell. We are officially on our way home now, going through Utah. We are spending the next 2 nights at my cousin's in Spanish Fork and will go to Seven Peaks Waterpark tomorrow! We passed thru this cute little Utah town about lunchtime.

Panguitch, Utah

Flagstaff & Sedona

Today we visited our friends, Dan & Beth Taggart, who serve with Flagstaff Mission to the Navajos (FMN) sharing the gospel and trying to meet the physical needs on a reservation of 250,000 native people! They have 8 churches with their headquarters mission right in Flagstaff. We got the unique priveledge to see the Grand Falls at it's peak time of year! Dan & Beth drove us out to a very remote area that I would never be able to find again (we all went in their truck). The falls were huge! We could not get it all in one picture even with a wide angle lens! The water looks like chocolate milk because of the dirt, but it is beautiful - there are no roads in to see the falls, so very few tourists get to see this sight. Thankfully we had our own personal tour guides!
The next day we all went to see Sedona together...it's a cool little town surrounded by amazing red rock formations, but the new age influence in the area is very prevelant. You don't have to go very far to find a mystic, palm reader, or crystals (whatever those are for?!?)

Grand Canyon South Rim - DAY 2

We have seen more of the Canyon that I would have ever dreamed of! Today we hopped on a shuttle bus from the GC Village that took us 13 miles west to Hermit's Rest. (The only other way to get there is to walk.) The bus makes 8 stops along the way where you can get out and see the Canyon up close...
Today we saw about 35-40 miles of the Canyon, from Hermit's Rest to the WatchTower Lookout. (see photo below)

Grand Canyon South Rim

After 10 days and nearly 1700 miles, we finally arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park today! The views were breathtaking to say the least - we took lots of pictures of course! Tonight we stay at the Grand Hotel and will try to catch a sunrise view of the Canyon...unfortunately we haven't been very good at getting up & out very early!!!

Route 66

We stopped at this great store in Seligman on Route 66 - they had great coffee, gifts & cool memorabilia, plus an old tow truck they call "Tow-Mater" in the spirit of the Disney movie, Cars. Thank you to Lynne & Frank at Seligman Sundries for a fun visit at your place!