A Weekend At Home

This was our first weekend at home in I don't know how long.  We haven't been home in so long that Lily requested we stay home and not go to the beach house.  Poor little thing just wanted to stay home and play with her toys.  We got lots of play time for Lily in over the weekend and also did a few other fun things as well.

First up on Saturday was breakfast with some of our favorite guys, Matthew and Adam.  We had brunch at Old Ebbitt Grill just across from the White House and then we headed down to the mall to join in the Rally to stop the Keystone Pipeline (KXL).  We really enjoyed seeing all the Native Americans and Cowboys rallying together.  The teepees were pretty cool as well.  It was a pretty peaceful protests and we kept ourselves away from the cops and tear gas (joke!).

We also enjoyed spending some time with Lily's friend Gianna and her little sister Mary Grace.  It was a fun play date.

And then Sunday, it was a play at home day... well mostly until we went to our friends for dinner.  Rest assured, Lily had all day just to hang out, play with her toys, talk to our neighbor Harley, play on her bike and scooter, draw on the sidewalk with chalk, practice some baseball, arrange all her books, play with her barbies, make some cupcakes with Mom, watch Frozen for the 1,000 time, and play on Disneyjunior.com.  Oh, and a few upside down tricks (below) with dad as well.

Take Your Child To Work Day

This is the second year that Lily has got to attend the annual Take Your Child To Work Day with me.  It has turned into somewhat of an all day event for us.  This year she was joined by our friend Jenna about 14 of my coworkers children.  It was a morning of fun and then after all the activities were done at lunch time we headed down to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur exhibit before it closing for a five year remodeling project.  Follow that up with some afternoon frozen yogurt and it was a pretty fun day had by all.

Back to Cherry Blossoms

I got so carried away with our trips to San Diego and Utah that I forgot to post anything about this years Cherry Blossom festival in DC.  As you probably are away, the city is under high tourist alert during the couple weeks of Cherry Blossom time.  We were lucky enough to go the day the cherry blossoms peaked, but they quickly lost all their buds the remainder of the week so we felt pretty special.  Unfortunately the crowds won and we departed faster than we would have wanted but not before getting a couple pictures.

UTAH - The Final Frontier

My last chapter of our fantastic Spring Break Utah trip ends with Uncle Dave and Aunt Venita heading home on Saturday and then Kim, Chris and Lily enjoying a wonderful Easter in Park City.  We were lucky enough to have the most fantastic brunch ever at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley.  And Lily even got to attend the best Easter Egg hunt ever at the Lodge (complete with full on stuffed animals as prizes).  I definitely felt lucky to be alive.  But a little sad to leave our new Park City condo.  Can't wait to return for Thanksgiving.

UTAH Part 3

On Wednesday we were able to enjoy Antelope Island State Park which is just about 40 minutes North of Salt Lake.  It is an interesting island that is now easily accessible with one road into it over a couple bays in the Great Salt Lake.  The bird population is amazing due to all the shrimp that live in the highly salinated bays on both sides.  In the 1800s a local Mormon homesteaded here and there is only one ranch on the entire island.  The family brought a small population of bison/buffalo for raising and now the buffalo population is over 500.  I think we probably saw 50 all together and it wasn't real tough to find them.  And true to its name we saw quite a few Antelope as well.  Lily seemed to enjoy the buffalo, but mostly after the fact.

This particular buffalo was enjoying the sign as a back scratcher mostly.

Lily on the ranch that was homesteaded.  

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On Thursday we were able to get out and tour the town of Heber and Midway which are just a short 15 minute drive from Park City.  In Midway, we went into this really fantastic warm springs inside a crater at the Homestead Resort.  See photo below.  The water was about 95 degrees and the crater water below us was 65 ft deep.  A little unsettling, but when in rome....

We also spotted our first moose of the week.  A mama and its baby up on the hill about 2 miles from our condo.

Then on Friday, we spent the day goofing around in Salt Lake City.  Like any good tourist we hit Temple Square first and enjoy great views of the Mormon temple and surrounds.  I can honestly say it is about the cleanest place you will find in the U.S.

UTAH Part 2

I shouldn't have left so much time between these points, I'm subject to forget everything that I did from last week. I could blame it on old age (yes, I'm almost 40 now), but I think since I'm a couple days shy... that wouldn't be fair now would it.

Back to our Utah trip, On Monday and Tuesday we enjoyed all that the Moab area had to offer.  Except some serious Jeep rides (it was Jeep week in Moab) which we decided probably wasn't for us after all.  We spent a lot of time riding around, snapping pictures and borrowing cactus.  Uncle Dave has a bit of a cactus fetish, so we were on the hunt for the greatest cactus we could find.

Chris and I were lucky enough one day to do a ranger guided walk through the Fiery Furnace in Arches National Park.  The reason you must have a ranger is that it is incredibly easy to get lost.  You can see some of the beautiful pictures below.

Here is the cactus we were hunting for some time.  We finally found it in the right size and with an easy getaway spot.

We also got to enjoy the amazing petroglyphs (Indian/Native American writing).  This batch was right off a fairly travelled road outside of Moab.  In fact, rock climbers climb just 100 ft or so away from this.  Interesting that it is not something that is preserved and just out there for all to enjoy.

Spring Break 2014 - Utah

We had a fantastic 9 days of Spring Break enjoying just some of what Utah has to offer.  If you haven't seen the recent Utah travel commercials... I'm going to give you one in the next five posts or so.  We had a fantastic time enjoying our new digs in Park City, but we also got to go down to Moab and enjoy Southern Utah and a couple National Parks.  The added bonus, Uncle Dave & Aunt Venita (aka Neenee) also came with us.  We had a really fantastic time with them.  Lily was definitely in heaven.

After arriving in Park City on Saturday, we settled into our new condo in Park City.  The new condo is great, but we headed right out early on Sunday to take the 4 hour drive to Moab.  We took the scenic route over the mountains past Heber City, Strawberry Reservoir and then dropped down to Price before heading out to Moab.  The terrain is varied and interesting to say the least.  Our first animal spotting was antelope.

On Sunday we went right into Canyonlands National Park and hit Dead Horse Point State Park.  Hope you enjoy the pictures maybe even a fraction of what we enjoyed the views in person.

The Colorado River cuts through both Canyonlands and the Grand Canyon.  While the Grand Canyon is indeed beautiful, Canyonlands is much less touristy and seems to go on forever.

Chris and I drove this rode below the last time we were at Canyonlands (some 13 years ago).  At which time we got a flat tire with no AAA around to speak of.  Dave wasn't up for driving it this time around.  Can't say I really blame him.

San Diego...

On Saturday, we made the journey to San Diego.  We started with an excellent breakfast at the Sugar Shack Cafe in Huntington.  Can I just say the most yummy avocado, bacon & cheese omelette ever.  I think the thing had an entire avocado on it.  Then we journey'd down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) until we couldn't go much further.  Finally we arrived in San Diego and spent the entire day at Balboa park.  While I have been to the San Diego Zoo in the past, I had not seen the rest of the park which turned out to be the highlight for me.  We started by meeting up with our friend Dan who works as the Volunteer Coordinator for the NAT museum.  Then we were off to the zoo for most of the day.  And no, we didn't see everything.  The zoo is huge and even at our pace we missed a few things.  After the zoo we met back up with Dan and got to hear some of the history of Balboa park and its beautiful buildings.  Then we finished up the evening with dinner at the Prado in the park.  Dinner and dessert were absolutely wonderful.  Even Lily enjoyed some new vittles.  What a perfect way to spend a Saturday.