FINALLY!!!

Okay, okay! I'm FINALLY posting about Jeff's and my 2 full weeks of adventure in Colorado recently. I've been getting a lot of flack for taking so long to get it up on here! I'm sorry! But here it finally is!

Jeff and I returned to Provo on Friday afternoon (July 31st) after 3 long weeks of vacationing and enjoying spending time with our families. We spent the first week camping on south Carlsbad beach in California with my family, the second week in Estes Park, Colorado with Jeff's extended family on his dad's side, and the third week in Durango, Colorado with Jeff's immediate family. We had a blast on our many adventures in Estes Park at the Fisher family reunion. Jeff and I flew to Provo form California late Saturday night and then got up early the next morning and started the 8 hour drive up to Estes Park. Soon after we checked in and Jeff and I checked into our room, it was time for dinner. All of us got meal cards that allowed us to eat buffet-style meals in the cafeteria for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At dinner, I met a few of Jeff's family members for the first time, and the rest at FHE that night. We had a little FHE each night in our groups' conference room and a different family was in charge each time. Most of the lessons were centered around unity within families. After FHE, some of us went to play mini-golf. Jeff, Kyle (Jeff's 15-year-old brother) and I played together, followed by Renita, Greg (Jeff's parents) Ben, Caitlin (Jeff's older brother and his wife) and Bethany (Ben and Caitlin's 16-month-old). Their group could not have much of a competition, as Bethany enjoyed running around, picking up all of the brightly colored golf balls. Our group, however, enjoyed a more competitive game with Kyle keeping score.

You should all know that Jeff refuses to play mini-golf with me normally (apparently these free games were just too hard to pass up). You see, Jeff and I are both very competitive. The problem with that is that I married Superman and in most competitions between the two of us, I don't stand a chance. This is why I love playing games with other people, I actually get to win again. You would think that Jeff would enjoy winning all the time, but it is bittersweet. He can hardly enjoy his victories while I am so upset that I am losing. Every time we have played mini-golf together we have stayed neck and neck until the dreaded anthill. I just can't do those things. They always put me a good six or seven strokes behind and although I do not get much further behind, I can never catch up and this frustrates the heck out of me! We played mini-golf on our second date, and Jeff kicked my butt with a boot on his leg and crutches. On the anthill, he finally knocked the ball in with a crutch after I tried unsuccessfully to do so for myself. That was the only time that I did not mind losing to him. We had been dating for a few months before we played again, and that time was not so pleasant. When Jeff left me in the dust on the anthill and I couldn't catch up, I was no longer having fun. And neither was he. His sympathetic looks after each hole only made it worse and I was very reluctant to let him hold my hand or hug me. He said, "This isn't even fun cause you are being mean to me!" After wards, he told me we couldn't play mini-golf anymore. And we don't.

As we started our game at Estes we were breaking our rule. Sadly, Kyle had a very unlucky game, and trailed Jeff and I most of the time. Jeff and I, however, stayed very close. This course didn't have an anthill but there was one hole where you had to hit the ball up a ramp into a golf ball sized tunnel through a small house. Jeff went first, and with all the luck in the world made it through on his first try. The few times we came back to the course throughout the week he never did it again. It took me three strokes to get it through, and I was amazed I did it that fast, but after Kyle lost several strokes on it as well, he decided we would only count our strokes after the house on that hole. I knew right then and there that if by some miracle I were to beat Jeff, those extra two strokes would come up. At the last hole of the course, I was trailing Jeff by a few strokes, but miraculously I beat him by enough on that hole to win by one stroke. I won??? Nope. Jeff immediately brought up those two strokes he beat me by on the house hole, and how they meant I lost by one stroke. Oh well, I almost won. I wish I could just accept that Superman never loses, but I just can't stop trying to beat him!

The next morning, I decided to try and find a running route while Jeff played frisbee golf (Superman won again, surprise surprise), but the resort was very hilly and the bright sun, high altitude, and dry dusty dirt roads convinced me to head home early, a little disappointed. But all of the following mornings were much more pleasant after I decided to go out before the sun came out over the mountains (5:30 am), and I picked a loop that I could run about 8 times instead of running around aimlessly trying to fill an hour. Breakfast was from 7-9 each day,s o I stocked our room with some cereal, mini bagels, and bananas to eat when I woke up at 5 so I would have enough energy for my run.

After breakfast that day, Jeff and I decided to go and check our the maps of the hikes in the area. We picked out two that we might like to try and get directions to the trailheads. There are a LOT of hikes up there!

At noon, a big group of us got together to go zip lining. There were about 3 of us participating and we had so much fun! I volunteered to go first. After zipping across the line, we had to run up a hill to stop. It was pretty exciting. And we were so lcky to have such efficient guys (Greg and Ben) working the ropes and caribbeaner at the bottom of the pole so that we moced through the group really fast and all got several turns! anyone who wanted to could have gone 4 times. The guys working there were so impressed since typically everyone only gets 2 turns with a few people getting to go 3 times. It also helped that several of us ran the trail from the ran back up to the beginning of the line. I ran because I needed to be back in time to film Jeff when he went. Jeff ran so that he could beat Nicki back every time even though she zipped before him.



On the way up the zip line, we noticed that Jeff's Camelbak was leaking so after wards, we went into town to find him a new hydration pack (I think it's way too weird sounding to call it a bladder like Jeff and aparently lots of other people do) for the inside. We had fun exploring and asking around until we found it in a massive outdoor adventures store. Then, we hurried back for dinner cause we were starving!

On Tuesday morning, I went for a much more pleasant run on the route I had decided on and Jeff joined me out there to try out the park's "fitness trail." The trail consisted of a few sad looking stations for sit-ups, push-ups, and pull-ups. Jeff trued to make the most of them, but it didn't help that he was fighting off a nosebleed the whole time! I saw a man who looked like he was in his thirties start running the same route I was when I was halfway through my 5th lap. When I was coming to the end of the 7th lap, we ended up running nect to each other on opposite sides of the little road. We met up at the bottom of the long hill at the end of the lap and when I saw him come up next to me, I sped up. As previously mentioned, I have a bit of a competitive streak. Bu when I sped up, the man picked up the pace too. So naturally, I had to take it up a notch again. Let me just point out that I have short legs (I'm 5'6" but my legs are the length as my 5'0" roommate) and this man had a good 7 or 8 inches on me. We never said a word to each other, but soon we were booking it up that hill. And guess what? I beat him! Not only that, I neat him by enough to cross the street in front of him to start my next lap! I was pretty pleased with myself :)

Later that day, most of the zip line group headed to the climbing wall. There was an easy wall and two intermediate ones. One of the intermediate walls had an overhang. I think only Jeff and Austin conquered that. once again, everyone got several opportunities to climb the walls and we had a lot of fun. Jeff, Kyle, Ben and I timed ourselves climbing up the the intermediate walls and I was happy to only take a few seconds longer than Jeff on each one.





After lunch, Jeff and I headed out to hike Chasm Lake, one of the hikes we had planned the day before. We brought the video camera along to film the highlights. We've hardly used our video camera since we bought it, so this was a great opportunity. There was a plethora of beautiful streams, waterfalls, and wildflowers, which started to become more scarce as we climbed higher. The hike was only a little over 4 miles one way, but it was tough. The altitude increased quite a bit in that short distance so the majority of the trail was at an incline and with Superman as my hiking buddy, we were practically moving at breakneck speeds the whole time. Overall, I enjoy the challenge of hiking at my studly husband's pace, but after a while, my short and much less buff little legs need a break (the part of the video where I'm sitting on a rock devouring a banana was one of those times). A pretty long stretch of the trail was made up of massive rock "stairs" that I practically had to jump up and since I had foolishly only eaten a salad for lunch, my energy level dropped fast and I had to break out my banana and Lucky Charms. But I managed to make it to the lake. We were met by a swarm of mosquitoes that spotted us from the lake and started to make their way up to us in a massive black cloud. We didn't stay long. The trip back down was much faster and easier. Overall, we had a great time. Hiking is one of our favorite things to go together. I'm so lucky to have a husband who likes a lot of the same activities that I do. :)

Signing in at the trail head.

Above the clouds on the way to Chasm Lake.

After FHe that night, Jeff and I met Ben and Caitlin at the pool to go swimming, Ben and Caitlin beat us there and were already in the pool when we arrived. Upon entering the building, we were separated into the Men's and Women's shower rooms and were told to showed off completely before getting into the pool. The showers were separated from the rest of the room by a wall with one wide opening. As I neared the opening, I was met by a very unexpected sight. Everyone in the shower was naked! There was a rather large woman and her two daughters and another very hairy woman. I couldn't bring myself to shower next to them so I stood outside the the showers waiting for them to finish. The large woman and her girls came out after a couple of minutes, but the other woman stayed in there forever! And as I waited and waited, the portly woman put only a shirt on and then proceeded to move around the room bending over for various reasons until I finally decided to hurry into the shower averting my eyes, rinse off, and get OUT. When I finally got out onto the pool deck, Jeff threw up his arms asking where the heck I'd been. If he only knew.

The next day was Wednesday and in the morning, I went for my run as usual. Jeff couldn't sleep the night before on our less than comfortable bed so he was too tired to come out with me, but he really missed out because that day, I saw seven GIANT elk grazing in the park! They were all grouped together on the inside of my loop eating the grass by the mini golf course when I first saw them. I couldn't believe it! I ran right by them! Every time I came around on each lap, they had moved a little further forward across the field. They were aware of me and looked up whenever I ran by, but they didn't seem too concerned so I figured I wasn't in too much danger (I looked it up later and if it had been mating season, I would have been - they get very aggressive). Eventually, they crossed the field and I was only feet away from them when I came around the corner and they were ready to cross the road I was on. SO COOL!

Everyone who wanted to signed up for one of three hikes the night before at FHE. All three were on the same trail, but stopped at different destinations along the trail. The first was just 1.6 miles round trip, to Alberta Falls and back. Most hikers opted to continue on to Loch Lake before turning around (6 miles round trip) and a bunch of us decided to go all the way to Andrew's Glacier (10.5 miles round trip). After breakfast that day, we all piled into cars and drove to the trail head. Jeff and I filmed a lot of this hike as well. It was so green and there was so much water around. When the remaining members of the group that hadn't turned back yet, got within a few hundred feet of Andrew's Glacier, Jeff and I decided we weren't that impressed with it and could see it just fine from where we were standing (turns out the real glacier was hiding behind a ridge and was better than what we could see) so we turned back to take a different trail up to a waterfall that we had seen in the distance earlier while we were at Loch Lake. It was a good decision! This was my favorite part of the hike! The waterfall alone was so incredibly beautiful, but then we got to scale the side of it to get to a breathtakingly green and diverse landscape where there were two lakes. The first lake wasn't far at all from the top of the falls, but the trail was so so pretty. Then we had to hike a little farther to get to the second lake and the land in between the two lakes seriously looked the way the Garden of Eden looks in church videos! Parts of the trail were almost covered in a tunnel made of trees and bushes and I felt like I was in Narnia! I LOVE being out in nature and this was an exceptional sampling of it.

Alberta Falls

Alberta Falls

Loch Lake

Kyle had fun playing in the snow. Jeff and I see more than enough of that in Utah.

Andrew's Glacier in the distance

Scaling the side of the waterfall

"Narnia"

This picture doesn't do all the green and beautiful waterfalls justice. It was SO pretty!

Sky Pond, the second lake after the waterfall

I am married to the most handsome man in the world!

We got back just in time for dinner and we were starving! After FHE that night, some of us went out for another round of mini golf. Jeff and I were in a group with his cousins Nikki and Stephanie (sisters). We followed Brian, Corey (Brothers of Nikki and Stephanie), Jarom (another cousin), and Kyle. This time we didn't keep score so we had fun just messing around and not really concentrating to hard. Of course, since that was the case, I got TWO holes in one! Afterwards, we went back and played Cranium and The Big Taboo in the lobby with just Jeff's immediate family. It was a lot of fun. They are both games that Jeff and I got for Christmas, but we rarely get to play them since they are not two person games.

On Thursday, thanks to the monster hike the day before, Jeff and I were too tires to get up and work out. Jeff played a game of Frisbee golf and afterwards we went into town to go for a walk down the main road and check out the shops. There wasn't much variety. You could either buy a t-shirt, candy, or ice cream. There were a few stores filled with useless knickknacks and while we were exploring a game store, I experienced an incredible first in my life. For the first time EVER, I saw my name on a mini Colorado license plate. Whenever I'm in stores that sell those little personalized key chains and license plates, I look to see if they have my name and they neer do. I was shocked to see it in this random little store in Estes Park, Colorado. We didn't have our camera with us to document the moments and I couldn't justify paying $2.00 for something I had absolutely no use for, but I promise it was there!

When we got back, I met up with Renita, Caitlin, and Kyle to go horseback riding. Kyle was very disappointed when he realized he was going to be the only boy with all of us girls, but I think he had fun. We were all assigned to a horse according to experience. I got a feisty mare named Belle. Caitlin hadn't ridden since she was 11 so she got a mild and lazy horse named Lady. Renita followed Caitlin on Snoopy. I rode behind Kyle and his horse, Snickers. We rode in the middle of the long single file line with one guide leading and one bringing up the rear.

Me and Belle - She wanted to eat the grass on the side of the trail the whole time but I wouldn't let her. After a while he would get really annoyed and force her head down with me pulling back with everything I had to get a big mouth full of grass before she kept walking. She was a feisty one.

I had a really hard time turning around and getting a decent picture of Caitlin and Renita.

Kyle really got into acting like a cowboy on his horse. Very entertaining for me.

Jeff was catching up on the two shows (Wipeout and Superstars) that he has been watching online every week while I was gone. When got back, he convinced me to go out and play Frisbee with him, Greg and Ben. I'm not very good, but Jeff is so proud that he at least taught me to throw decently since I couldn't throw at all before. Of course I lost, but we didn't really keep score. I had fun for the most part, although I got a little frustrated that a lot of the time I could only get my Frisbee to go straight of a while and then at the end, it would curve and I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Once, Jeff got his Frisbee stuck up in a big tree where we couldn't reach it and I was excited to volunteer to climb the tree to get it out. I was quite the little climber in my youth so I was delighted at the opportunity to relive those days.

The next morning, Jeff and I got up early to work out. Then we packed, had breakfast, checked out, and started our 8 hour drive to Durango Mountain Resort. We stopped on the way for groceries and topick up chicken for dinner. I was starving by the time we got there at 7:30. We had dinner and played a game or two before going to bed. If you haven't picked up on it yet, the Fisher family is a game family and that really showed throughout our week in Durango. We had plans that took a few hours each day, but most down time we spent playing games since there wasn't much else to do around the condo.

On Saturday morning, we all got day passes to participate in all of the activities in the resort. The passes allowed us to go down the alpine slide and take the ski lift scenic tour as many times as we wanted as well as have one turn on the bungee tramp and 2 attempts on the rock climbing wall. We took the ski lift up and rode the alpine slide down a few times before the line got too long and Jeff, Kyle, and I all took a turn on the bungee tramp. I had a great time bouncing and flipping, but both Jeff and Kyle found it a little painful. Around noon, it started to rain so we had to get a half-day rain check on our passes.

This was my first time on a ski lift

Ben and Kyle on the ski lift on the way up to the alpine slide

Greg, Renita, Kyle, Ben, and Caitlin at the top of the alpine slide getting ready to go down

Jeff and I coming down the alpine slide (notice who is in the lead)

Jeff and I took the scenic route up the mountain and walked around for a few minutes before heading back down. I saw these pretty flowers and tall grass and wanted to take a picture. Jeff took this one of me walking into the flowers, but we never got a posed picture because about two seconds after this picture was taken, I fell into a big ditch.

Jeff on the bungee tramp, blissfully unaware of the discomfort he was about to experience

When our day got cut short, we had to find something to do so Jeff and I walked down to the bottom of the mountain to the resort entrance. We were sure we had seen more to do town down there and we had already checked out the few shops up near the condo. Well, it must have been some kind of illusion because there was nothing down there but a little medical clinic. We walked back up and what else? Played games! I made taco soup for everyone for dinner that night (each of the three couples took two nights to cook dinner).

This was a game called Head Bands that we found in the condo. It was a lot like 20 questions. Each person got either a person, place, or thing, which they put on their forehead for everyone else to see without looking at it themselves. Then we took turns asking yes or no questions for one minute. If we didn't guess it by then, we could choose to either take one more minute or have each person give us one word clues. It was three spaces forward on the board if you got it in the first minute, two spaces if you got it in the second minute and one space if you opted for the easier one word clues. We had so much fun playing this game and really got to test our memories of everything we've learned in our history/geography classes.

The next day was Sunday and we had plans to attend church at 9 am at a building in town. Jeff had forgotten to pack church clothes, but he did his best to look as nice as possible in a collared shirt and a pair of Ben's khaki pants. When we got to the building, we discovered that in this particular ward, casual dress was completely acceptable. We counted several different polo shirts around the chapel. Jeff fit right in! We had fun passing Bethany around all throughout the meeting. I was excited that after having plenty of time to get to know me, Bethany seemed to like me as much as Jeff! Kids absolutely love Jeff so he almost always gets a lot more attention from them than I do. However, Bethany like both of us and it was a toss up who she would come to between the two of us. We love that girl!

After church, we played LOTS and LOTS of games until dinner. Jeff taught me a card game called VC, which we played with everyone else countless times during the week. I also learned a game called "Mormon Bridge," which is played using Rook cards. It was SO much fun.

Monday morning, we went kayaking in Durango. We had planned to go rafting during this trip, but since it was so late in the summer, the water was very low everywhere and most places were full anyway. It turned out that each of us having our own individual inflatable kayak was much more fun than sitting on a big raft not even being affected by the tiny rapids. We kayaked down a stretch of the Animas River twice for a total of two hours and although the water was very low and we spent a lot of time avoiding getting stuck on the rocks, we had a lot of fun. There was one decent rapid towards the end that we wished we could just go over again and again. I can't wait to try rafting or kayaking when the river is high! One of the guides told us the river is about 6-8 feet higher in late May/early June. We'll have to try again one day.

We returned from kayaking for a late lunch and played games for a while until Grandma and Grandpa Summers arrived (Renita's parents). We had fun playing more games with them until dinner.

On Tuesday, Jeff and I decided to get up early and try going for a run through the very hilly resort. Jeff ran to the bottom of the mountain and back and I eventually found a loop to run around several times. The altitude, the cold and the fact that you are always either running up hill or down hill, never flat, didn't make for a very nice run though. Both of our lungs were burning like crazy when we got back inside and my knees hurt. After that experience, we couldn't quite talk ourselves into going out for another run while we were there.

Later that morning, we all headed out to explore Durango (about 30 minutes from the resort). On the way, we stopped at a place called Honeyville where they had honey EVERYTHING! Neither Jeff or I are big fans of honey so we didn't make any purchases. When we got to Durango, we all split up to walk down the main street and check out all the shops for a couple of hours. I was shocked to find a key chain with my name on it in one of them! What is going on?? Never before in all of my 21 years, but now I see it twice in two weeks?!

I usually get frozen yogurt once a week, sometimes more, but I hadn't had any since Carlsbad. We only ever saw ice cream shops in the Colorado towns! Apparently nobody in Colorado believes in frozen yogurt! So I was excited to see a Baskin Robbins in Durango while we were on our way to go rafting. With our excellent memories and navigational skills, Jeff and I found it while we were walking around town. I got some yummy vanilla frozen yogurt. Mmm.

While we were walking back, we went into an interesting looking store where I saw a dress hanging on the wall. It was exactly the kind of dress that my friend Jackie would have told me to try on in high school. She would say that it would look good on me, but I wouldn't believe her. Of course, she was always right. Nobody is a better shopping buddy than Jackie! Well apparently, I have learned to recognize the clothes that Jackie used to have to point out. And it's a good thing because I never get to have Jackie around for help anymore! I tried the dress on and it was very cute and flattering. I bought it and wore it to church that Sunday.

Soon after this, we all met up and headed for a park to have lunch in the grass. We did this a couple of times during the week and it was nice to eat our sandwiches out in the fresh air.

After lunch, we went back to the condo and played some games until it was time to head back to Durango for dinner. We went to a place called Chuck Wagon where it is made to look very old western cowboy. I was surprised by how much fun I had, considering cowboys and westerns and country music typically aren't my thing. Jeff and I explored the few little shops they had and the nature trail until it was time for the main event: dinner and a show. We drank out of tin cups and ate off of tin plates. The dinner consisted of chicken or beef, a baked potato, baked beans, a biscuit, apple sauce, spice cake, and water or lemonade. After dinner, we got to watch a really fun band called the Bar D Wranglers perform. They had guitars, a fiddle, and an upright bass. They were pretty talented, especially the guy with the fiddle. It was unbelievable how fast he could play! And they were funny too, especially the guy with the upright bass. He was cracking us up the whole time! We all really enjoyed it.

Jeff and I found some really cool hats in one of the shops

Bethany entertained herself for a long time trying to balance one of the tin cups on her head.

Bethany gives amazing hugs!

The Bar D Wranglers

On Wednesday, it was time to visit Silverton, the town 30 minutes from the resort in the other direction. The first thing we did when we arrived was to take a tour of the Old Hundred mine. We all dressed up in hard hats and yellow rain coats and took a short ride into the mine. It was about 47 degrees in there and I was FREEZING! I was wearing shorts and sandals and my hair was still a little damp form my shower that morning so I was shivering and bouncing up and down for most of the tour. I still managed to enjoy it along with everyone else though. Once we got far enough into the mine, we got out and walked around with our very amusing tour guide as he explained and demonstrated all of the ins and outs of mining. It was very interesting, especially because this man actually was a miner so he really knew what he was talking about and could share personal stories. At one point, he told us about the "Tommyknockers", the mythical little creatures that go around terrorizing miners without being seen. Jeff has already started to blame everything he does on the tommyknockers.

Freezing

Bethany's jacket size was "Lil Runt"

Our guide

After the mine tour, we walked around the shops in Silverton for about 45 minutes before meeting up for lunch at a place called Natalia's. It had started to rain and as usual, I was freezing so my hot soup was especially satisfying, but Jeff just shook his head at me as I counteracted it by drinking a few glasses of ice water. I was thirsty! After lunch, we went to get our pictures taken at Professor Shutterbug's Old Tyme Portrait Parlour like the Fishers had done the last time they were there years ago. Everyone, including Bethany, dressed in chaps and cowboy hats. She definitely won the cuteness contest. Our picture turned out great! Afterwards, Jeff and I decided we wanted to get an separate picture with just the two of us. Naturally, he wanted me to be a saloon girl and I was a little embarrassed, but I complied. I'm so good to him. Since Ben is from Texas and Caitlin is from Michigan, they dressed up in Confederate and Union uniforms. Their picture turned out awesome! Ben totally fits the part. I don't think I would question it if I saw his picture in a history book dressed like that.

After we got our pictures, we went back to the condo for more games and I made enchiladas and spanish rice for dinner.

Thursday morning, we redeemed our half-day passes from our rain check on Saturday. We rode the alpine slide for a few hours before it started to rain again. We were satisfied by then though. Kyle had flipped his sled on the alpine slide more than half of the times that he had gone down it! He was a little beat up and had to go home to get cleaned up and bandaged. The only other person who flipped his sled was Jeff, but he only did it once. Kyle has a real talent for hurting himself. The alpine slide had two slides side by side so two people could go at once. Naturally, Jeff and I raced down every time even though I was sure I couldn't beat him because he outweighs me. On Saturday, he beat me down all three times that we raced, but I beat him the first time down on Thursday! Miraculously, I beat him three times in a row so we were tied! We tried to have a tie-breaker to determine the champion, but things just kept mysteriously getting in the way. I think Jeff must have been behind it somehow because he was afraid I would beat him, what with the momentum moving in my favor that day (and I would have!) The first time we tried, a mother and daughter went down right before us and they were moving so slow that we caught up to them before the end of the slide and had to stop (I'll have it be known that I was ahead before we caught up to them even though Jeff claims he was gaining on me). The second time, Jeff managed to flip his sled and the third time he got a defective sled that wouldn't move. He ended up having to be pushed down the slide by the Amish guy that was behind him in line. Ben, Caitlin, and I were waiting at the bottom when we saw them come around the corner, the Amish guy grinning from ear to ear and Jeff hunched over looking very unamused. After that, it started to rain and the slide closed. We went home for lunch without an official alpine slide champion, but I think you can all see that it should have been me ;)

For the rest of the day, we played a lot of games and enjoyed spending time together on our last day.

On Thursday afternoon, Jeff and I tried to get Bethany to take a nap with us in our room, but she got way too distracted putting Jeff's hat on herself and each of us.

What an attitude!

We thought we might have had her at this point, but notice she still hasn't let go of the hat. This lasted less than a minute.

Bethany got very messy at our taco salad dinner on our last night

Jeff started playing a game with her where he would slowly reach out and touch her dirty hand and then quickly jump back and freak out.

Bethany was laughing SO hard. She loves Jeff.

Jeff put Bethany in this cooler and picked her up repeatedly. She would have him put her down and take her out. Then she would put the lid back on the cooler, take it off, and put her arms up for him to pick her up and put her back in it and do it all over again.

Soon after this, Bethany was a little grumpy about something. I picked her up and Jeff started making faces at her. She got mad that he was teasing her and slapped him in the face. But she immediately felt bad and reached out to hug him. She is a funny girl.

Jeff and I had plans to leave early the next morning so we said our goodbyes the night before. The next morning, we were able to thank Greg and Renita and say goodbye just before we started our 6-hour drive back to Provo. We are so lucky to have such generous parents who are willing to plan and pay for such fun family vacations! I had so much fun getting to know everyone a little better. Thank you Greg and Renita! We love you! :)