California Trip, part two

Hello all!  These are some pictures from the second leg of our California trip.  Actually, there aren't any pictures from California; these are all from our trip back and our time in Missouri.  But still, I hope you'll enjoy them.  I haven't come up with the witty commentary that's usually Mom's standard, but the pictures hopefully speak enough for themselves!

A beautiful pass along the Colorado River, at the corner of north-western Arizona.

We took a significant detour into Zion National Park.  We were exhausted at the end of the day, but saw some amazing views!

The rock formations looked like they'd just been poured out.

 

We even did a bit of hiking before getting back on the road.

Because of the detour through Zion, we took a different route through Utah than usual.  Who would of thought that Utah could look like Wales, or vice versa?

I had forgotten to take our camera to Disneyland, so here's our one Disney-themed picture.  

The windmills of eastern Colorado.  Or was it western Kansas?

While at home in Missouri, we had a good time celebrating Audrey's fourteenth birthday.

We also celebrated Father's Day.  Here's Dad with a present from Shane--a bottle of 'Wingman' wine.  If you don't know why that's significant, you haven't spent enough time with Dad.

It was crowded at the house, so seats were a little hard to come by.

Of course, some members of the family rarely ever touched the ground.

Noah at his baseball game with some chums.  It's almost hard to pick Noah out here. . .

Seth: action shot.

My cousin Chris, his wife Angie, and their two girls came by Mom and Dad's for a visit, to the delight of all cousins!

It was an active weekend - both Noah and Stitch were very tired.

One of the more unique pleasures we had this trip was the chance for me and Mel to have lunch with an old professor of ours, Mrs. Burt.  It was wonderful to sit and chat with her--HLG is blessed with great professors!

And, just in case we thought we'd come home and not do a project, we did help Ryan and Joy move some things.  Here are John and Caleb, discussing what's to be done next.

California Trip

Hi all!  I'm finally getting our California pictures posted.  These are the first installment.  Hopefully the next installment will come in the next month or so.  :-)

Windmill fields in southern California.  Hard to get a good picture when you're zooming by!

We stopped at the Patton Museum somewhere in the desert.  Alas, it was closed!  But we could still be patriotic on the grounds.

Tanks make me feel very patriotic.

Our first stop was at Shane and Christy's.  It was a lot of fun to stay there for a few days and Cammie seemed to enjoy our visit, as well.  She quickly appropriated the Pillow Pet I had bought for the trip.

True to form, we spent much of our time in LA in the car.  Shane took us on a driving tour, where we saw the USC Coliseum. . .

The Disney Concert Hall. . .

And Walmart!

After that, we went up to Santa Barbara and met up with John's family.  As you can see, they had it all together.

Together enough to enjoy wine and cupcakes, anyway.  When you're in the Santa Ynez Valley, you have to do at least one wine tasting.  And if you can get cupcakes thrown into the deal, why the heck not?

Look at these little beauties!

 

Tom is a very sophisticated guy, so one of his lunches was fancy cheese, fancy grapes, fancy crackers, and fancy bottled water.

Yes, Kay, it was a great time.

We also got to spend time with some kiddos.  Here's Natalie, stoically going down for her regular naptime imprisonment.

Jerilyn and the kids.  How sweet!

Jerilyn and the kids, unplugged.

Oh yeah, and we went to our graduation, where there was a great deal of deep conversation.

Posing.

Thought.

Fierce debate.

Reconciliation (just kidding; there was no debate).

More posing!

And posing one more time!  Pay no attention to the fellow on the left--we don't know who he is.

And to close this post, here are Ty and Mom showing off Tyler and Jerilyn's new apartment, into which they  have just moved and in which they reportedly have a new kitty.