On The Road Again

We went back on the road for the first time in almost a year! I can't believe it had been so long. We ended up doing 3550 miles in 14 days (around 255 miles a day average). It was a lot of driving, but it was GREAT to see all of our friends and family that we were able to see this trip! The bad weather kept Shane and Jessie from being able to make it for a visit, which was a bummer. And it would have been nice to have Nick in town too, but all in all it was a good trip. Aviendha handled the trip beautifully, and Matrim did his usual good job (minus a car-sick incident).

So here is a large group of the numerous pictures we took on this trip. It's late (as usual with me) but better late than later. ;) We'll start with one of my favorites, and the rest will be chronological.

ROFL. It has taken us almost a year to get this picture and I was fervently hoping they hadn't gone out of business before I could get the pic. This is a company in Ogden and one day Athena and I noticed the sign as we were driving by and wanted a picture. We didn't get one before leaving town and didn't know it would be about a year before we'd be back.

Here's a nice pile of purple (grape) myst. We'll be leaving in the morning and I've been busting ass to get everything ready for the journey.

Poor Joey was still recovering. It was a good thing our trip got delayed a few days or we wouldn't have got to see them! We were very happy to have you feeling well enough for us to visit. We're continuing to send you good vibes. The kids both loved spending time with you guys! Joey is the first new person Avi has spent a whole day around. Poor Mazzy had to share. :) Somehow I didn't get a picture of Juli, damn it! I should have taken a last picture of everyone before getting in the car!

Matrim remembered Jory from the wedding and was ready to hang out and have some fun from the beginning. Jory is setting up an X-box game to spoil Mat with (a friendly game called Fable). Mat had a great time hacking stuff up!

Another one of Mazzy having to share. Joey did great with Aviendha (specially since Avi was a little more picky about stuff before we broadened here horizons this trip).

One of several Folf courses in Phoenix. From their descriptions, this one seemed like the nicest one, so Jory took us to play after we waited out an afternoon rain shower. It is a fun and well groomed course, but all the holes had been set to their longest for a tournament and they were DAMN long! I believe the longest was around 650 feet across flat ground. They did end up saying on one of the signs that they were par 4 if it wasn't tournament play, so I did feel a little better about my score. I even got a birdie on 1 of the holes, if we scored that way. If not I only got 1 par, LOL.

Several of the holes have a water hazard to throw beside or across. It was a fun course. I'd like to play it again and play all the holes (we ran out of daylight after waiting out the rain) especially the short holes. ; )

Jory at the tee. Athena got several great pictures at the course (especially if you could see them at the quality we do).

LOL. It was a beautiful day out to us, but Jory and Joey and Mazzy were cold and commenting on the poor weather. :)

Matrim loves the folfing. I am pissed though! I took a great picture of Matrim running up and holding Jory's hand while we walked, but I was moving and it blurred!! :(

I drove into "Tom-Land" and you can see that I was about 5 yards off of losing my disc in the folfer-hating, beware of dog people's yard!

Sunset at the course.

Run Mat, here come the ducks!

Nevermind. They only wanted some of my beer I'm holding in my right hand!

One of the harder holes. You have to shoot across the stream and to the basket that sits very close to the water.
Jory taking the water shot.

The boys eating a snack at the motel in Panguitch. I'm sure everyone has heard the story now, but we were damn close to having to pull over and call for help if we hadn't been close enough to creep, snowblind into town.

A shot of the boys the next morning.

This picture doesn't actually do the storm justice (8 inches in 1 hour). By this time, it's afternoon and the snow has been melting off for hours. Here we are loading the car to drive through the remnants of the snow.

Our little angel. This was right before strapping her in and taking off from the motel.

Grandpa Craig sees Aviendha for the first time.

Mat doesn't believe Grandma Debbie when she says that's all the candy he will get (smart kid). :)

Avi and Grandma getting in some play time.

Mat still loves books as much as always. Here's Grandpa sampling some Great White and reading to Mat.

Grandma Maggie sees Aviendha for the first time!

Grandma and Matrim. Mat sure was excited to get to visit everyone.

Grandma reading to the kids!

Another reading session with Grandma.

Grandpa D sees Avi for the first time.

Mat had a great time with Grandpa D. Mat loves to wrestle.

Luke gets to dinner at Dad's later than me! lol

Luke and Ben, but Dad stepped in front of the camera.

Uncle Luke, Ben, and Matrim getting an appetizer.

Grandpa D and the girls!

Grandpa and Avi hanging out after dinner.

LOL. Wake up Tom, it's your turn! Steve got new Talisman characters so our games this time were kind of like playing for the first time. Always a good time playing Talisman with the boys (and Athena!). Also (we stupidly didn't get any pictures) Athena and I had a fun dinner date with Tom and April one of the nights we were in SLC. We'll have to do it again next time, and try a another location!

Rod and Steve are living together now. It was great to see them both! Here I am on Volcano duty.

This is at a get together we had with friends and family on my Mom's side. My Uncle Ron and Aunt Joyce, Cousin-in-law Trent, my Mom's friend Debbie/Jill, Trent and Lisa's two daughters Mallory and Miranda (not sure of the spelling), and Athena.

My Cousin Lisa, her oldest son Jackson, my Mom, and friend of the family Nathan.

Nathan, Miranda, Mallory, Jackson, and Lisa check out our new addition.

Matrim had a ball in the snow. Here he is sampling a taste of the UT powder.

Dinner is about to be served. Luckily we had the party at my Mom's work so we could all fit. ;)

Luke and Ben arrive with their new addition and there goes Avi's crowd. :)

Everyone gets to peek at and pet the new puppy.

Matrim, Jackson, and Mallory chasing each other outside before dinner.

Mat had a lot of fun playing with his cousins!

Matrim and Miranda playing with the snow.

Dinner's done and it's gotten dark. We had a good time seeing family and others that we hadn't seen in a long time! And somehow Lisa and Trent's youngest son Gage managed to evade all the pictures! :(

It's a sword-fight with straws. ;)

Luke, Lisa, and I. All we were missing was our assistant Dinkless (ROFL, inside joke referring to Nick).

Jenny holding Stephanie's baby girl, Mallie. Not sure what Jenny's laughing at, but it must be hilarious! ;)

Avi and Mallie. A couple of adorable kids!

Close-up shot. She's gorgeous!

We got to see Athena W. before she left on a cruise! (spoiled brat! ;) )

Justin, Tom, and myself are taking a break on hole 3. ;)

Athena out roughing it and playing in the cold and mud with the fellas!

Justin, Tom, and Athena watch to see if Athena's put will go in. She's been playing great with her Roc I got her for Valentines!

Get off the phone and shoot already, lol. Notice the socks over the pants! That's a great shot for a folf magazine. :)

We haven't got to see Stephanie Dickerson in quite awhile. We were glad she and her daughter, Aurora, are doing well!

In a horrifying incident a group of our pictures from the trip got deleted accidentally. Luckily I was able to save most of them by getting a program that can locate and retrieve deleted material. Unfortunately it was unable to retrieve a couple pictures and 1 of our favorites! :( The important one we lost was the picture I took of Stephanie, Stephanie, and Athena holding the girls!! So here's the one Athena took when they both had arrived instead.

All 3 of them are about 1 month apart. So there's Avi at 3 months, Aurora at 2 months, and Mallie at 1 month. What a bunch of cuties!!

Stephanie and Mallie. She's the youngest but has the most hair of the 3 of them. Stephanie and her husband Ross are doing well. They were just taking care of closing on their old house and their new house while we were there. We're happy to hear they are doing well!

Stephanie and Aurora are going to move in with Stephanie, Ross, and Mallie. We both wish you all the best of luck!

Mallie, sleeping in her car seat while we were hanging out.

Stephanie and Aviendha. Avi was great with new people, especially by this point in the trip.

Here's a family picture of Athena's fam. Athena, Craig, Debbie, Sam (Athena's older bro), and Sam's girlfriend.

Brian joined us for our final game of Talisman. Well, final two games since he went up the tower and won in like an hour and a half. It was another fight night with the boys and Athena! Rod and Steve stayed up late enough to hand me my ass at a couple games of Dark Tower! We even pulled my old classic maneuver of heading back north after Donuts and Deli (the old Winchels) has opened and scoring a dozen donuts. :) Thanks again for all the fun, guys! We can't wait to see you all again, so come out for a visit or we'll be back soon!

On the way home we decided to take the hour-and-41-minute canyon we've avoided on all our drives so far. We'd driven a parallel route (the 36) through the mountains our first time out and it was a nightmare of a canyon so we avoided the 299 like the plague since. It was a good thing we finally decided to give it a try because it wasn't nearly as bad as the 36. It didn't have any big redwoods but it had a beautiful turquoise river flowing along the road for much of the journey. The other pictures we lost were the better ones I got of the river, but here's one that doesn't really do it justice...

A rest stop beside the river that we stopped at to get a few pics. We'll have to take that route again next time and get some real footage of the drive!

Well, that's most of the good stuff from the journey. We miss you all already and can't wait to get together again!! Everyone take care of yourselves and each other and we wish you the best!

p.s. I'll have our pictures up from the end of March with an April post here in the next week or two.