1. OUR SUMMER VACATION2009 UTAH NEVADA ARIZONA CALIFORNIA 8-6-09 TO 8-19-09

2. LEAVING ON A JET PLANE 5:30 am ready to board! A view from above-oooh! crop circles When’s breakfast?

3. Who’s flying the plane?

4. Natural History Museum Salt Lake City, Utah

5. Dinosaurs, rocks, and frogs….OH MY!

6. Park City, Utah

7. Amy & alex’sWedding 8-8-09

9. SUNDAY MORNING BRUNCH

10. BINGHAM CANYON, UTAH KENNECOTT COPPER MINE

11. GIANT TRUCKS! YES, THE TIRE BELOW IS THE SAME SIZE THAT IS ON THE TRUCKS IN THE PICTURES

13. MOAB, UTAH

14. HELL’S REVENGE-OFF ROADING Hell's Revenge trail exposes great expanses of "Slick Rock" (sandstone) with slopes so steep you will wonder if your tires can maintain traction. The very steep climbs and descents on the slick rock are not for the faint of heart and cannot be bypassed

15. A steep hair-raising descent on a narrow ridge allows no room for error left or right. As you start the decent your 4X4's hood will drop a long way before you can even see the narrow ridge top in front Lion’s Back Rock Dinosaur tracks PUSH ELI, PUSH!

17. Rafting the Colorado River

18. Sights from the river Tow-truck rock Walking tree Colorado River

19. SUNSET AT DEAD HORSE STATE PARK At 6,000 feet above sea level you can see 360 degrees all around the Moab valley. 4,000 feet below is the canyon carved by the Colorado River. After the sunset, we stargazed-we saw 10 billion stars, the Milky Way, and the Perseid meteor shower.

20. Can you find the big dipper?

22. Moab fault La Sal Mountains Layered rock 3 Gossips rock Puppy rock Park Avenue fin Pertrified dunes

23. Can you see the kids above? Balanced Rock: A boulder of slick rock Entrada Sandstone sits atop a pedestal of Dewey Bridge. The total height is 128 feet. The boulder is 55 feet and weighs 3,577 TONS!

24. fun with perspective

25. Delicate Arch Panorama point Salt Wash Petroglyphs of the Utes Wolfe Ranch Fiery Furnace

26. Look at the earth’s layers in the rock Skyline arch Fred Flintstone rock Delicate Arch-306 ft long Fossil of dino ‘s tail Resting on the Devil’s Garden Trail

27. Zion National Park

28. Lower Emerald Pool Trail Ave is eaten by a cave monster Behind the waterfall Lower Emerald Pool

29. Middle Emerald Pool Trail A tadpole with legs crawled out of the pond! Wow! That’s cold water.

30. Upper Emerald Pool Trail Mom figures out how to carry water up the hills. Avery is like a little goat scampering up the giant boulders with ease. Yes! I made it to the top!

32. LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

33. LAS VEGAS BLVD. THE EIFFEL TOWER LOOKOUT DID SOMEONE SAY CROISSANT? BELLAGIO

34. Paris NY NY Venitian Mom found the best BLING in Vegas to buy Moving statues in the Venitian really creeped Roxy out! NY,NY-rode the coaster

35. LANDSAILING ON IVANPAH LAKE Landsailing is the sport of moving over sand and land using a sail for propulsion by the wind. A land-yacht is basically a sailboat that travels on small wheels on the surface of land. Setting up the land-yacht Last minute instructions before take-off With the right size sail and small gust of wind you can go up to 55 mph! Setting up the sail

37. Our Grand Canyon Adventure Limo service to the airport really excited the kids.

38. HELICOPTERING To GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA

40. West Rim-SKYWALK over canyon-This glass bridge is suspended 4,000 feet over the Grand Canyon. Lake mead boulder basin Hoover Dam and new suspension bridge construction Indian Pass- the depression between the mountains is where early settlers would drive their wagons in to the west. Only to be ambushed by Indians lying in wait.

41. 4,000 feet below the rim into the Grand Canyon, we land next to the Colorado River for lunch on Indian land. Helicopter views of the canyon.

42. HOOVER DAM

43. Every state contributed rocks to build the dam. When does the dam tour start? The dam wall Standing inside the dam wall, looking out into river Dam generators New dam bridge

44. We got the special dam hats for the special dam tour Dam observation deck Looking straight over the edge of the observation deck, mom got this shot of the gates that open to let water into the river… Unfortunately, she also lost her hat. It fell all the way to the bottom near the water… she found it with the ZOOM lens (see black box) Looks like I wasn’t the only one to lose my damn hat!

46. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

47. A toasty fire kept us warm each night We saw fireworks from Seaworld every night Noah is great at hide & seek!

48. Seaport Village

49. U.S.S. MIDWAY Into the brig with you scallywags Eli, that’s not a chair… it’s a bomb

51. On board the ship

53. After flying 5,402 miles, Driving almost 1600 miles, and 14 days of traveling, what do you get…

54. THE END