Anniversary Adventure

I got home at 10 p.m. on Wednesday only to turn around and leave Thursday morning with Merril and Mark for Glacier National Park. We're calling it our anniversary trip even though it was a work trip. We've been so busy with YM and YW camps that it made it hard to get away. We dropped Mark off in Idaho with the Phillipps. We kept on driving. We slept in Billings, MT.

Made it to the race and set up the repeater.

We decided to go on a hike in Glacier. Originally, we were just going to hike to a waterfall but Iceberg Lake wasn't too much further. It ended up being 10 miles overall. We were prepared. We brought 1 water bottle a piece and it was very cool weather but we should've at least had some food and more water. 

Oh well, we know better but we still had a great time. 

It's beautiful!

I was beat by the end but a restaurant at the trailhead made it doable.

We went back to the hotel to sleep and then Merril had to get up early to check the radios. After the race, we took down the antenna and saw a band of wild horses. 

We left Glacier at noon and got home at 3 a.m. It was fantastic to be together. I still love to have adventures with him! 

Friend Adventure: Disneyland

I'll be the first to say Disneyland isn't really my jam, but when your friends want to go, it's not about the destination—it's about the people you're with. So, of course, let's do it! We had time blocked out but couldn't come up with a plan. We met at Sara's house at 11:00, decided to go to Disneyland by 11:30, and by 1:00 p.m., I was on my way. We chatted in the car while Laurie booked the tickets. We found matching shirts at Target for our day! We started at the break of dawn!

It was pretty fun to buy and treat and not have to share it with my kids. lol.

This character actor played the piano so well for a small show we watched. He was hilarious too.

We were waiting for the Peter Pan ride. It had broken down and as we waited, more families kept bailing out of the line. We waited about the regular amount of time for the ride and the mechanics got it fixed. 

We did everything except Pirates of the Caribbean, which was closed for extensive repairs. I also say Laurie about get into a fight with a guy because he felt she was blocking his children's view of the parade. She did not back down and I thought be were about to get thrown out of the park. We moved to watch the light parade and all was well. At the end of the day, Laurie's strava said we had walked a half marathon and I believe it. I'm was bushed.

The next day, we woke up and went to the Yorba Linda Temple.

I went into the Celestial Room and started to cry. This will be the temple for Juliet's mission and it's lovely. It is lovely but it's also far away. I miss my kids so much when they're on their missions! I'm looking forward to Jack coming home in about a month! Yay! 

Toroweap Overlook

Shawn N.had been wanting to take his oldest daughter, Lucky, to the Toroweap Overlook. We brought Mark and Mikayla and lunches. Shawn brought two Broncos and Lucky drove the other one. Shawn's Bronco started having transmission problems so we left it in Colorado City. The dirt road is a bit of a slog. It's 2 hours on a dirt road but the viewpoint is great. It's so remote that it doesn't get many visitors. Mark and Mikayla were on the edge and freaking me out of course. We ate lunch and then continued on to the Mount Trumbull schoolhouse. We drove for a little while and then stopped to do some shooting. Then we really continued on to the Mount Trumbull schoolhouse.

Spring Break Puerta Vallarta

I feel like this is a year of vacations. I've already been to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama with Laurie S. and the trips keep on getting planned! We are headed to Puerto Vallarta for spring break. Juliet doesn't get spring break vacation at BYU so she didn't come initially but came on Thursday. Our flight out of Las Vegas left at 10:00 so we got up and drove down to catch our flight. We were on a Alaska airlines and got free carry-on luggage. We all took advantage except Merril. Mark rode his luggage. 

Our flight was delayed getting into San Diego and we had barely enough time to get some food and get back on the plane. We cut it a little close, I didn't even realize. Merril was patiently thinking, 'We should hurry!' They were doing the 'this is the final boarding call. If we close the boarding doors they will not reopen' announcement as we ran on.

We got the rental car and got our first Mexico tacos and then went to the Airbnb condo. It was dark at the beach by the condo but we found hermit crabs crawling across the beach.

We got up and had a lazy morning. We wanted to have some adventures but not the really fun stuff until Juliet arrived later that evening. Our Airbnb was right on the ocean!

While we played at the condo, Merril went to go check out if we could rent kayaks to go to a group of islands called Los Arcos. There was a guy on the beach who asked if we needed a boat because you can't take kayaks out of the bay. His name was Antonio and he had a little Chihuahua named Benny Blanco. Merril set it up to meet him on Thursday and he would take us snorkeling and show us some of the beaches. 

Merril came back and we decided to go exploring in the rental car. We got caught in a group of VW convertible bugs. So we opened the sunroof and all the windows in the car to make buggy mode. The air was so nice that we often drove with the windows and sunroof open. 

We found Los Muertos Beach Pier. We looked it up. There was a shipwreck here, thus the name Death Beach.

We played in the ocean by the pier and watched the pelicans dive for fish.

We ate dinner by the ocean and headed back to the condo for the night.

We ate lunch at an acai bowl place because Merril had never had one. 

And Juliet made is safely from Salt Lake City airport and we picked her up and headed to dinner on the beach!

We chilled and played in the ocean. 

We found a churro stand behind a supermercado and they were the freshest churros! We ate them as we went into the grocery store and again as we came out. So good!

Friday morning, Juliet and Maxine did yoga on the beach. Merril went running by the beach during their class.

We met Antonio and Benny and went snorkeling at Los Arcos. We saw cool fish, a sea turtle, a spotted ray, and some deflated puffer fish. 

We ate lunch in the beach in Mismoyola. 

Antonio took us back to the beach and asked if we wanted to hike to a waterfall the next day. We agreed! Antonio was funny and his little taco bell dog liked to sit on our laps. He was a great boat captain.

Later that afternoon, we hiked from Boca on a trail in the jungle to Playa Colomitos. Mikayla was getting a cold before we left and didn't want to hike back because she wasn't feeling that great and coughing. I didn't want her to ride back alone so I went with her on the water taxi and there was another lady getting a ride. She had a pet, Peppe the goat. It got us back to Boca way before the hikers. 

As we walked through town, we found a michocana ice cream shop, which I definitely wanted to come back to! We got the crew and got the ice cream. Then Merril spotted a taco stand and we ate some of the greatest al pastor and asada tacos! 

We went home bushed. 

We met Antonio and Benny the next day for a hike to a waterfall that was just right. 

We ate a mound of guacamole at a little taco stand at the waterfall. 

Antonio took us to another private beach for lunch and playing in the ocean. It was a nice lazy afternoon! We got ice cream again and watched the sunset.

The next day was Sunday and we started the day with church. We visited another beautiful church in Puerto Vallarta. We walked in the beach and found these rocking horses.

 We went back to the condo and chilled for the rest of the afternoon. 

We lounged in chairs in the shade by the ocean and took naps. Some people swam. We watched the sunset. 

We also got a $100 fine for hoping the fence to get to the beach. We have a key card but Mark and most of the rest of us would do it occasionally when someone else had the key card. Whoops. 😬 We paid it and decided to be more careful in the future. 

We wandered back into the city that night for more street tacos and to wander the shops. Went back and crashed. 

Woke up the next day and flew home. Our flight to San Diego was the same as Juliet's so we got to fly with her part of the way. Then she continued on to Salt Lake and we went to Vegas. 

I felt like this was a really great vacation. I wish Mikayla felt a little better and then she got a wicked sunburn. Juliet felt achy one night with a little fever but woke up the next day fine. Not sure what that was about. People got along. It was a great trip! Puerto Vallarta was lovely! The only thing missing was Jacky. We'll see him soon!