More Camping & Other Misc. Pictures

Camping Pictures & Other Misc. Pictures

These pictures are from our camping trip to Moab a few months ago as well as other misc. pictures from the past few weeks. If you want any details, just let me know!

Our Journey to get to Our Vacation

Our trip plans originally included leaving on July 3rd to go and see Kim and Nick for the 4th of July. We were planning on spending 3 days with them and then heading home to spend a week with Rachel's family. That didn't exactly happen.
Our trip started with me working until nearly midnight on July 3rd trying to get ready to leave. Then, I ended up working all day the 4th of July until about 11 that night. Saturday morning rolled around, and Rachel and I work a few more hours before we packed up and finally left. We didn't get very far however.
About 3 blocks from home, our car started smoking like crazy. We ended up having it towed and fixed the following morning (Sunday by now). So, once the car was towed we went out to dinner instead of going home, and our waitress didn't even know we had been seated. The service was pretty poor that night.
Once dinner was done, we headed home and walked in the door only to have the dining room light burn out as I turned it on when we walked in. It couldn't have been any worse than that...or so we thought.
We got the call on Sunday morning that our car was ready and so we packed up again and thought we were finally on our way to our vacation. About half way up to get our car, we realized Kelly was missing a shoe and had to turn around to go home and find it. We did and began our journey one last time. We finally got to the shop where our car was and they said it was ready. However, right before I was ready to pay, the mechanic came in and told us there was still a problem.
After about an hour and a test drive, we finally paid and were able to take off for vacation...and that time it was for real.
We loved the week we had with Rachel's family! Kelly loved every minute of being outside every day, playing in the lake and with her cousins, riding and driving the 4-wheeler, and everything else! It was worth every minute of our challenges to leave to take that break. We had a blast!

Our Vacation

The Rocking Chair

Kelly loves the rocking chair in her room. Every night before she lays down, I rock her and sing to her. This one night, I peaked in on her and found that she had moved all her stuffed animals into the rocking chair and then climbed in with them and covered herself up with her blanket. She fell asleep that way.

4th of July

Independence day didn't exactly turn out as planned for us this year. Rachel and Kelly went to watch the parade while I ended up working all day. The other little girl in the pictures with her is Hanna, in our ward. They have a lot of fun together! I ended up replacing 2 water heaters and replacing a ceiling that ended up having a water pipe break inside of it once I finished the water heater in the same apartment. I couldn't believe it! I finished the second water heater just as all the fireworks shows ended. I was able to sit down and have dinner with Rachel and Kelly that evening, though. Rachel barbecued for all of us, and I was able to take a few minutes out to eat with them. I didn't get home until almost 11 that night, though. Some holiday, eh?

Kelly's Muscles

So we've done the "superman" thing with Kelly a handful of times and she decided that it was her turn to hold us up!

Just for Fun

Kelly and Aunt Kelly

Rachel's Fish Lips

Trip to Vegas

We recently took a trip to Las Vegas to visit Rachel's sister and her family. We had really nice and relaxing time down there. The weather was beautiful! We also ran in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer fun run that Saturday. This run has kind of become a tradition for us in Vegas. Anyway, Kelly had a good time just running and playing down there. She went swimming for the first time and fed ducks for the first time as well! The ducks were obviously more than friendly! Kelly could have fed them all day.

My First Half-Marathon

Thank you to everyone who donated to my cause this year, the Huntsman Cancer Institute. My team raised $2,483!!! That put my team 10th place overall in fund raising. My team also placed 4th overall in fund raising per team member. So, thank you again!
The race was fantastic. The weather was beautiful...a little chilly at the start but sunny and breezy the rest of the morning. This was my first half marathon ever. Thanks to my training and experience, I now realize that I will never run a full marathon. I don't know how those people do it. Anyway, I ran it and finished in 2 hours 41 minutes. Not bad for a first timer. The first marathoner passed me at 2 hours 5 minutes or so with a few miles to go. Amazing! Rachel and Grandma came to the race as well as Uncle John, Steven, and others from the family. What an experience!



The pictures here are of me nearing the finish line and with my professor who joined my team this year. He did the full marathon (he's done 43 full marathons now!). All for a good cause, too. So, look out for me next year!!! I'll be doing it again & looking to double what we raised this year!

Dad, Kelly, & Uncle Zach

Kelly's Many Smiles

A Day at the Park

Kelly is in her Easter dress that grandma gave her. We had a heck of a time getting her to smile...but when she did, it was precious.

Dr. Campbell, Brigham Young, and Me

A Trip to the Cemetery

Being a TA (teaching assistant) for my program at school, I was invited to take a tour of grave-sites of the prophets. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and the opportunity to pay my respects to the late President Gordon B. Hinckley. While I was also there, I took advantage of the opportunity to visit Grandpa Van Tielen's burial site, which I had never been to before. It was truly an unique and spiritually humbling experience to stand "at the feet" of the prophets.