Arches National Park

We took a trip to Moab with the Smiths this last weekend.  The purpose of our trip was to visit Arches National Monument.  The Smiths go every year, but we had never been.  So we invited ourselves on their family trip and the they accepted!  Tara has lived in Utah her entire life and had never visited Arches.  Dave has lived here for 20 years and hadn't visited Arches either.  Huge mistakes!  This is a MUST see national park, not just if you live in Utah, but if you live on the planet!  Take a trip to see some amazing stuff.  We spent and evening and a full day there, but there was a ton we didn't see.  Canyonlands National Park is right next door too.  We'll have to see that another day.  The kids loved it.  We climbed up around cliffs, hiked in the dark with flashlights, and jumped over crevices that made Tara nervous.  It was an awesome trip.  Thank you Smith family for letting us tag along.

 

View near Double Arch.  You can see Balanced Rock in the background.

 

 

Arch near Corona Arch.



Maddie and Megan chilling on some rock face.

 

Plenty of places for Britney to explore.

 

 

Standing next to my spiritual advisor.  Colorado river in the background.

 

The metal cable on the trail to Corona Arch. We called it the "iron rod."

 

Balanced Rock.  We didn't stop, but Tara took a good pic from a moving car. 

 

The path to Sand Dune Arch.  This was the girls favorite place and also the most dangerous.

 

 

The Smith/Davenport family photo minus Tara.

 

 

Stopped to see some petroglyphs and some dinosaur tracks (can you see them?).

Trip to Oahu, Hawaii

     We took a family trip to Hawaii for Fall break this year.  Tara and I have been to Hawaii (Ashley too, but as a three year old), but the kids have never been.  We stayed in Oahu at the Marriott Ko Olina Vacation Club about 16 miles from Honolulu.  Everyone loved the trip.  It was more busy than relaxing with all of the sightseeing we did.  Tara planned something for us every day.  We visited the Hawaii Temple pictured above and also went to the Polynesian Cultural Center the same day.  The girls really enjoyed seeing the different Polynesian cultures through their dances and activities.  We also stayed for a luau and the evening show where there were fire dancers.  It was fun, but a long day.
     We snorkeled at Hanauma Bay on Columbus Day.  Glad we went early because it got pretty packed.  Ashley and Megan were the most adventurous.  Britney did okay and Kaitlyn went out a few times, but mostly wanted to play on the beach.  Tara was a total wussy.  We saw tons of fish including the Hawaiian State fish, the humuhumunukunukuapua'a, giant parrot fish, an eel, an octopus, and tons of other colorful fish.  We left early because it was getting crowded and went boogie boarding along the windward coast. 
     We did a few hikes as well.  We hiked up Diamond Head crater and we also hiked up to Waiamea Falls. We went to the beach after and swam in much larger waves than we were used to.  Dave cliff jumped into the ocean swells there at Waiamea beach too.  There were signs warning not to jump or risk injury or death, but the locals were doing it, so 'when in Rome.'  We were in Hawaii during the government shutdown.  That didn't affect us except for Pearl Harbor.  We had tickets to the Arizona Memorial, but it was closed on the day we had tickets (it actually opened the next day).  We went to the Pearl Harbor Aviation museum instead.  There were still bullet holes from the attack at the hanger in the museum.
     The girls most memorable day was when they took surfing lessons on the leeward coast toward the North Shore.  The beach we went to was a little known beach hidden away behind a military camp.  The waves were small, but there was lots of coral and the girls even saw a sea turtle.  Perfect area to learn how to surf.  All of them got up on the board by themselves.  Brits had the instructor stick around because she didn't want to end up like Soul Surfer.  We got some good video too because the instructor had a GoPro on the front of the board.  Super fun trip.  The girls said they liked it better than Mexico, but you can't get Montezuma's Revenge in Hawaii.  Their version is called Kamehameha's Revenge I believe. 
     Our neighbors, the Hogans, were also at our resort while we were there.  We went to church with them our first day in Hawaii and then hung out with them the day we were leaving.  Fun to see some familiar faces there.

Our Resort

The summit of Diamond Head crater overlooking Waikiki Beach.

Surf lessons with Jason Garcia, Sunny Garcia's brother (surf champion).

Megan catching a wave.

Ashley surfing past the coral.

Britney with Jason Garcia on the back.  She liked to stay low!

Kaitlyn was our only goofy-foot surfer.

Waiamea Falls

Pearl Harbor

Polynesian Cultural Center

Below: Hanauma Bay Marine Reserve

Beach Boys in Concert

We took the girls to see the Beach Boys in concert before they're all dead, which could be soon. Only a few of the Beach Boys were there because they've parted ways apparently. We took All the girls, Grandpa and Grandma Miller and Uncle Lance. Grandpa lent us a Beach Boys CD a while back and the girls really liked it. They all have their songs on the MP3 players too. We had a good time. Kaitlyn said, "There's not very many kids here!" I said, "There's not many people here under 50!" They had fun, but liked Taylor Swift better. 

Hanging out in the cheap seats on the grass. 

McCall, ID Trip

This August we took a trip to McCall, ID with Tara's family.  It was a great trip and a perfect place for a family vacation.  McCall is about two hours north of Boise and well worth the drive. It's a small little mountain town, but there's great food, nice places to stay, a couple of golf courses, the lake is amazing, and there are two ski resorts if you want to do this in the winter as well. Here are a few pics of our activities on the trip.  River rafting on the Salmon river was awesome.

Highlight of the trip was rafting on the lower Salmon River.

 





Touring the smoke jumper base in McCall.  Ashley is in full gear.

Paddle boarding and cliff jumping in McCall.  We went to the lake almost everyday.

There was a not so wild fox at our condos.  The girls liked feeding him by hand.

 



Lonnie and Spencer checking out the fish hatchery.

 



 

We golfed a couple of times on very beautiful courses.  Watch Ashley below hitting her own leg with the ball.

 



Our July Birthdays

July is a busy birthday month at the Davenport household.  On July 1st, we had Tara's birthday.  Dave was planning a surprise party for her this year, but those plans changed when Tara threw Dave a surprise party (can't have two surprise party in the same year for the same couple. Social faux pas).  We were in Reno for Tara's birthday.  Next we had Britney's birthday.  She turned 5 years old.  Her birthday was while we were in Yosemite National Park on July 6th.  A few weeks later we had Megan's 10th birthday on July 20th.  We were actually home for that one.  And on the same day, Kam, our husky, had his 3rd birthday (surprised this dude has survived this long, thought Tara would euthanize him earlier).  Happy birthday girls (and Kam)!!!

 

Tara celebrating her birthday by riding the saddle at Texas Roadhouse in Reno.

Britney turned 5 years old in Yosemite.  We decorated the hotel room for her.

Megan is now in double digits, she turned 10 at home this year.

 

Kam survived another year for his birthday and got some sweet doggie bones from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (no chocolate though, we don't want him dead yet).

Summer Roadtrip '13

Part One: Reno/Tahoe/Virginia City

The purpose of this family road trip was to see Grandma and Grandpa Davenport on their mission in Oakland area.  But, we decided to make a few stops before and after to see some sights near by.  We stopped in Reno first.  My geography that I work covers all of Nevada.  I worked (and played) there a few days while we toured around ( I hoard my vacation days).  I worked in Carson City the first day, then we headed up to Lake Tahoe to enjoy 90 degree weather.  The lake is amazing.  It is crystal clear.  A person can see 30 feet down to the bottom, just like in Carribean or Hawaii, or just unlike Utah Lake where a person can't see more than 3 inches below the surface.  We rented a paddleboard there and the girls loved it.  Ashley was a pro.  She now wants a $1,000 board for her birthday (unlikely request).

* * *

On the way home, we stopped by Virginia City.  Also a very interesting spot.  Virginia City looks very similar to how it looked in the 1800s.  Seriously, not much has changed, except for pavement.  It really was like going back in time.  We took a tour of Chollar mine which the girls enjoyed.  We saw lots of wild horse signs driving back and then we noticed a herd of wild horses.  No fences, just roaming, wild horses grazing on the mountain flats.  The girls thought that was awesome.

Britney working the phone lines deep in the mine.

   

 Standing on the boardwalk in Virginia City underneath the Delta Saloon sign.

 

Notice the wild horses in the background.  Cool!!!



Lake Tahoe with the girls.

Sitting in the bowling pin car at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno.



Part Two: San Francisco/Oakland/Alcatraz/USS Hornet

We made our way to Hayward, CA, just south of Oakland.  We made a brief stop in Sacramento and Ashley and I went to the temple there.  Ashley wants to attend the temple in all the areas that we visit.  It's not as always possible, but we try.  The Reno temple didn't accommodate us, but Sacramento did.  Danielle, Rosabelle, and Sunny were already at Grandma and Grandpa's apartment when we arrived.  They beat us by an hour to be their first visitors.  We went and visited the Oakland temple while we were there, but it was under renovation so we toured the visitor center.  It's a nice piece of property where the temple is located.  The next day we went into San Francisco to see Alcatraz prison.  Most of us hadn't seen it before.  The kids thought it was interesting, minus Rosabelle and Sunny.  Not enough action for them.  Shocking how cool San Francisco is in the summer.  Like Mark Twain said,  "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."  That day we also went to Ghirardelli Square and we rode the trolley.  They let Ashley and I hold onto the rail on the outside and stand as the trolley moved.  I can't believe they let people do that still.  We waited an hour to get on the trolley, but found a better way to get on once we started moving (contact me if you want the secret).  We had seafood at the wharf and we called it a day.

* * *

 The next day was the Fourth of July.  We went to visit the USS Hornet.  That was the aircraft carrier that took Doolittle and his crew to bomb Tokyo after they raided Pearl Harbor.  The ship was also used to retrieve the astronauts on some of the Apollo missions to the moon.  We spent a lot of time touring the ship.  We went back in the early afternoon to swim and for Megan to nap.  Megan had a really bad ear infection while we were there, though we didn't know how bad at the time.  We saw Monsters University movie after dinner.  Then we headed back to the USS Hornet to watch the fireworks across the San Francisco bay (kind of a let down because we were so far away).



Alcatraz



Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, waiting for the cable car trolley.

Rosabelle was worried that Ash and I would be hit by oncoming cars while hanging out of the moving trolley.  Seriously, I can't believe they still let people hang out of the cars.

The USS Hornet aircraft carrier.  

Riding the torpedo. 

Part Three: Yosemite National Park

None of us had ever visited Yosemite National Park.  It wasn't exactly close to Oakland, but it was close enough.  We drove a little over three hours to get there.  It was worth the trip.  We saw El Capitan, Half Dome, took a few little hikes, caught the mist from a few waterfalls, and we even had a rare black bear sighting near Glacier Point.  Yosemite is a great park!!! It was unfortunate that we only had a few days to see.  Not enough indeed.  Megan also had a raging earache while we were there.  We got her on some antibiotics and drops, but she was miserable.  Dropping and rising between 4500 to 9000 feet didn't help either.  The next day was Britney's birthday.  We spent that day visiting the Sequoia forest in the south park area near Wawona.  Those trees are massive and not to be confused with the redwoods.  Redwood trees are tall, sequoias are big and thick.  This is where the famous tree is where you could once drive a car through a tunnel in the truck, though that tree fell years ago (shocker, they cut a tunnel in it).  There was a smaller version of a tree that was similar to that one and we walked through it.  We had Britney's birthday party on the grass in front of the famous Wawona lodge.  After that we said our goodbyes to Grandma and Grandpa Davenport.  We headed north through the park to get back home and they headed west.  It was a nice drive through the northern part of the park.  We saw Half Dome from the back as well as Tuolumne Meadows and some cool lakes.  The East exit of the park is almost at 10,000 feet.  That was interesting.  Definitely worth a trip here.  We had a great time and glad to be out of the car.  We put a lot of miles on the Suburban.   

Family pic in front of Half Dome (Megan is hiding her pain, she felt awful).

El Capitan above Grandma and Grandpa.

A few of the big sequoias.  Britney loved the huge pinecones (actually from a sugar pine, sequoia cones are small, just larger than a walnut).

 Britney turned 5 years old.  Sitting in front of Wawona lodge.