The San Rafael Swell was, well, swell

Petroglyphs and pictographs from a long time ago

Amara setting up the tent for us

Waking up at our lovely campsite

Hiking Utah's "Little Grand Canyon"...did I say hiking? I meant 'riding'..

A view back down on where we'd just hiked

A large dinosaur track is preserved in the stone. It's not signed but if you follow your guide book and look carefully, it can be found up on a wide ledge above the road. Very cool. Justin's foot looks small!

Meet Fred

How to make food fun

Howdy!

We had a nice Memorial Day weekend despite a couple days of rainy cool weather here. Today made up for it with sunny skies, high of 70. The weekend consisted mostly of seeing some friends (Sat day, Sun day, and Monday night), checking out a couple new restaurants, and doing a few errands with a couple hikes and a bike ride thrown in. All in all, very nice. 

Checking out the solar eclipse

We went down to Bryce this weekend with Ruby and Anil and Andrea to do some hiking and see the eclipse on Sunday night. The path of the 'ring of fire' passed right over Southern Utah. Pretty spectacular...we were not the only ones with the bright idea to camp down there Saturday night then drive home late Sunday - there was lots of traffic heading back on the highway, and one hour-long logjam, but a couple cups of coffee got us through...reminded me of weekends coming back from Tahoe!

Some cool pictures of the eclipse viewings around the world: 

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/05/ring_of_fire_eclipse_2012.html

Going for an early morning walk to the Rim from our campsite. Hiking in our fuzzy PJs as it was still chilly.

Hiking the Navajo Trail (down Wall Street) with Anil, Andrea and Ruby.

We saw lots of deer

Last day of the ballet session...

A few pictures from my sleepover party with grandma and grandpa

Arches

Instead of cairns, we hiked past 'toast piles' on the trail

Hiking with Jenna and the boys

Us plus Jenna, Erika, Gail and the boys

Family shot!

At the musical park...isn't this fantastic?

A happy Haas reunion

Anne & Lena (7)

Some leg presses with Tony!

Rolling down the hill with my new friend Zoe

Clarke and Phoebe

Rebekah & Amelia (4)

Hanging with my cousins

Is this right, Uncle Justin?

Wait up boys!

Watching a little TV before dinner

Amara-isms

Pecticle = dry, hurting feeling in your throat after you've swallowed food and need water. As in 'Mama, do you have a pecticle?"; Also another word for buffalo with horns.

"I have 5 favorite colors: pink, purple, red, shiny, and sparkly."

"Mama, how does the rain know when the plants need water?" Good question...harder to answer than you would think...

This was Amara doing a great job floating, just before she threw up in the pool :-). She was not happy about having to float and while crying, apparently drank enough water after her big pre-swim snack, that it all came back up...oops. Hopefully next week will be better!

Dying Easter Eggs

We went over to our friend Mary Anne and Greta's house for her second annual Easter Egg dying party. Last year, Amara and I showed up on the wrong day so this was the first time we actually attended :-) Amara LOVED hiding and finding the eggs. In fact, we did it some more when Lila came over to play last night.