Priceless

Education at BYU-Idaho: $15,000
Cap and Gown: $20
Graduation Vacation: $300
Picture with a giant spud: Awesome
Realizing there are 3 people in the picture: Priceless

Baby Montour is due November 19th, 2012!

What the ultimate* camping trip has going for it

A great location

Wildlife

A campfire and marshmellows 

Mountains and a lake

Yummy food

Especially tin foil dinners!

Perhaps a waterfall

And a hike to an old wildfire lookout

Elevation 8502

 

But most importantly- your favorite person!

                                                                                                                                                                           
This ultimate camping trip happened at Hume Lake two weeks ago. There was even some snow up there so apparently they weren't lying- it does snow in CA. Yay for camping! What does your ultimate camping trip have going for it?



*Although fun camping experiences have been known to occur in unsuspecting places such as the back yard, sagebrush infested Nevada, and beneath the Christmas tree.

My husband doesn't read this blog

Sometimes when I ask him to he might skim through a post. But most of the time he has no idea what's on here. But here is a post he will not want to miss. These pictures were taken BY HIM or OF HIM, and today I'm talking ABOUT HIM.      
                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                        Here's a harbor at Monterrey. Which is an absolutely beautiful place. It's a shame that we didn't have our new camera yet so we only took a couple of pics on Phil's phone. We watched a friend compete in a triathlon, and enjoyed the day at the wharf and the beach. I love vacations with Phillip Montour :)

(By the way our friend is the bishop from this post. He's in his 50's and did an awesome job on his first Tri ever- Olympic distance!)

                                                                                     

We rode our banana bike around by the beach and got asked where we'd rented such a sweet bike. We OWN this bad boy. We picked it up about a week after we got to Visalia. Phil saw the FOR SALE sign as we were driving by someone's house. He turned the car around and said "If that's less then $150 I'm buying it." And I'm all like WHAT?!  Best $30 we've ever spent.
 

Phil planted these carrots and beet in a flower pot back in April. He was on a gardening kick. (I think he just wanted me to make him Russian Borscht .) We got nervous at the CA border, but luckily they didn't confiscate them. WHEW haha.                            

And this is me painting the walls he built on our trailer. Phil loves it when I help him with projects. I swear it's one of his love languages. He's always like want to help me on the car? Want to help me drill some holes? Sometimes I grumble... but I'm trying.

And then I saw this good looking picture of Phil the cowboy and it was too cute to not include. These two are old- from last fall when Phil was working his mechanical bull job. He would travel to fairs or private parties and set this thing up and then buck people off. Whenever I would ride I would beg him not to dump me. Good times.

Think he'll want to read this post?

Sequoia National Park

Phil and I took a weekend trip to Sequoia National Park. It's pretty near where we live, however, we're in the valley (331 ft.) and the park is up in the mountains. These huge trees grow at the specific elevation of 5000 to 7500 ft. They're incredible! Driving up the roads were so windy I thought I was going to be sick. I was glad when we finally found a nice little camp site. The warm temperature and the surprising lack of mosquitoes was nice. The pictures don't capture the feeling you get when you stand beneath these huge Sequoias, but they're still cool. The tree on the top right had a cave and I was reminded of the torture chamber in Princess Bride. The General Sherman tree is the largest tree in there world. There are taller trees, and fatter trees, but by total trunk volume this one takes the cake. I couldn't get the whole tree in the picture until we walked about a 1/4 a mile away. (Picture on the right, tree to the right of us.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                                                       

We also did a hike out on "Morro Rock" that we fell in love with.The hike isn't long, just steep and cut out in the rock. The views of the valley and the mountains were spectacular. All in all in was a fun and worthwhile trip. There are so many great things to see here in California. Maybe Yosemite, the Winchester Mansion, and Magic Mountain next? 

Where Nevada meets California

                           Where Nevada meets California you'll find this glorious sign. And you'll rejoice! 

                                           

After a long couple of days of packing and a long couple of days of driving, we arrived in Visalia. Hallelujah! Memorable moments from the trip:

• A traffic jam to get into Nevada? Huh? (Road construction.) 

• Gas station bathrooms in Nevada= gross. But bathrooms aside don't drive through Nevada unless it's absolutely necessary. Seriously. It's just sagebrush and Casinos. 

• Camping in Winnemucca, Nevada on the dirt between the sage brush. The mosquitoes were insane!  

• Entering California. All of a sudden there were lots of trees and sunshine and oranges! And the road construction stopped. And the bathrooms got clean, and the birds started singing! (Ok, I might be exaggerating, but not by much.)

• Grapes! And tons of other things growing on trees and vines. 

• The HUGE Philly cheese steak and Chicken fried steak we ate to celebrate our arrival in Visalia. Mmm. 

All in all a good trip. A big thanks goes to my husband for beforehand fixing everything on our car he thought might possibly break- our 4Runner did great pulling our heavily loaded trailer. AND he drove way more then I did. Love you Phil! 

Stay tuned for more. 

Have you been in 4 states at once?

Phil and I decided to go to Southern Utah (And Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona!) for the break between semesters. It was necessary. And it was warm. And there was so much to do! It also happened to be coming up on Easter Jeep Safari which was very hard on Phil since we didn't even take a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Oh no!! 

 We went to Goblin Valley.

We drove past a really large watermelon on the way so naturally we had to go back so I could get a picture.

 We hiked around Arches and had to stop at the famous Delicate arch of course! Can you see us?

 We found this Jeep made completely out of license plates and wrenches and other weird stuff. It was so cool! It's name was Mother of all Beasts (MOAB.) Phil even let me drive :)

 Hole in the rock! Just south of Moab. Don't ever just drive past this place, it's amazing! There's a gift shop and a whole huge house cut into that rock.

 And then Phil decided we needed to see some ruins, and so we started driving even more south. These cliff dwellings were at Hovenweep National Monument.

 And since we were already so close, I insisted we must make it to the 4 corners! A childhood dream of mine! It was very exciting.

 Phil wasn't quite as enthused. 

 And finally we made it to Mesa Verde in Colorado! Very cool. 

 Cliff Palace. The largest cliff dwelling in North America! 

And I saved this one for last. Hehe