August 5th, 2010
When Nichole was six years old we moved to Washington State. We took the long route and did a detour through Nebraska and Kansas to visit grandparents. That was the last time I had seen my grandma. So on this trip and it was about time we visited my grandma in the big city of Hastings Nebraska. It should really be called a village but since it has two McDonalds now I don’t think it qualifies any more for a village.
I think one of the best and funniest things was the generation gap between her and my children. So many things surprised my grandmother when she showed her things we use today. So many phrases she used confused my children as they are only used in the mid west or no longer used. 
The big adventure of our time with her was to drive 30 minutes north to Grand Island. We were taking my grandma to Starbucks. She heard all my stories over the four years I have been working for this place and she had no idea what it was. You would of thought she was a child being taken to Disneyland she was so excited. Since I knew the store had internet I brought along my laptop. I brought up my blog so she could see what it was all about. She got to see her great grand daughter Larissa sing a duet on the lap top. She was just amazed by this to see her on the laptop singing. Then I took her to Face Book. Her mouth hit the floor when she seen a picture. She looked at her clothes, then back up to the Face Book page then looked around confused. Then she looked straight at Rob and declared he was a Dirty Ol Dog. She figured out the phone or whatever it was that he was carrying around also had a camera on it. I still think she is confused on how he took the picture and made it appear on the computer screen. After we surfed the web we decided it was dinner time. Dinner time? we didn’t even have lunch and it is only noon!!! Good thing she didn’t forget her pocket book. For a while there the kids didn’t know it was a purse, they were wondering if she carried around a book in her pocket. 
Later that night for supper we went Pizza Hut, this is the place you go to when you eat with Grandma. Ever since my first visit I know if you visit grandma you were going to eat at Pizza Hut. My Uncle Ben and my Aunt Lou joined us and later my Uncle Don visited us at my grandmother’s home. While we were showing our recent vacation pictures my grandmother asked Andrew if he wanted a pop. A what????
While we were there Rob drove me around Hastings so I could take some pictures. I just love the old architecture that seemed to be every where. 
A baseball field nearby my Grandma’s home. It was named for a fan of baseball, his name? Robert Duncan. So I made Rob stop so I could take pictures. 🙂
We drove grandma through town to see some family history. This house here is where my sis and I went to visit my grandparents in the summer. It was here where we heard our first tornado siren and made my grandma laugh. It was a bright sunny day and unknown to two little Ca girls they test the sirens monthly. It was here where we stayed outside in the dark running with jars to fill with lightening bugs. It was here where we met Tabitha, a blond girl that always wore striped knee high socks. I thought they were cool.
We had a wonderful time with grandma and we will have to do it again, soon. 
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August 3rd, 2010
We drove through Sturgis a week before the Famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was to be held. There was still plenty of bikes every where but not nearly as many as they usually are during the rally.
As we were driving through there were stands being set up along the sidewalks selling all kinds of stuff. Emily was in back checking things out and then she started to try to sound some words out. I glanced over to what she could read and well they were not what a little girl should be saying. I told her she was forbidden to read anything while we were driving through there.
Our next stop was Mt Rushmore, well mine was the Mt Rushmore bathroom right at the entrance. Rob didn’t think I needed to go as bad as I did and if anyone was going to get in my way I was ready to plow right over them. ( I knew you all cared about that so I had to include that tidbit.)
The first thing you get to see is the Avenue of Flags, every state is represented.
Since the Texas flag was in the view of the presidents I snapped this shot.
Hey Kids? So what did you think?
Andrew: I always thought it would be bigger. 
I have to agree with him, we both thought it would be bigger than what it was. But at the same time we were impressed with all the details. Especially knowing most were made with dynamite blasts.
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August 1st, 2010
This place was an unplanned stop. At our last hotel I was trying to do laundry at
1:00am. They only had one washer and dryer and it seemed like everyone else wanted
to do laundry when I wanted to. To pass the time I had looked at all the brochures
they have in the front of the lobby. I found this place and since it was more or less on our way to the next stop and another National Monument we decided to visit. This place was a popular tourist spot back when a certain movie came out. Maybe you have seen it, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Some say this place was the neck of an extinct volcano, others say it grew to save some little girls. The Crow Indians have a legend about this place. Seven little girls were playing around in a field. A bear came and chased the girls. One girl started to pray to the rock asking it to save them. The rock heard her and started to grow up from the ground. The bear tried to climb up the rock over and over again to get to the girls. What you see on the sides of this rock is the scratches caused by the bear’s claws. The tower grew so high the girls turned into stars, now known as the Ursa Major aka The Big Dipper.
As we drove away from this place we got to walk among some prairie dogs. They must be use to people walking nearby cause they had no problem posing for pictures.
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July 31st, 2010
This place was AMAZING!!!! I think every family needs to visit this place at least once. There was so much to see and we were so glad we planned to visit here a few days. 
I am not sure what I was originally taking a picture of. This little bird landed on the branch as I was taking the picture and I quickly focused on it instead.
Old Faithful, we sat for a long time till she finally blew.
Nothing like being in a bison traffic jam! These bison were blocking cars on the road causing major traffic jams.
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July 30th, 2010
The Grand Tetons is a national park right before you get to Yellowstone. For the most part we drove through this park. We did stop to take some pictures and enjoy the cold water.
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July 29th, 2010
After we left the Arches National park we drove north towards Salt Lake. We were going there for two reasons. To eat our Anniversary dinner(s) and to see the Great Salt Lake. I had pictures in my head from a previous drive through there that had miles and miles of highway that was lined by salt on both sides.
We quickly found Rubios and In and Out ( both places we miss in Ca) and chose our meals. Talk about a cheap anniversary dinner! We were both o.k. with that and they tasted SO GOOD!
After we ate we found the Salt Lake, uh what do you mean this part isnt salt water? We drove a bit too much and found a part that didnt have salt? I don’t know how that works so we had to drive south again till we found it. At least the entrance to Antelope Island and the Salt Lake was all around it.
The place was VERY stinky, I mean it was gross in some spots. The only thing living in the Salt Lake was brine shrimp aka sea monkeys. They would die by the millions and they would wash up on the shore creating the foul smell. They say you could swim and float in the Lake but with that smell and we knew we were still going to drive for a couple more hours we didnt even try it.
The good thing about the little detour was we got there in time to see the sun set. It was amazing!
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July 29th, 2010
Right away the landscape started to change. Rock formations sticking out of the ground as well as arches.
We arrived at Arches National Park. We set up our tent, made some dinner and started to explore our surroundings.
We finished off the stay with a trip to see the Delicate Arch. It is one of the more famous arches, it is also on the Utah’s state license plate. I went to the bathroom when Rob was explaining this “hike” to the kids. All I heard that it was a mile and a half away, I was think no big deal. We ended up CLIMBING and climbing some more to get to the arch. A few times I wanted to turn around but we eventually made it. Andrew says the climb wasn’t worth it. I still think it was Rob’s way of trying to kill me after 15 years of marriage, we did this on our 15th anniversary.
I found another program that should be even easier to upload and post pictures. 
This is the hike aka CLIMB, we climbed up 500 ft
in a mile and a half!!!
This is one place we are planning on going back to visit. There was still too much
we wanted to see and didn’t get to.
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July 28th, 2010
We were just driving to our next destination, Arches National Park when we seen signs for this place. Since we had a National Park Pass and it would be free, and not to mention interesting we decided to stop at the Aztec Ruins National Monument.
Info taken from the Aztec Ruins National Monument website:
Early settlers mistakenly thought that people from the Aztec Empire in Mexico created these striking buildings. They named the site “Aztec,” a misnomer that persisted even after it became clear that the builders were the ancestors of many Southwestern tribes. The people who built at Aztec and other places throughout the Southwest were called “Anasazi” for many years. Archeologists had adopted a word from the Navajo language, that they understood to mean “old people,” and then popularized its use. Most Pueblo people today prefer that we use the term “ancestral Pueblo” to refer to their ancestors.
It was neat to see how the buildings were excavated and reconstructed so we were able to see how the place looked so long ago.
Archeologists excavated and reconstructed the Great Kiva, a large circular chamber used for ceremonies.
The girls were trying to show what the ray of sun was used for inside the Great Kiva.
Andrew will always remember this place, a big ant bit him. Here we thought we left those fire ants in Texas, guess not.
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July 28th, 2010
Since we will be camping at the Arches National Park I thought I would not deprive you of pictures of our trip. There is no internet connections while we are there so you will have to wait till we hit Salt Lake City. We will be staying at a hotel with internet connections and I will be able to upload the Arches pictures.
After we left the White Sands we were driving along and noticed something unusual. There were signs saying Valley of Fire along the highway. I was thinking there would be some colorful hills with different layers of colored sand stone giving it that name. As we got closer we noticed everything looked black. We had to pull over to investigate.
What??? LAVA?? Really??
Well here you go, another class room lesson.
Back 5,000 years ago or so long before our parents were born lava was flowing in this area. The lava was flowing out of some vents for over a 30 year time span onto the valley floor.
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A baseball field nearby my Grandma’s home. It was named for a fan of baseball, his name? Robert Duncan. So I made Rob stop so I could take pictures. 🙂
We drove grandma through town to see some family history. This house here is where my sis and I went to visit my grandparents in the summer. It was here where we heard our first tornado siren and made my grandma laugh. It was a bright sunny day and unknown to two little Ca girls they test the sirens monthly. It was here where we stayed outside in the dark running with jars to fill with lightening bugs. It was here where we met Tabitha, a blond girl that always wore striped knee high socks. I thought they were cool.
