Family Sealing
August 2-4

Dan's brother Enrique, along with his wife Jamee and their three kids 'Rique, Taislee and McCoy were all sealed together in the St. George temple on Saturday August 3, 2013. It was one of the coolest experiences. We got to St. George at 4 a.m. on Friday morning, after some sleep we spent the day with the family before Dan and I were able to go to Jamee and Enrique's endowment. Dan and I both forgot our recommends but luckily we were able to get it resolved! The next day we helped set up the reception at the church then got ready and headed to see their sealing. It was so precious! Afterwards they all took family pictures dressed in their whites then headed to the reception. It was so cute and they looked so happy and I am so grateful we were able to celebrate with them! It may not have been our usual adventure but it was definitely a real reminder about how special the temple and families are.

Back Packing
July 26-27

Dan and I have been doing really well at our summer bucket list and we wanted to get at least one over night backpacking adventure in. All of our friends have moved so we couldn't sit in self pity too long. We packed our bags and did a 9 mile hike to a lake. It was a beautiful hike and we had so much fun hiking and camping. I know that one day we wont be able to do as much if we have kids so we are taking full advantage of the time we have.

Grand Canyon
Day 6: Sunday 14

We finished our river rafting with one last class 10 wave. Dan and Staci were some of the ones on front and once again I was astounded they were able to stay on! It was a great way to end. After that, we all flew out on a helicopter ride, I got shotgun and Dan was in the window seat. It was so cool flying over the Grand Canyon! We then got to a small ranch where we were able to shower and change our clothes and eat lunch there.

Kissing the anvil rock, the girls kiss it for good passage

 

Not Ready to be off the river...

 

 Our helicopter group

 

Dan and Bob...and some creeper in the back...

 

The view from the helicopter to the boats below

It was such a cool ride!

 

Some of the girls with our helicopter guide, after our first clean, warm shower

 

    

We then loaded onto a small 19 person plane which I was really excited for until I started to get really motion sick, I ended up throwing up but it was still a really cool flight! Then Dan and I headed back for an 8 hour drive to Logan. Randomly we were driving on a back road and looked over to see our friends Rachel and DJ in the car next to us which was so serendipitous! It was an adventure and I will treasure the memories! A week without any technology, phones, tv, computers, work, mirrors, makeup, showers etc….It was so nice and it made me realize how much time is wasted when there is a whole world out there to discover!

Ready for our last plane ride before our 8 hour drive home

 

We were not on the same plane as the rest of the Bishop clan but I can only imagine how that was

 

Beautiful view of the Grand Canyon from the small air plane

 

It was a lot of fun until I got motion sick and threw up

Grand Canyon
Day 5: Saturday 13

We had another hike to yet another waterfall though they never got old. It was the bottom of Havasu falls so I was really excited. I was a little bummed to see the water was not the normal blue but because of a storm the day before it was a murky brown but it was ok because the water was awesome to play in. Brandon did the same thing Kelsi did at the Gauntlet and high centered on a belly flop, so funny! There was one part where if you jumped in just right, the waterfall would push you down and swirl you around like a washing machine before pushing you out across the water. It was sooo cool!

We came to a bridge that was about 40 or so feet up and we hiked up to it. The boys decided to of course pee of it and there was a tunnel that Brandon hid in to scare people. It was a pretty cool view. Brandon thought the donkey trail was ancient and Chelsea said: No Brandon, it’s for real life ;)
We set up camp and it was in a canyon so Dan and I decided to check it out. We got a ways into it when we ran into a huge herd of big horned goats so we decided to bail though we succeeded the next morning.

Checking out the bridge

Another beautiful Scenery

Trying to find the sheep

Our ticket to dinner was to have a painted toe nail, including the men. Kelsi painted my some of the boy's toes while they were sleeping, they were pretty confused when they woke up. The guides dressed up in “tuxes” and everyone wore togas. We had a huge steak dinner with music and formal attire, under the stars. It was one of the best nights ever!

Our Guides dressed up for our last night

Keeping it classy in our Togas 

 Kelsi painting the boys nails, Papa Brent was confused

Some Hor d'oeuveres before dinner

Grand Canyon
Day 4: Friday 12

We came to a big waterfall called Deer Creek Falls that was really powerful and a little chill. Every time you would try to get closer the power of it would push you away, we did this right before we hiked to what was called the patio. You had to do a pretty steep hike then hold onto the side of the canyon and kind of shimmy across it, if you fell it was certain death. We came to 2 more waterfalls there. It was a fun hike and it made me really want to go canyoneering again. I was able to chat with a few of the other travelers, one of which had wanted to do the trip for over 25 years. His name was Bob from Boston, he brought his friend Bill. Bill had never once been camping our done anything outdoors in his life so he had a crash course!

Deer Creek Falls

 

Hiking straight up

 

Made it to the top!

 

I had to take a picture, it's a boy thing to pee off cool places 

 

Cool picture of Dave at a waterfall we found at the top

  Next we up to a really cool waterfall called Hidden Elves Chasm, this was one of my favorites by far. You could swim across the water and climb up and then jump off into the water below. It was pure bliss! It was funny because Mike jumped and lost the go-pro but was able to find it again.
We did a short hike to a really warm waterfall, it felt like a bath and we were all able to play in it, though we couldn’t jump from the top. We made Staci pose with an invisible husband. We were all hoping she and Joel would hit it off ;)

Jumping off such a fun waterfall...and the water was warm!

 

Mike with the go-pro, luckily he found it again!

 

Just another waterfall to play in!

 

Dan photo-shopped the two....such a cute couple 

During our bathing time that night a bunch of boys played in the water with a ball and even though it was freezing I decided to swim around for a while since I was already cold and wet, but I felt clean after-wards! After that a group of us played a few rounds of Boce ball on the beach, it turned out to be a pretty hilarious night, I never thought Boce ball could actually be fun. That night we were all sitting around after dinner and one of the travelers with us, an older man named Stan showed us the dance, “the wobble” we all busted a move and had a dance party on the beach. It was actually really funny.

The boys playing in the water

 

Getting our groove on

 

Listening to our guide play the guitar at night, such a great experience

Grand Canyon
Day 3: Thursday 11

This was the biggest day for waves. We hit some class 8 and up to class 10 waves which were nuts! I was able to jump up front for the biggest one called Hermit. It rocked us! The waves were 15-20 foot waves that just pounded you but you couldn’t get that kind of thrill anywhere else! We were basically cold and wet from 7:30 a.m-4:30 p.m. Everyone was shivering but it was worth it! Dan rode the biggest of the day called Crystal rapid. It was a pretty dangerous wave and they got slammed! I for sure thought we would lose someone. There were a few times we all came close! Later that day I rode a pretty big wave on the very front and almost got ripped of the boat but my dad caught me with enough time to grab the handle. Dan rode another huge one that hit them from the side, he was completely covered and I couldn’t believe he was able to hold on!

Ready to go! Apparently I look like an Asian tourist

 

 The rain rolls in...dun dun dun

 We almost lost them

 It was very cold

Taking another bath in the river. Freezing