Las Vegas Trip

We finally took a little family trip and accompanied Hans when he was working in Vegas one week. We had a great time! The kids and I hung out by the pool while Hans worked in the mornings and after Claire's nap in the afternoon we'd go out as a family.



Claire loved just chillin' or should I say cookin' on my lap. It was 115 degrees while we were there.

One night we went down to the strip and did what has become a family traditon. We checked out what was new at the Belagio lobby. They have an indoor garden there that is amazing! Then we watched the water fountain show out front. The kids loved it! (Okay, so I don't have a pic. of it. I need to get it off Hans' phone first.)



Me and the kids at the hotel.


Hans and Claire Bear.


Our van had transmission trouble between Vegas and St. George, so....we extended our trip for a day and stayed the night in St. George while our van got worked on! Our kids had never been to St. George or seen the St. George temple, so we had to drive by and get some pictures. Isn't it beautiful?!

Harvest Time

We finally got a garden in this Spring, and now that summer is almost over the kids have been so excited to see the fruits of their labors, or should we say the "vegetables" of their labors.

Mt. Timpanogos Hike

Saturday 8.1.09 Hans and I hiked to the top of Mt. Timpanogos with Hans' dad, who is 70!, his brother-in-law, Mike, and his three boys. We hiked roughly 17 miles, and slid down a 1,000 ft glacier! It was intense. It took us 11 hours to do it. We were sore afterward, but what a rush!



Once we got to the top, we hiked along the summitt, slid down the glacier, hung out the lake for awhile, and then hiked down. You can see the glacier towards the left in this photo.


Me at the beginning of the hike. You can tell it's the beginning because I'm still smiling.


Towards the beginning of the hike. Dad up ahead.


About 1 hour into the hike we hit scout falls. They are so beautiful!


Me at the bottom. Gives a perspective of the size of the falls.


We crossed several little waterfalls like this on the hike. It was so green and lush; I felt like we were in Hawaii.




We saw a few moose about 2 hours into the hike. What magestic looking animals.




We called this the yellow brick road. Notice the little orange tent in the background. How fun that would be to camp out 1/2 way through the hike. Why didn't we think of that?!


Ryan Baker (nephew), Hans, Adam Baker (nephew), me, Mike Baker (brother-in-law), Grandpa Hendershot, & Joseph Baker (nephew)


A long shot of the glacier.


Me and Hans at the saddle, almost to the top.


From the top overlooking Utah Valley.




This is a shot of the glacier (from below) that we slid down on our backsides! Insanity! That was so scary! It's about 1.000 feet straight down. The black things on the top are people trying to get up the guts to go for it. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?! No one ended up with broken bones though. Just hands/arms that felt like pins and needles until the next morning.


This is Emerald Lake just at the bottom of the glacier.


Some mountain goats we saw. They were quite a distance away, but I've got a pretty good zoom on my camera. Cool.





Coming down. This was taken quite a bit below the glacier. There were several smaller snow fields like this we passed when we were up high enough on the mountain.


Amazing... the greenery, flowers and snow all at the same time.


The wild flowers were breathtaking. These pictures don't do them justice.




The backside of the mountain on the way down.

Throughout the hike Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" kept playing in my mind, and I kept thinking to myself, "What an incredibly beautiful world our Father in Heaven has created for us to live in and enjoy! We are so blessed.