Gila Valley Temple

In May, The Gila Valley Temple was dedicated. It is near Safford which is about 2 hrs and 15 min from our house. We met my sister and two of her boys there for the Open House in early May. The temple was decorated very nicely inside. The attention to detail was obvious. It was smaller than I thought it would be. It was much smaller than the meeting house that they built next to it. For size reference, the building next to the temple is the same floorplan as the building we meet in and the building across the street from Grandma and Grandpa. It was a good experience to take the kids through the open house and talk with them about the importance of temples.

President Kimball was from Safford. Supposedly one of these two houses (or maybe both, they are next door to each other) was his house. There is a marker at the church building next door, but it didn't indicate which house was his.

When we left Safford, after having a picnic lunch at a part with my sister, Tyler and I went to the Father's and Son's outing. I had driven the truck half way to Safford and left it in a Wal-Mart parking lot and finished the drive with Michelle and the kids. When we got back to the Wal-Mart, Michelle and the girls continued on the freeway and Tyler and I went and spent the night next to a dry wash in the desert. The only saving grace was that because of the wash there were lots of trees. Tyler had a great time playing with friends and sleeping in the tent.

Catalina State Park

This spring before it got too hot, and while there were still some wildflowers blooming, we took the kids for a hike in Catalina State Park. We did a loop trail that ended up being along the creek for about half of the hike. There were several places that we had to cross the creek. The kids eventually gave up on trying to keep their feet dry and walked around with "squishity" feet. There are places where the desert really can be beautiful.

Yetman Trail

We had such a fun time on the hike at Catalina State Park that we took the kids out again about two weeks later. The Yetman trailhead is less than a 10-minute drive from our house. It is an easy hike with a real gradual elevation change.


I wish that I had video of Meagan hiking. It is more like a model on the catwalk than hiking. She is always swinging her hips and throwing her arms around. She is definitely a girly-girl.

We had a lot of rain this spring and so there were wild flowers everywhere. We were at the tail end of the season when we went.

We forgot a bottle for Erin. Yes, I know what good parents we are. So she drank out of the lid of a Nalgene bottle.

Our destination was this old ranch house from the 1930s. A guy who ran the newspaper in town lived out here with his wife. They thought it would help her health by being out of the city and in the desert. They eventually moved back to New York City.

The kids all wanted to climb the walls.

Capitol Reef National Park

When we left Fish Lake to start heading towards home we decided to take the scenic route. We went to Capitol Reef National Park. We saw some really interesting rock formations.

Chimney Rock

We took a short hike down the narrows to see the petroglyphs, pioneer register and the natural water tanks. Everytime I turned around, Tyler was holding hands with his cousin's friend. I am not sure if I need to start worrying or not.

These are the tanks from below. It is just a series of cascades that have eroded pools into the sandstone. I didn't get any pictures from above. We hiked up as far as Rebecca and Tyler could handle. Each of the pools had tadpoles in them. Some were really small, and others were really big.

Seven Mile Creek

We spent one day at the meadow at seven mile creek. It was cold and rainy at times. We fished in the creek, ate lunch and

Meagan's favorite part was the freedom that she had with the junk food. Here she is walking around with a bag of giant curly Cheetos and one in her mouth.

Next came the Oreo cookies.

Don't we all look like a bunch of red-necks?

Someone turned 38 while we were there. We made brownies and followed the high altitude directions, but they still didn't turn out very well.

Tyler and his cousins made a fort in the trees just outside the cabin. They spent a lot of time there. It was nice to just let them go and play outside and not worry about them. At least I didn't worry about them. Their mother has a different story.

Fish Lake

When we go to Fish Lake, Grandpa and uncle Randy always rent a patio boat for us to take the crew out and fish on the lake. Here are the kids having fun on the boat.

We all know that once a camera gets pointed in Tyler's direction, he loses his real smile and pulls some kind of akward smile. He really was having fun.

Tyler reeling in his first fish.

Rebecca's fish. After holding the fish in Richfield, she didn't want to touch this one.

Fish Lake Through the Years

I noticed that I had some very similar pictures at Fish Lake through the years.

2002

2005

2010

Rebecca always seems to take a turn driving the boat with her uncle Randy. This year she seemed a little more attentive to what she was doing than in years past.