This is a blog entry on our Summer '08 family vacation. There's a video you can watch that shows many of the things talked about in this entry and I'll try to scatter several pictures too.
We started out Sunday evening on board Allegiant Air to Las Vegas. The boys had never flown on a big plane so it was quite an adventure. Some of the boys are prone to getting airsick so we gave them some Dramamine before hand and there were no problems. We landed in Lost Wages and took the shuttle bus to Circus Circus. We had two rooms across the hall from each other. We got to our rooms and relaxed for our next day activities. The next day, we had the buffet breakfast (quite a spread). Then we went to the arcade and played some air hockey and video games and a few carnival games. We then headed out on our adventure on the "Duece". Its a double-decker bus that goes up and down the strip. We got off near New York, New York then walked across the street to the Excaliber (Justin's favorite mythical stop).
We hung around and had one carny try to guess my age. He was off (but I won't tell you which way), so Justin got a viking helmet with the horns. We managed to get some head massages and wandered over to the Luxor. We rode up the Inclinator and looked out over the huge lobby. Then, we hopped the tram back to Excaliber and crossed the strip to walk along by the MGM and some other gaudy sights. Needless to say, the old tourism efforts at a "family friendly" atmosphere are pretty much gone. I've been to Vegas several times but hadn't been there for a couple of years. The amount of skin and sin portrayed everywhere from billboards to huge video screens has multiplied. It was exciting for everyone to get to visit Las Vegas but its probably not the most memorable part of our trip. That evening, we went to Bellagio and saw the dancing water fountain music show. That was pretty neat. We also worked our way downtown to see the Freemont Street Experience overhead video screen canopy that stretched for 3 city blocks. we waited for the show and watched a spray can artist create a beautiful painting with a couple dozen cans of spray paint. Then, the show came on and we quickly exited the downtown area. When I saw it a few years ago, it was a nice, cartoony type video presentation. Now, it's half-dressed women bouncing all over. I don't mean to complain, we had a wonderful time in vegas. Back at the hotel we saw some great circus acts; trapeze artists, jugglers and clowns. An artist did a charcoal drawing of Denise that is beautiful. We took a brief swim break at the hotel. Fortunately, the weather was a little overcast so it wasn't too hot in Vegas. Another fun sideline is the olympics started during our vacation. It was fun to watch and cheer for the athletes. Tuesday morning, we took the Duece down the strip to the Venetian to pick up our Chevy Impala rental car. We left Vegas and one word kept coming to mind: Opulence. We then headed out to Utah. We made a quick stop in St. George for lunch and a picture of the temple then it was on to Zion National Park. We were going to hike but we decided to just drive through the south side of the park. 
We saw the awesome sandstone cliffs in a myriad of colors reaching for the sky. We worked our way to Cedar City for our night's stay through a rain storm. A double rainbow greeted us as the rain let up. Wednesday, we headed out early. We got to Zion's and boarded the shuttle. We rode to the end of the line and headed for Zion Narrows. An awesome canyon cut by the Virgin River. Even more fun is hiking up the river in the river bed as the canyon walls get closer and closer and seem to climb higher and higher. 
When everyone was about ready to turn back, Spencer and I headed up river. We found a fork which kept getting narrower. It was awesome just running up the shallow river. We had to get pretty wet. We got past a waterfall and finally to another spot that was impassable. Our time was up so we had to head back anyway but it was an amazing journey. We then boarded the shuttle bus and headed for the Emerald Pools hike. We got all the way to the upper pool with an amazing sheer red rock face that seemed to rise forever. On our way back down, we were met with a welcomed downpour that helped cool us off. Everyone got their exercise on this day. It was time to head for the hotel. We made it to Nephi that night. The next day, we slept in a little then headed North. We drove around Provo and BYU and past the MTC (mentioning we could be back soon if Spencer goes to that MTC on his mission). We headed for Timpanogas Cave National monument. We had to wait a little for our tour to begin so we ate our Subway sandwiches then headed up the trail. It was about an hour uphill to the cave entrance. A warm, sweaty hike but the cave was about 40 degrees so we cooled off quickly once inside. It was awesome seeing the stalactites and stalagmites (the ranger confirmed Nate and my assertion that a stalactite hangs down from the ceiling!).
We got through and hiked back down under a light drizzle. We stopped in at Cabelas to see the the outdoor stuff then headed for our hotel in Lehi. The next day we were off for Salt Lake City. We pit stopped at Bingham Copper Mine to see the largest man-made excavation in the world! Then, on to Salt Lake. Paul and Denise went to the temple while the boys looked around the mall. Friday night, we arrived at my brother's house around 9 in Logan. It was great to see their family. We hung out in the tree house, roller bladed, skated, played guitar hero, watched olympics, floated the canal, went pistol shooting,
rode motorcycles, swam and had a wonderful time all day Saturday too.
Sunday morning, we headed to church with the Logan Shoes then it was off toward home. We got to Boise and stayed in a hotel there. Monday, we headed for Roaring Springs water park, one of our favorite family activities. We left there around 4 and hit our favorite Sizzler restaurant in Nampa before heading home. What a wonderful time we had, thanks to our whole family!
