Southern Utah 2017 Family Trip

Sep 2017 - Another fun fall family trip with all kids and spouses and all 10 grandkids.

It was great to have everyone together for a fun week sharing a large vacation home at Sand Hollow near St. George.  Activities included hiking at Zion National Park and Snow Canyon, wading and building sand castles as Sand Hollow State Park, swimming at the resort pool, early morning runs, walks around the golf course, enjoying the indoor slide and kids' castle at the house, creative games, and lots of big family meals and snacks.

Bridge to Emerald Pools at Zions.
Almost got all the grandkids in this pic, just missing the oldest and the youngest.  Ages here are 11, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 3 and 3.

 Lower Emerald Pool with 9 yr old.
 



5 grandkids that made the extra hike to the upper emerald pools with Yaya and Papa.


Zions  riverside hike. We saw squirrels and deer.

Sand Hollow Reservoir

 Snow Canyon hike

More red rocks at Snow Canyon

Two 3-yr olds enjoying a snack
 
















View from roof of vacation house.

 Pool and hot tub, before the splashing began.

Grand Canyon 2017

March 2017 - Hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back.

 

Springtime hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back with Ken, Kevin, Collin (12), and Carson (10).  Kevin's plans is to do this hike when each of his kids turns 10.  Two down, only four more to go!  I've done this twice now and lived to tell.  Bucket list item x2!

We hiked down Bright Angel trail which is supposed to be 9 miles, but seemed more like 11 miles, to the bottom of the canyon, crossed the Silver Bridge over the Colorado River and camped at Phantom Ranch area, Bright Angel campground.  The next day we hiked half way up and camped at Indian Gardens and finished hiking up the following day, arriving at the top rim about 11 AM.  Fun trip! 

 Not at the Grand Canyon, but here's a nice rainbow from the backyard of the house.  The desert plants enjoy a rare spring shower.

Hawaii 2017

January - February 2017.  Hawaii trip to Maui and Kauai.

Love this picturesque greenery, pool, and beach scene. Across the water is the nearby island of Molokai. A perfect view, all from the balcony of our hotel/condo suite at Napili Kai Resort on Maui. 

From the pool area, looking back to our building.  Middle building, on the end right, second floor.

Beach area with soft golden sand and clear clean water all the way out to the rocks. Nice snorkeling here, variety of fish and sea life including octopus and sea turtle.




 
At the south end of Maui, sailed on this boat from Makena Beach out to Molokini Crater for some great snorkeling.

Molokini crater from the air and a sample of what the fish and coral look like there.  No, I didn't take these photos, but when we flew into Maui, we flew directly over the crater, what an amazing view!

 Great snorkeling!

January is humpback whale season in Hawaii.  We did one whale watching tour and mostly saw this . . . the backs of many whales and this . . . the tales of many whales as they dove down to the depths.

But when we did the Molokini Crater trip, we saw even more whales and even some doing this.

Amazing!!!

Back at Napili Kai, sunset from the balcony.

Sunset from the beach, over the island of Lanai in the distance.

On Kauai, boat tour to the Na Pali coast.  Up close and personal with sea caves and waves. The boat was amazingly close to the cliffs with waves crashing and spraying. So cool to see these huge caves and arches carved out of lava rocks by the sea.  Too rough to snorkel here.

Aloha Hawaii!