Dalliene, Lizzy, Jack and I all went to Vail, Colorado for a Technology Conference that I go to every year. We stayed in the Vail Marriott and while I was at the conference, Dalliene, Lizzy and Jack went school shopping at the outlet malls in Silverthorne.

On the way back to Utah we stopped and had a great hike to Hanging Falls outside of Glenwood Springs. It started out with beautiful sunny weather, changed to a total downpour that included pebble-size hail, and ended with a fine mist that hung around while we were at the falls and continued while on our way back to the car.

We got wet, but not really drenched because we hung out under a thick stand of trees while it poured for a few minutes.
The falls were kind of magical and the canyon was gorgeous that we hiked up in.

As is the norm, we went to the Freedom Fest Parade and watched all of the floats go by while sitting with a bunch of cousins. Tareq and York’s families were there as was Melanie and her family, Nicole and Dave and their kids were there with Rusty and Danielle. Rusty was part of the show since he walked the parade route representing UVU in his green tshirt.

This Friday Lizzy broke her right arm in a soccer game up in Salt Lake. She was blocking a shot and severely fractured her radius. She said that she doesn’t really remember much of what happened but when she got up her arm looked like Harry Potter’s in the second movie when the bludger hit his arm and Professor Lockhart tried to fix it.

Yesterday she went in for surgery. After waiting in the doctor’s office for over three hours, she finally got her very first cast. Everyone on her soccer team signed it at her game later that day. Luckily it’s spring break right now so she doesn’t have to write anything with her left hand… yet.

Guest post by Katy

Had a great time in Memphis watching Andy Roddick and Lindsey Davenport play in the Morgan Keegan Championship tourney. Of course I got to see Mom and Dad and Darrin, Jeremy & Angela, Cherise & Brady, Heidi & Bill and all of their cute kids.

The highlight of the week (yes a solid week!) was just hanging out with Darrin, Jeremy, Billy, Brady and of course Mom and Dad. We had a few too many late nights with the Wii (playing Tiger Woods Golf and Guitar Hero) but had a great time overall

Went downtown to Beale Street where this opening pic was taken outside of BB Kings Club. Got to enjoy some great food at Momma’s Restaurant (where we enjoyed Madeira Chicken and German Chocolate Cake for Dad’s Birthday) as well as at Corky’s Barbecue and The North End in Downtown Memphis (it is now called Westside since it was resurrected after the fire)

Click the pic for a quick slide show of the trip.

Yes that is Lizzy, my cute little soccer star. She played a great series of games and her Celtic Storm U-13 Team came in Second in the tournament. She is a lot of fun to watch. In the final game against Avalanche (last years’ State Championship Team) she battled hard against #7 Carly. In the first 15 minutes, both girls had gone down multiple times. Unfortunately at about 20 minutes, Lizzy’s coach, Laura Heaton swapped a few girls out and Liz was one of them (all in the name of equal playing time). Within 2 minutes, Carly from the other team scored on us.

It was a hard fought match and Celtic lost 4-0. Click HERE for more pics.

While in St. George for Lizzy’s Icebreaker tournament, Alex and I camped out in Zions National Park. During a break from the tournament Liz accompanied us up to the top of Angel’s Landing. This is one of the coolest hikes I have ever been on. Click HERE for more pics. It is actually paved most of the way but is quite steep rising 1500 feet along the West Rim Trail. Along the knife’s edge there are chains to protect against the sheer drop-off on one side of the trail. We did not get to the viewpoint of Angels landing due to the heavy ice and snow that covered the trail. We made it to the chains but no further. Walter’s Wiggles (a steep series of switchbacks near the top of the trail) was packed with snow and was a bit dicey on our return trip. We had a great time that made us want to go back in slightly warmer weather.
Camping was fun though it was much colder than I expected. Overnight lows were in the mid to lower 20s. Thanks to some warm sleeping bags we stayed toasty in our tent. I was a bit taken aback at the new pricing for the National Parks fees. It is $25 for a weeks pass or $80 for a yearly Interagency Parks Pass. I went for the Interagency Pass which will also allow us access to all Federal, Forest Service and BLM land. Now we need to go have some fun camping to make it really worth it!

It was great spending time both with Alex and Lizzy. It is great fun being part of their lives and watching them grow up.

Love doesn’t make the world go ’round.
Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
~ Franklin P. Jones