Vacation part 3-all the other fun stuff

Sorry for the long post, but I will never finish blogging about this vacation if I don't just put the rest of it in now!  We took a day and went to Mammoth caves.  It was perfect for the kids.  Nice and cool, and not too big.  They had fun exploring all the cracks and rocks and of course the cave.  Kolby even found another cave with ice inside.  It was so cold!  

This is where we stayed, it was really big inside and had plenty of room for us all!!

We stayed upstairs in the loft area.

One of the most exciting parts of the vacation was seeing Kirk and his mom 4-wheeling.  I've never seen this side of them, and it was AWESOME!!!!!  Kirk was like a kid in a candy store.  I've always teased him that he has no zest and excitement.  I was so wrong.  He was very zesty and exciting on that 4-wheeler.  Grandma went up like ten notches on the coolness scale too.  She even took me out and taught me how to ride.  I've never driven a 4-wheeler before, and was kind of scared of them, but after a while, I started having so much fun!  Kirk took me all around and we even drove through the river.  We were soaked when we got done.  All of the kids got to have rides with Kirk which was really fun for them too.

I LOVE this picture, it's right after they rode through the river and they had huge smiles on their faces.  (sorry it's blurry, I was really far away)

Now tell me that isn't just one happy Kirk!!!!!

 We made lots of fires and ate tons of yummy s'mores.  I had to have a marshmallow fix every night :)

We played games, read books, explored and ate lots of yummy food.  One morning Kirk and I even went out on a breakfast date to a little diner in town.  It was really fun!!

On the way home, this statue caught my eye in the town of Panguitch.  I thought it was so cool and the story is neat too-this is what it said on their website: 

Panguitch was settled by Mormon Pioneers in 1864. That first year was cold and the crops froze before reaching maturity. The settlers were hungry. A group of 7 men volunteered to go over the mountain to an established settlement and obtain flour to feed the starving settlers in Panguitch. They braved snow so deep, they had to abandon their wagons and walk much of the way. While walking, they would fall through the snow's crust. But these men found a way to get through. They placed a quilt down on the snow and walked to the end of it. Then they would place another quilt down and retrieve the first quilt. By "quilt walking" the men made it to the settlement and obtained flour to bring home to feed the starving settlers in Panguitch. Their return trip was even harder, because they had to carry the flour with them back over the mountain.

  I just love anything about the pioneers.

On our way home, there was tons of smoke.  We saw huge fires burning outside of Salt Lake.  We could see flames from the road.  It was cool and scary at the same time.

Well, that's the end of my really long vacation posts.  We had such a good time and hope to be able to do it again.  Thanks so so so much to Kirk's brother Ryan and his wife Mary.  She did so much and is expecting her second boy in September, so she really was a trooper!  I'm sorry I didn't get many pictures of them or Kerri, but they were there too!!!  Beth