Havin' fun down at the piers!

More pictures of Alcatraz

This is us in one of the cells known as "the hole" where prisoners were kept sometimes up to 11 days as punishment for being really bad. It had double doors and was pretty much just 4 cement walls and pitch black when the doors are shut. It was really pretty creepy.
This is us on the island outside of the control room and wardens office at Alcatraz looking over to San Francisco.
This is one of the famous cell blocks in Alcatraz where some of the most dangerous criminals in the country were kept. This is where Al Capone, and "Machine Gun" Kelly were housed.
This is a view of Alcatraz on our boat ride back to the pier.

Alcatraz!

This is Carter and Cambree on the boat ride over to Alcatraz
Views of Alcatraz on our boat ride

The view from the boat dock at Alcatraz
Carter and Cambree sitting in one of the prison cells at Alcatraz

More Muir Woods Pictures

Muir Woods National Park

Our first day in San Francisco, we visited the Muir Woods National Park. I was absolutely blown away at how BIG some of those old Redwood Trees are. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was down there in all those trees. It was actually pretty dark and so a lot of our pictures didn't turn out perfect, but we had a lot of fun. Oh yeah, we also saw 3 deer while we were there.

More Jelly Belly pictures!

Do You Know What I mean, Jelly Bean?

Here is a picture of the Sample Bar where you could try all the jelly beans that you wanted.


Here is a picture of Cambree standing in front of the "booger" flavored jelly beans
All over the factory were works of art just like this one made out of jelly belly beans. They were absolutely amazing!

Jelly Belly Factory

Our next stop on our way to San Francisco was in Fairfield, to visit the Famous Jelly Belly Factory. It was amazing to see how so many different types of jelly beans and other different candies are made. I never knew some of the history behind Jelly Bellys and the factory was absolutely amazing. They had a sample bar that you could visit and eat all the jelly beans that you wanted. I tried most of them except for the nasty ones that they make (like booger, vomit, and baby wipe). Yes, believe it or not, they make flavors like these. I was amazed at how many different flavors they have.

Grand Sierra Hotel in Reno

On our way to San Francisco, we stopped in Reno and stayed at the Grand Sierra Hotel. The coolest thing about staying there, was the awesome driving range that they had outside. It was basically a lake with little islands. All of the islands had targets and you could win different prizes by hitting the targets. The golf balls looked and felt like regular golf balls but they were "floating" golf balls and there were guys in boats that would go around and scoop all the balls up. Christy and I took the kids, and Bryce and Amanda took Emmy, and we all had fun hitting balls.

Labor Day Weekend

This Labor Day weekend we went up to Round Valley in Morgan, Utah. Or as Cambree called it “up in the mountains” The kids were really excited to go up there this year. People often look at us like we’re crazy when we tell them that we are going camping at a golf course in Morgan. I have been going every year since I was a little boy, and Christy and I have been going every year since before we were married. It is just a really fun place to camp, golf, hike & just relax. Our kids always look forward to the evenings when we go out and walk the golf course and look for golf balls. It is always fun to see how many and what kinds of balls we can find. This year we saw several deer out wandering around camp and wandering on the fairways. The kids also had fun sitting around the campfire, making smores and throwing sticks in the fire.

Golfing with the kids

While Christy was out golfing with the other girls in the family, I took Carter and Cambree up to hit buckets of balls. We had a blast taking turns hitting balls. I am really proud of Carter. He is only six years old and he can already hit them pretty far with his driver. Carter seems to really love two sports in particular: basketball and golf. I am happy that he wants to be a golfer. Cambree was also trying her hardest to hit them and having a lot of fun doing it. It was one of the funnest afternoons I have had in a long time.

Frog Hunting at Round Valley

Carter wanted to go frog hunting this year at Round Valley. There happens to be a few ponds on the course that have hundreds of frogs. Every step you take you see two or more hopping away from you. In fact I still remember when I was younger, my brother and I used to see how many we could catch and one year we filled a 5 gallon bucket full of frogs. Well, this year we took a 32 ounce cup and I caught 5 frogs for Carter. He thought they were the coolest things ever. He was a little dissapointed when we told him that he couldn't keep them, but we had fun with them for a little while. We took them back to camp to show everyone and then we walked over to the closest fairway and let them all go.