Road Trip!

On 2 August 2013, we had a potluck at the same park and even the same pavilion that we had our wedding reception at.  It was so good to see so many of our friends, and so hard to say goodbye!  Lindsay shed quite a few tears.

On 3 August 2013, we said our tearful goodbyes to the Anderson family and went to Seven Peaks Water Park in Provo with our friends the Hunts.  It was really fun to spend time in the sun.  We felt like our summer vacation was finally beginning!  That night we drove to St. George, where we had dinner with Brent and Kathleen Kap, Lindsay's friends from her mission.  After a wonderful chat, we got on the road again and finished our trek to Las Vegas.

We were in Vegas for a week with Lindsay's whole family.  It was so much fun.  Lindsay's dad was working at the ASD trade show, and we helped a bit with that.  It was so crazy how much stuff was there.  Visual overload.

Some highlights of our time in Vegas include: The Las Vegas temple, Hoover Dam, Lake Meade, family photos, the Strip, the Stratosphere and its crazy ride, Insanity, a light show, deep fried oreos and shrimp cocktail on Freemont Street, Capo's Itallian restaurant, Los Tacos, L&L Hawaiian, Komex (Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant), swimming at the condo, Jordan riding a wheelchair at Smith's (his femur is still healing) and chasing us around in it, and just being with our family.

On 10 August 2013 we resumed our road trip and saw the Grand Canyon at the South Rim.  Matt hadn't been since he was super young, and Lindsay was only there for 30 minutes when she was 12.  We took a few pictures, but mostly just soaked the beauty in.  There was a man who started singing "How Great Thou Art" and some others joined in.  It was really special.  It was fun to hear how many different languages were represented.  Lindsay was really excited to find some people speaking Cantonese and asked them (in English at first) if they were together, because they were trying to take a group photo.  When she broke out in Cantonese, they were all in shock and amazement.  It made everyone smile.  They thanked us for our help, and then we went on our way.  We ended up at Four Corners at about 11:30, only to find the gate was locked and the hours were from 8 AM-8 PM.  Since no place within 100 miles had any vacancy, we parked right in front of the gate and slept (not so soundly) in the car.

11 August 2013 we awoke to find quite the line of cars behind us.  We were the first ones into the monument, and enjoyed standing in 4 states at once, eating cereal in 4 states at once, and kissing in 4 states at once!  We then drove to Ship Rock in New Mexico, had lunch in Farmington, and arrived in Santa Fe in the late afternoon.