Dan's California Picture Tour, Continued

Yours truly jumping off of party rock with hat in hand, and, which can't be detected in just a photograph, shrieking like a little girl.

This is Kristen on our hike up to Mist Falls. We had heard from a group coming back down that we should be careful because a bear was at the top of the falls when they were there. So, naturally, I was really hoping to get there in time to see the bear.

Unfortunately, the bear was gone by the time we got there. So Kristen's brother and sister-in-law and I swam around at the falls. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The scenery was awesome, and the water was cold enough that you numbed up quickly and could then just enjoy the swim. It was nice because nobody else showed up for a long time.

This is me doing my "I pity the fool who don't eat my smores" pose. I was trying to devise a way to not only toast my marshmallow, but to also melt my chocolate. I tried just heating up a whole smore over the fire, but it just burned my graham cracker and turned it all mushy. Ultimately, I just had to heat the whole smore over the propane lantern, which worked pretty well. Does anybody else have any good smore making tips that get the chocolate melted? By the way, we put peanut butter on the smores, and they tasted really good.

This is the rattlesnake we saw on our hike back from Mist Falls. The whole week long I was hoping to see a bear. A bear came during the night at least two nights during the week and made a ruckus in neighboring campsites, but it never came to our campsite. I stayed up late and alone one night, smeared with honey, hoping to catch the bear on the prowl, but it didn't come, and I ended up just going to bed. So I didn't get to see a bear. Thus, the coolest picture of fauna from Kings Canyon that I can post is of this rattlesnake. But Kristen did a see a bear on her way to the restroom in the middle of the night, so you can ask her about that. Just kidding about the honey.

Dan's Picture Tour of the rest of our summer trip

Kristen forgot to mention that while in Utah, I went mountain biking for the first time with her brother Kirk. He was nice to not get mad at me for slowing him down. I hadn't ridden a bike for about 10 years. I think it's fair to say that we pretty much owned that mountain, as you can see from our intrepid expressions above.

CALIFORNIA Pictures

This is the river, and my soap-and-shampoo-free bath tub, behind our campsite in King's Canyon.
This is Kristen next to a big tree. It had pine cones (or sequoia cones?) bigger than her head. But not bigger than mine.
This is a nice view from Morrow Rock/Peak/I can't remember. That's Kristen's brother in the background, not some random stranger.
Kristen and her sister Candice jumping off of Party Rock in King's Canyon. Kristen is fearlessly leading the way. I'll post more pictures later.

SUMMER'S END

Contrary to popular belief (or maybe just one person's belief, Katy) , I am not dead. So here is my post. Dan and I just got back to Charlottesville yesterday after spending 2 weeks with various branches of my family in various parts of the country. Here's the rough breakdown:

First, I spent a few days staying w/ my sister in Provo before Dan could fly out. This way, I could have girl time with my old roomies without feeling like I was neglecting Dan. It was a blast! I got to see three of my old roommates. We went to dinner, went swimming, and just hung out. I wish I could have seen them more! My stay there was entirely too short. They are the best!

While I was still husband-less, I also got to walk around BYU's campus (and south of campus) and take some pictures of places and things that mean something special to me and Dan. The empty lot used to be an elementary school where Dan and I had our first kiss (awww...). Sorry to all of the kids that were at recess when that happened... I think I saw a few lose their lunches. Just kidding! It was after school hours. The second is of our first apartment. So exciting. The third is of my fav type of flowers at the Terraced Garden at the south end of campus where we would often go walking. I love you, Dan!

This shot has no significance to me or Dan, but I've always liked it so I thought I'd take a close-up of it. The first person who can guess what it is wins. You don't win anything, but you win knowing that you won. So deep. After all of that, Dan came in to town so what did we do? We got donuts from Sugar 'n' Spice. They are so good. So much better than nasty Krispy Kremes. We also happened upon a sign from the Quill and the Sword club at BYU. Some of you may not know this, but Dan was the president of the Quill and the Sword club for four years in a row. He changed his major 3 times in order to keep his dictatorship, I mean presidency, going. He always wore a helmet so that people wouldn't know his true identity. And all members of the club had to refer to him as "Dungeon Master." So needless to say, he was very excited to see a poster about the Q&tS (that's what insiders call it) and felt the need to strike an all-too-familiar pose. Get it, Dungeon Master, get it. If any of you who went to BYU had ever seen those guys dressed in head-to-toe red fighting with wooden swords outside of the Wilk on a Saturday morning, you've probably seen Dan. He'd be the last one standing. But back to our adventures...
Those other two are of the spot where Dan proposed to me. He was probably looking something like that. And I was probably looking something like that.

After all of this, my family had its annual reunion at a cabin in Heber, Utah. It was so great to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We hung out the first day, went to a lake for two days, and went to Park City the last day. Dan had never been jetskiing before and he loved it. I am so grateful for such a wonderful family. My dad, his sister, and three brothers were all separately adopted by my grandparents. They've raised them all in the gospel and it's awesome to see how that act of love has had such an amazing impact on so many lives! They are all so fun and loving and kind. As all of the cousins get older, I don't know how often everyone will get to be together so it was really nice. I love them so much!

Well, that sums up the first half of the trip. Sorry this is so long! Maybe I'll save the second half of the adventure for Dan to post. But here's one last picture for good measure.
This was the bandit we saw on our way from Utah to California.