Yose-mite

I love national parks. It's no secret. However, after going to Yosemite last week, I feel bad for all the other national parks. How can you compete with giant granite walls everywhere and a new waterfall every time you turn around? What isn't my favorite though is the drive there. We broke it up with a stay in Tonopah. Ever heard of it? I hadn't either, but on the drive back the only hotel with rooms was the "Clown Hotel." Complete with giant clowns on the marquee. Over my dead body. So we slept in a church parking lot in the back of the car. We also made detours to Mono Lake on the way there and Lehman Caves on the way back. I've always wanted to go to Mono Lake and it did not disappoint. I mean, I'm not sure I would drive 10 hours just to see it, but it was exactly how I had imagined it.

Back the the point. Yosemite totally delivered.

I have a crush on Butch Cassidy

Who knew Vernal is awesome? We never would have considered going there on our days off if it weren't for Shandy the former Dinosaur Park Ranger. Although we didn't go to Dinosaur NP, there was plenty of hiking, white water rafting, and camping in the rain. Oh this adorable petroglyph of people getting married.

G Rated Honeymoon Pictures

I debated writing this post because I can already imagine the comments Amanda will leave. Yeah, I'm calling you out. But a honeymoon post naturally follows after a wedding one. When people asked what we were doing/did for our honeymoon I think they were expecting something ridiculously exotic. And I'm pretty sure they were disappointed when we said we drove up the California coast. However, it's exactly what we wanted. Something low key, without too much effort, something relaxing, not too much travel time, and a place with as much or as little as we felt like doing. And this was perfect. We went kayaking in the Pismo Beach area which is also where we spent the 4th watching the fireworks from the Pier. Then a few more stops along the way and ended the main part of the trip in Monterrey. This was the moment I knew Kyle loved me, because he was willing to spend a few hours at the aquarium. I had to--they had penguins.

Don't worry, no kissing pictures

July 1, 2011. We got married earlier in the morning, which I swore I would never do. But then I figured I wouldn't sleep well the night before (I was wrong, I slept great), I'd be anxious with anticipation (Truth, I popped out of bed so excited for the day), and I didn't want to be sweating in my pictures (non-factor, the weather was perfect all day). We had only invited immediate family to the temple for a number of reasons and it was nice. Not that there aren't other people I love, but this made it easy to coordinate, less people to entertain, and pictures were done in about 5 minutes.

After the pictures at the temple we drove up to Valencia for our luncheon at Salt Creek Grille where other family and friends met us. Delicious, but rather warm that weekend which we hadn't been expecting. Then by 5 o'clock lunch was over and family went one way and Kyle and I went the other. It was such a fun relaxing day with our close family and friends.