Arizona...

There have been a lot of activities and

adventures since we have been in Arizona:

We went on a walk with Tyson and Sam and decided

to do some Geo-Cacheing along the way. We found

one in a tree. Just above Sam you will see Tyson getting

the cache. We were glad the boys were with us

because there is no way Tom or I could have ever

reached the box.

Paige loves playing games. This is a new one they

got for Christmas called Suspend. It's a lot like

Pick-up-Sticks but suspended in air.

Quinten and Kate were able to leave for a few days to

attend a conference in Las Vegas so we got to

babysit. It was my job to get the girls ready for school.

Of course I can't compete with Kate on the speciality

hair-do's but I think they turned out pretty good.

At the park:

Allie's a real monkey.

We were able to visit our dear friends, the Gilchrists who

have now moved to Apachie Junction from New York.

It was so nice to spend some time catching up and

seeing some new Arizona sites

Dan and Tom are still crazy:

A third temple we were able to visit on this trip is the

new Gilbert temple. We attended the open house. It is

absolutely gorgeous temple and decorated around the

Agave plant.

The Agave plant is quite interesting. It grows for about

30 years and then finally produces these beautiful flowers

but then dies. So if you see a flowering Agave plant you

know that it is at the end of its life.

(sorry the picture is a bit blurry

Quinten took this picture of us after we toured the temple.

Allie was sick so Kate had to stay home with her.

It was a great day.

Road Trip Continues...

Thursday, Jan 16th, we said a sad goodbye to family in

Salt Lake City and headed south. We decided instead of going

straight to Arizona we would do some site-seeing. 

We wanted to go to Mesa Verde in southern Colorado so

we headed in that direction and ended up seeing several

awesome areas along the way.

Tom wondered where the "hole in the rock" was and

just as he said that we went around the corner heading

towards Moab and there it was.

Around the edge of this rock is just a bunch of tourist stuff.

Not a thrill.

But then we got to Monticello and found the new temple.

It wasn't hard to find since it is about the only thing in

Monticello.

As we continued south we decided to take a detour and

go to Natural Bridges National Monument. There are

three natural bridges. You can hike down to them but

we didn't have time to hike to all three.

Bridge #1

Bridge #2

We did hike down to Bridge #3.

It wasn't too bad climbing down, but climbing up

was a different story. The altitude was a killer.

We took another detour and the road took us down this

switch-back dirt road down the face of this incredible

mesa face. You can't imagine this road unless you

were on it. Very scary!!!!

We stayed in Cortez, CO and then today went to Mesa Verde.

I really didn't know what to expect, but this place

was really fascinating. To think that the Pueblo people

built and lived in the face of these cliffs in unreal.

Another homestead….

We got to hike down to "Spruce Tree" which is one

to the three areas that they allow you to explore.

This is the opening to one of the "Kivas" which is where

they would go to get warm. They had fire inside and

there are places to sit.

Inside one of the Kivas...

There water supply was from springs that flowed

through the rocks.

We then headed for the Four Corners site.

It was a joke but as least we can say we saw it.

I'm standing in Utah and New Mexico.

The little booths behind me are all around the site where

the Indians sell their jewelry and stuff.

Finally we made it to Snowflake, AZ where we

spent the night. As we approached Snowflake, we could

see the temple up on the only hill in the area. It's a

beautiful temple and built around a golf course.

Of course Tom said he knew golf was a

celestial sport.

Tomorrow we head to Mesa to see Quinten and his family.

ROAD TRIP Dec 2013 - Feb 2014

We decided to take our road trip West to spend Christmas with

some of our family members in Salt Lake City. But on our

way we had some important stops to make:

Cincinnati was our first stop to visit Nicholas and Jenny.

I'm sorry I didn't take a lot of pictures. But we had a

great time visiting with them and having a pre-christmas

gift opening party.

Onto our next stop, Laramie Wyoming.

We loved spending several days with Cecil and Dorthella.

We opened gifts with them and Cecil loved looking

over the calendar we all received from Krista.

It has become an annual tradition for Krista to design a

calendar and we all look so forward to seeing it.

Cecial, Dorthella, Joe, Mark and Tom. Don't they

look excited about the holidays!!!!!!

I couldn't leave this picture out. Dorthella sometimes

disappears but we discovered her hiding place:

the closet with the furnace. 

Christmas Day in Salt Lake with Kendall and her family,

Krista and Avery and Oma and Opa Plumb.

Avery and Harper loved playing with their new toys together.

Opa Plumb was also engrossed with Krista's calendar.

He also loved playing with his great-grandchildren.

A trip to Skeels (an outdoors store).

Kendall and Marlee on the Ferris Wheel.

Avery loved playing with the "animals."

Rhaegan and Marlee with the grizzly.

On Jan 4th we all went to Caldwell, ID to be with Rhaegan when she

was baptized. I felt so bad that I didn't get a picture of her in

her pretty white dress, but we had a wonderful day with her.

We stayed with Jim, Robbie, Jamie and Mattie in Boise.

Sisterly love…..

Brothers…..

Of course you can't go to bed without playing several games

of Rummy-down and eating bowls of popcorn.

A true Cupps' tradition.