Trip to New York

I went on a business trip in March to Kingston, New York.  I am sure glad I don't have to travel much for work because it is not that fun.  When you get on a plane to go on vacation you are much more willing to put up with the crowds, lines, and headaches of travel.  The one highlight of the trip was going to the Orange County Choppers headquarters which was about 20 minutes away from where we stayed.  I have never watched the show, but it was cool to see what they have created.  There were some really cool motorcycles; more like art than anything.

Here is the Lincoln motorcycle  

The NASA motorcycle

The New York Fire Department 9/11 motorcycle

The Gillette motorcycle

The Santa Clause motorcycle

The Christopher Reeves motorcycle

My flight back from NY was horrible.  I had the most turbulent flight I have ever been on.  Everyone's drink spilled and probably 10+ people threw up, including the girl sitting behind me.  I just about threw up myself.  When I got off the plane I was all sweaty and reeked of throw up.

St. George

In March Lyndsay, Mace and I went to St. George to visit Lyndsay's family and to go climbing with John and Corianne.  John and I wanted to attempt to climb something we had climbed with Mark Christensen just before we left on our missions.  Kourtney and Luke were nice enough to let us stay at their beautiful house/hotel.

Mace thought it was pretty fun to kick Lyndsay while swinging.

Here are Lyndsay and Mace at the park with the Dixie sign. 

Here is John on the start of "Banana Dance" 5.11D, the climb we had come all the way to St. George for. 

John made it up the first 3 bolts and then gave me a chance. 

I was able to get the quickdraw in on the fourth, but wasn't able to clip the rope in.

After that, John flew up past where we had been stuck before, and finished it.  It was pretty cool to watch.

The climb was so steep that you couldn't clean it from the top.  I spent forever climbing from the bottom cleaning the route.  I cheated in every way possible to get up it.

The next day we went to Chuckawalla.  Here is Corianne.

And John.

Las Vegas Trip

Tyler took the week after Thanksgiving off. We headed down to Las Vegas on Monday. It was such a fun little family trip. We stopped in St. George on the way and had dinner with my cousin Kourtney and her husband Luke! They are so fun. It was really great to see them.

We got to Vegas around bedtime so we just hung out in the hotel room. We stayed at the Imperial Palace. Mace slept in a queen size bed, and he did really good the first night. The second night, I don't think he was feeling well. He woke up so many times throughout the night. Tyler ended up laying next to him.

On Tuesday, we walked the strip. One of our favorite things about going to Vegas, is stopping at the MGM Grand to see the lions. We love it! We ended up walking through a new hotel and shopping center. They had these really cool containers filled with water. The water would start spinning, creating a tornado! It was really fun to be down there when all the Christmas decorations were going up.

We also spend some time at the Hoover Dam. We went on the tour and really enjoyed seeing everything. They have also finished the bridge since the last time we were there. Looking up at how high it is, I thought it would be scary to walk across it. It wasn't as bad as I though. We held Mace while walking across the bridge. He didn't really enjoy it, because he wanted to be big and do it himself. He did fall and stumble once we were almost back to the car. One thing that makes us laugh, is the bathrooms. They are on top of the dam, and look really fancy. You have to walk up the stairs to be able to use them!

 

All in all, it was a great trip and we enjoyed having some family time!