Sisters

One of the fun things of visiting Utah is seeing Claudia with her sisters, JoAnn and Diane.  They really enjoy being together.  The love they share is wonderful.

So … in three different locations, here they are!

Huntington Beach!

Friday night, we drove to California spend Labor Day weekend with the Redds. Saturday afternoon, we luxuriated in the warm sunshine and cool surf at Huntington Beach. Holly brought her friend Kylie Shumway from Mesa. Brian Redd brought his friend Andrew Een to the beach with us. Both kids and adults had a marvelous time.

Claudia enjoyed basking in the sun. Actually, she and Mark took a four mile walk north along the beach and to the end of the Huntington Beach pier. We had both relaxation and exercise!

Mark kept connected to the Internet periodically via his mobile phone. In order to keep the sun out of his eyes, he wore sunglasses. To enable him to see the phone screen he needed reading glasses. So, he sometimes wore both!

Big Buff Bryan! Thanks for sharing your beach with us.

A set of more photos from our delightful time at the beach can be viewed on Flickr.

Thanks for sharing our little vacation with us!

Twin Falls Temple - Eternal Dixon Family

Finally, here are some photos of the Dixon clan when we gathered after the Twin Falls Temple open house. You can view more photos in Mark's Flickr photo set for the occasion.

"Oh, Ken!"

Working Vacation

We have enjoyed working in the back yard today. We like to think we are "earning our keep" while staying with Heidi, Garry and the boys. When we arrived Saturday, we were amazed by the large pile - 15 tons of pea gravel. How in the world would that ever be spread around the play area?

But we did it! We moved all 15 tons, with shovels and wheelbarrows, so the rest of the play structure can be built and another load of gravel delivered to fill the rest of the area.

Mark and Garry got up early and attached the swing support beam to the central play structure. Heidi and Mark attached the wall and added the "climbing rocks." Even though there is quite a bit of work yet to do, the boys are already having new adventures on this fun structure.

You can see more photos from our vacation on Mark's Flickr photo set.

Dixon Road Trip!

On Saturday morning, July 12th, we (Claudia, Mark, Ryan and Holly) embarked on a 10-day, 2,500-mile road trip that will take us eventually from Mesa, AZ, to Colorado Springs, CO, Salt Lake City, UT, and Jerome, ID, in our trusty Toyota Sequoia that had over 117,000 miles of on the road experience (when we started). Eric had to stay home to meet the needs of his Real Estate clients, but keeps in touch daily by cell phone.

We left Mesa just after 5:00 am Mountain Standard Time (only Arizona is on that time this time of year) and arrived in Colorado Springs at Heidi's home just after 9:00 pm Mountain Daylight Time. We drove north from Mesa to Payson and Heber before turning east on I-40 just outside Holbrook, AZ. From there we drove to Albuquerque (just over half way) before catching I-25 to drive through Santa Fe and on north to Colorado Springs.

It was Mark's first visit to New Mexico. He had been in 45 of the United States, but never in the state next door. Now, only Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska and Hawaii are on Mark's bucket list.

We ate breakfast at the Knotty Pine Cafe in Payson (great down-home cooking), lunch in at Subway in Santa Fe (the normal franchise stuff) and an A&W truck stop in Walsenburg, CO (quick and easy).

We took the following photo of Ryan and Holly in Continental Divide, NM.

While we stopped for gas at Continental Divide, we saw this amazing vehicle. The fellow who owned this big tricycle said it was powered by a Chevy 350 cubic inch engine that generated 380 horsepower. Wow! He had flown to Kansas City to pick it up from the manufacturer and was riding it back to Southern California. Maybe we should get one for Claudia for our next road trip!

If you want to follow our vacation in real-time, you may want to sign in to Twitter.com and follow Mark's updates @mgd. You can send us messages there as well.

We will post road trip photos on Mark's Flickr photo set.

More later!

Breakfast with the Bartle Boys

We arrived at Heidi's home in Colorado Springs last night (Saturday, July 12), after 800 miles and 15 hours from Mesa. Breakfast with Zach, Tyler and Gavin made the whole trip worth it!

We'll keep you updated with photos from our vacation on Mark's "Road Trip 2008" Flickr photo set.