heyy guys. sorry no update for a few days, weve been busy. california has been so much fun! boogie boarding, sea-kayaking, snorkeling, tidepools, getting lost in san diego, exploring hollywood, visiting universal studios, and successfully surfing ave been only a few of the weeks adventures. sad to be heading home tomorrow, but also ready to be back to all our family and friends. see you all soon :D love, kelly

phoenix arizona && jumpstreet! :D

after the canyon we packed up on friday and headed off to phoenix. at 111 it was the hottest weather i had ever been in. dinner at "el pollo loco" [the crazy chicken] was yummy before going to jumpstreet. if you havent heard of it, check this out.

grandcanyonnationalpark!

so tuesday we moved on the the grand canyon. we camped three nights there which felt like a short lifetime after almost a week on the road. friday we took a six mile hike down into the canyon. though i wasnt thrilled at the idea, it turned out to be an amazing experience! check out this gorgeous photography^^

^^arches national park. it was really beautiful and almost like another alien planet. this place makes michigan look pretty dull...

.::just a quick update::.

so we are at the la quinta in phoenix, about to leave for oceanside. the last few days have been amazing - arches national park, then camping in the grand canyon, then sedona and phoenix. ill put up some photos and stories tonight at the condo. hope everythings good back home! [:

well, more driving today.

we stayed in an, um....quaint little town on the other side of the rockies. it was nice, though, and we enjoyed our coffee in a local cafe. and then yep - we drove a lot. we made a stop along the colorado river for lunch by a mountain stream. it was colddd water &&in a beautiful canyon. then we made it to moab, utah. the rock formations are so amazing. tomorrow were exploring arches national park and canyonlands on the way to the grand canyon. we will be camping there for a few nights so probably no wifi. i'm excited to see it and there will be photos up afterwards. && heres some photos of our day today.

we saw moosen!!!!

we were just about to leave the park when we spotted MOOSEN! (multiple mooses) my my life is now complete. off to utah tomorrow (:

snowball fight in the mountains :D

we had a snowball fight at the op of some mountains(: it was amazing and made me happy.

mountain exploring!

so today we drove through rocky mountain national park. it was BEAUTIFUL(: this morning we went to mass in this adorable little mountain church. i saw a man with the coolest mustache ever. then we headed into the park. check out these awesome views!

^^colorado at last! were spending the night just outside of the national park in this pretty little lodge. the mountains are beautiful. going exploring tomorrow! :D

^^this is corn. they have a lot of it there.

^^william at the ihop in lincoln, nebraska. this was after
iowa but there was a whole lot of nebraska still to go.

from the appenzell inn - estes park colorado

well, we did it. i must admit that i didn't think we could, but we just traveled 25 hours from michigan to the rocky mountains in colorado. and it was an adventure! crossing the mississippi river at three in the morning in a thrilling lightning storm was an experience. soon after, while i was sleeping through iowa, the bolts became even more impressive. i woke up just as we were entering nebraska. i must say it was the most boring state i have ever seen. william rightfully observed that we must be going in circles because he was "sure he'd seen that exact same cornfield just minutes ago"

driving into the rockies was awesome. they are just beautiful. we found a cute inn in estes park to spend the night. tomorrow we will explore rocky mountain national park and stay over on the other side. im starting to feel like this drive was worthwhile && it really has been an adventure (: