Setting Out/Utah

Went on a trip wearing fancy clothes...

After a quick night with Jim/Grambee we were down at Mystic Hot Springs in Monroe, Utah.

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Ella and I visited this place 15 years ago...kind of more built and just as dilapidated...

More noodles, though.  The owner, Magic Mike, actually has developed a special massage technique involving noodles and the natural hot springs.  Alas, we did not enjoy this treatment.  But some people were ready.

Soon, we were racing toward Capitol Reef!

Whoa!

Punkins

Additional News

Ida's doing some special Trackers Apprenticeship. She's a survivalist.

Meanwhile, Ida/Miki/Elsie/Theo's daycare teacher Briana got married!

You can see that they were closely followed on their stroll...

Yes!

Hot Lorax-Head on the scene

Aw

Someone is getting Told in this picture.

CR3

Lots of pictures taken on this short trip!

 Last night...after fancy birthday dinner...

This hat was a big hit with all Lodge guests, let me tell you.

Tried to get a decent holiday card picture for these dudes.

It's way harder than you might expect!

Thank you, sir, for making Crater Lake a National Park!

 Now here's a tremendous family!

Crater Lake 2

Last time we were at Crater Lake, the girls were too little to walk all the way down to the lake, and too big to carry. So this time we set out.

The young people even ran ahead.

YEs.

Maggie's hiking outfits, ever-legendary.

We made it to the bottom, and found some sustenance.

Rangers got angry at these girls for scratching the rocks with other rocks.

The crew.

These two have an interesting relationship.

Look at the color of that water.  Famously cold!  Would we go in?

Ida of course did, right away, several times; others moved with more trepidation.

They call him the sock-swimmer.

Theo wasn't so sure.

Probably the most iconic photo is this one of Ida and me jumping off a cliff, to many peoples' dismay.

Ida really liked all the cheering, and really thought this would get her in the newspaper....

She got a lot of Likes on Facebook, I guess.  And this blog, read by 2-3 people.