Manifest Destiny

I feel like we have to move out West. It is our calling. OK, I don't really feel that strongly, but we certainly loved it out there while on vacation. We started off the trip by visiting Jackie, Brian, Tillie and the newly introduced to the world man Porter. He is a great baby and was adaptable to all the excursions we could handle for the two days we were there. Fort Thomas KY is such a cool place and we are glad Jackie and Brian were adventurous enough to move there and live there for a few years so we could visit. They really do live in the coolest little suburb of Cincinatti. Then we headed out WEST!!! The drive was not so bad other than the random dirt road out GPS sent us down in the middle of the night. We eventually made it to Utah. We all had a great time. I was able to go fly fishing in Yellowstone and in Flaming Gorge. I caught fish in Yellowstone and I think I caught a cold in Flaming Gorge. Seriously, we were hailed on multiple times in our thwarted efforts to land a single fish between Kurt, Matt and me. We still had a blast even though our cicada patterns sold to us by some girl at a gas station/fly shop in Dutch John who had obviously never been fly fishing in her life were worthless. No, really, it was obvious she had never been because she told us after we made the purchase. It is like Kurt said, the people selling the flies don't make them for the fish, they make them for the people stupid enough to pay for them (I paraphrased). We still had a great trip. While in Draper, we played at "the mansion" --everything from tennis and bocce ball to deer and bird hunting with our red rider BB guns (christmas presents from Kurt).
The kids had a great time with their cousins. They rode bikes nonstop on the tennis court and they loved the not-so-hot tub. The liked Yellowstone although their favorite parts were likely eating at McDonalds and the water slide at the, as Aiden put it, "fancy hotel" AKA Days Inn. We all had a blast for three weeks. It is coming to an end, and I am sad to say I have to go to the hospital on Monday. I love what I do, but I love hanging out with these guys even more. Thanks to all that made our great vacation possible. Especially Kurt and Deanne for all you do for us!


Tille and Aiden (now Elizabeth) and Brooks in the bat caves at the museum.

Kids Pajama Bocce Ball

Cousins hanging out at the house.

Rangers Fisher and Brooks, protectors of the wildlife!

Elizabeth and Brooks at Yellowstone Falls.

Waiting for the hail to clear.

Matt fishing the Green River.

Me fishing at Yellowstone.

Kurt fishing at Yellowstone with wildlife in the background. (It is the coolest place to fish.)

JJ is going to post more about our trip, but I wanted to get in my two cents.