This post has been a long time coming, but thats just because I got lots of pics from the trip.  Each year (well sometimes 2x year) I bring the wife & kid (soon to be 2) out to Utah to visit my parents, sisters, and some of my inlaws.  Long post, enjoy the pics & story that going along.

We started our journey catching Amtrak in Emeryville. Train leaves around 8:30 if memory serves me correct, and our original plan was to get off the train in Provo at 4:30am the next morning.  But in typical fashion, we ended up being stopping at about 2-2:30am due to the track breaking.  Yes, the track broke.  Luckily the engineer found out about it before we drove over it completely.   Adam decided that 2:30am was a good time to wake up, so we hung out while they fixed the rails.  We ended up exiting the train in Salt Lake City instead at 5:15ish am.

Since my son is obsessed with trucks, my parents got him a ride on backhoe for him to play with.  It was definitely the winning present this Christmas for him.  Later after dinner we had some fondue.

Photo courtesy of Shane, who tried to show I actually do work while on vacation.  Actually I was probably surfin the internet when he took the picture.

My Brother in Law & buddy Shane built this ice rink in the backyard.  Its big.  Like, we played 2v2 hockey on there.  It was a little crowded at that point, but it felt good ice skating outside at night in 10 degree weather.  NHL guys got nothing on us!

We included a mini photoshoot of Shane out on the rink.

In accordance with established family tradition, our trip involved trains.  In fact, trains seem to be a common theme in my family.  Ancestors worked on the railroad, rode the railroad, and loved the railroad.  We took a train ride up to Ogden, Utah on Frontrunner, to visit the train museum up there and enjoy the time together.

And dinner.  I apologize for those in the dinner picture.  I had a hard time picking the one where someone wasn’t making a weird expression, so I chose the one where almost everyone was making a weird expression.  And unlike the picture, we were all having a good time, dinner isn’t a somber time around my parents house.

Since we didn’t have much time to hang out at the train museum earlier, my parents & me/wife/kid drove up to Ogden & spent a fair amount of time out there.  Downside, was it was cold, very cold.  I made the mistake of climbing on the 833 engine from the cab to the front of the train and had a hard time moving my hands after.

Two images from my mom.  She’s getting good!

A couple more images from my mom.  For those who haven’t met me yet, I’m the guy wearing the hockey socks & black/teal long sleeve shirt.

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My wife & I decided we would take our five year anniversary trip a month late. Since my wife had never been to Las Vegas, we decided we would take a trip out there for a few days. While planning the trip, we realized that hotel/airfare was way cheaper during the week instead of the weekend. So we were able to save a bunch of money by taking a trip Tuesday through Thursday.

I am definitely not conditioned to walking around all day long. We flew into Vegas Tues morning/early afternoon and took the shuttle to our hotel, Excalibur. After getting settled, we walked the strip from our hotel to the Bellagio. I convinced my wife I had gotten us dinner reservations at a restraunt where we could dine with sharks & fishes. Too bad it was all part of an elaborate ruse to hide the fact that I had gotten us tickets to see The Lion King.

The next day we spent walking the strip again, this time mostly going to the hotels/casinos past Bellagio, such as The Venetian, Caesers Palace, and Treasure Island. We also had dinner watching The Tournament of Kings at Excalibur. It was cool, but not nearly as good (in my opinion) as the show in Los Angeles (Medevial Times)

After the show we headed out to the Bellagio to watch the water show in front, then headed back to the Monte Carlo to The CupCakery to eat some delicious cupcakes. Overall we spent a little bit of time in all the casinos/hotels on the stri[p from Mandalay Bay through The Venetian. I think I would rank the Forum Shops as my favorite place, while my wife hasn’t figured out what her favorite place was.

And now for the pics!  I decided I wanted to travel light and simple.  I only brought the D300 (no grip) plus the 35mm lens.

View from the backside of our hotel

Made entirely of M&M’s at M&M World.

The Atrium at Bellagio.  Yes, that is a real pumpkin

After Bellagio we decided to go visit Paris.

Our hotel from the New York – New York side of the street

Inside the Venetian now.

Some random guy offered to take our picture for us.

The biggest surprise of the trip – Lion King tickets.

The lion enclosure at MGM Grand.

The other highlight of the trip – M&M World as my wife LOVES M&Ms

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If you were to meet my son for a few minutes, or you have known him for a while, you will know he is like Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoon.  He is constantly covered in dirt.  If we’re at home and he’s not sleeping or eating, he is usually in the backyard playing around in the dirt.

Well a few days ago my father in law was outside watering the lawn in the backyard.  Adam found a little hole filled with water.  When I was outside with him he was having fun getting mud all over my hands.  Since that was normal I figured I wouldn’t take any photographs of it.

About five minutes later my brother in law comes running in and telling me to get my camera.  Instead of explaining the rest, I figured I’d let the photographs tell the story of what I saw and what happened next.

So it finally came time to get cleaned up and ready for dinner.  My wife gave me the job of bringing him out to the front yard since there is more grass, and hose him off.  After we got most of the mud off, it was time for a bath.

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One of my good friends (wow, I’ve known you for 12 years!!) came back to town for a few days for another mutual friends baby shower.  While she was here we had a quick photo session & also some time just playing around reminiscing about old times.  In addition I don’t know how many stories she told my wife, but I’m pretty sure none of them were true!

I titled the post, “Laura’s House” since when we were in high school, her house is the one all of us would go to hang out.  It was normal for us to have 10 people there on an afternoon, jumping on the trampoline (and getting water poured on us while on the trampoline), swimming, watching movies, or just plain hanging out.

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Well this is part two of my trip out to Bishop/Eastern Sierras.  It was still hot (95+) the entire time, and by the end of the trip I think Adam was getting a little tired of it.  He had a great time though hanging out with both sets of grandparents.

We made the best use of our time while we were out there, and visited lots of different places.  One place on our list was Erik Schat’s Bakkery in Bishop.  They’ve got some of the most delicious bread/pastries/candies I’ve had in a long time!

We also took a trip up to Mammoth Mtn area, where we spent some time hiking around & playing in the water.

This kid is crazy.  The water is freezing cold, it was windy & a little chilly, and he was as happy as a clam.  That is until he fell into the water and got soaked!

Remember, you are being watched!

On the last day of our trip we headed up the Ancient Bristlecone Forest about 20mi outside of Big Pine.  On the way we passed the remnants of this train station.

The forest is at around 10,000ft elevation, and some of these trees are 3000+ years old.

The view from the meadow looking west towards the Sierras.  Though they’re a couple hundred miles away, LA would be off to the left, and Reno would be to the right.

Mount Whitney is the tall peak on the right.  My inlaws had climbed to the top of the peak at around 10am, and headed back down.  They ended up making to the parking lot at Whitney Portal at about 5:3opm, approx 21 days since they started their hike in the Yosemite Valley.

Just like my parents, my in laws were not told their grandson was coming.  This was their reaction to the first time they saw him.

We decided that our own bed sounded better than the campsite, so we left Whitney Portal Sunday afternoon and got home around 2am the next morning.

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So from a previous post I mentioned my inlaws were hiking the John Muir Trail in Yosemite.  This is the week I’m heading up to pick them up from Lone Pine, California.  In addition to picking them up, I have ancestors who lived in Bishop California and in the surrounding towns.  So I packed up my 2 1/2 year old, and met up with my parents in Bishop who drove out from UT.  My parents had no clue that I was bringing their grandson, so they had some great looks of surprise when they saw him.

We spent two days checking out the courthouse for old records that involve my ancestors and enjoying the area.  We also took advantage of some spare time, and drove out to Manazar, which is known as an internment camp for Japanese Americans during WWII.  We also took a visit to the Laws Railroad Museum, which is a couple miles outside of Bishop on Hwy 6.  Since my kid LOVES (understatement) trains, tractors, trucks, all that good stuff, this was a playground for him.  The only thing which would have made it better was if it hadn’t of been 96 degrees outside.

We caught the tail end of a freighter as we were pulling into Escalon.  I mentioned to my son that it would be perfect if another train came through.  At that moment right before I got to the tracks the lights came on & we watched this NB train go through.

For you movie buffs, this is Engine #3, who has been in over 100 movies, TV shows, and commercials.  For people in my generation, this was the engine that was used in Back to the Future III.  It is at the Jamestown Train Museum in Jamestown, California.

We got onto a tour & Adam got to play on one of the machines that was used to check the rails & ties.  You would push/pull the front (as Adam is doing) to move it forward/backwards.

Finally in Yosemite, playing on the rocks.

We took a quick trip to Tuolomne Meadows so the kid could get in his daily dirt fix.

Caught some deer as they were crossing the river.  I was wishing I had my 70-200 instead of the 85 lens on me.  I left the big lens in the car

Don’t even THINK about taking my chapstick!

Self portrait (gotta prove I was on the trip!) of me & Adam near the top of Tioga Pass

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So I missed out on getting the post out on Friday since I had some friends in town and we decided it was time to go to the beach.  We headed out to Palm Beach State Park in Watsonville, CA.  It was fun seeing my little guy kind of get into the water this time, though he mostly just wanted to roll around in the sand.

It was the first time my friends little girl had seen the ocean & gotten to touch it since they live in Utah.

This is the reason why he is now nicknamed, “The Sandman”

Normally at home there isn’t a pile of sand he jumps on like that.  He normally finds me lying on the ground and does the same thing, landing on my chest.  Sometimes he’ll catch me as I’m lying down near the couch, and he’ll leap off the couch and onto me.

On Saturday I decided I was going to do my first 50mi bike ride as training for my Yosemite ride next year.  My route had about 40mi of flat/basically flat pavement and 10 mi of climbing.  I rode from my house to Henry Coe County Park Headquarters, and then back home.  I felt pretty good at the top of the climb, but the major headwind on the way home almost did me in.  I did make it in 3:28, which I was very happy about.

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So the other weekend I drove to Yosemite with my mother/father in law, my wife, and our kid to drop off my in laws as they were off on a 3 week hike of the John Muir Trail.  On the drive home I got to thinking to myself, “My in laws are hiking the John Muir Trail, they (and my wife) last year hiked to the top of Half Dome.  My wife has done a trail marathon in addition to other 5k, 10k, and half marathons.  Its my turn to do something crazy like that.”  So while we were driving down Hwy 120 I decided I was going to ride my road bicycle from my house in South San Jose over Tioga Pass to Lee Vining.

According to the route I drew up in Google Maps, my friend and I are looking at an approx. 240 mile ride, climbing approx. 18,000 ft over 2 or 3 days.  It looks like I’ve got some major training to do in the next few months, since we’ve got the ride tentatively scheduled for sometime in May.

Otherwise we had a pretty good trip.  Our two year old decided after his nap he wanted to throw a big tantrum, but after he got to pet some dogs he was better.

A few random photographs from the trip:

View of Upper Yosemite Falls from the car as we were heading into the Valley.

We camped out at the Wawona campground for the night and let Adam do what he loves doing – playing in the dirt.

My in laws as they were about to leave on their hike.

Adam loves water, and this was his reaction as he saw the Yosemite falls before we hiked to them.

Yes, he climbed all the rocks on his own, I was just there making sure he didn’t fall.

In the midst of tantrum #1 from being too tired and needing to take a nap.

This little guy posed for us for a little while.  I was wishing I had my 70-200 instead of just my 85mm f1.4 lens.

And this is why he is called the “Dirt Monster”

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