Darr Family Blog – The place to follow the Darr Family

Summer Shenanigans

With June came swim lessons, sleeping in, and our big road trip up to Utah. On our way up we stopped at a really big meteor Crater in Arizona and the Grand Canyon. On the way home we hit up Arches National Park in Utah and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. We’re so blessed to have a National Parks pass! Ready for a ton of pictures?

Pretty flowers in the front yard and church clothes means…

One-on-one swim lessons have been so good for Abigail!

Mosquitoes are no fun! She was determined that they would not get to her!

Abigail found this bear that you can draw on and then wash…there was a similar one from the 90s. Glad to know the concept is still around!

First picture from our road trip: we have always driven past this rest stop and said, “Next time we need to stop for a picture!” and…never have.

Leave it to the kids to find video games at our hotel. 🙂 They played while we got breakfast ready.

I can’t remember if this was in New Mexico or Arizona…but it was pretty!

It was crazy to find a forest when I was expecting desert landscape.

I can’t even begin to fathom how big the meteor was.

It’s really hard to get perspective unless you are there, gazing down into the crater.

I’m also trying to figure out just when Joseph got as tall as us.

This is a replica of what was found in the crater. Much of the meteor had vaporized upon impact, but this was left.

Joseph’s first real look into the canyon. He was just as thunderstruck as I was.

Family photo! It was so nice when people would offer to take a picture!

Google Photos made it B&W which I kind of love.

This crow was circling around and “mocking us” (according to Abigail).

I think he (or she) was just enjoying the breeze. 🙂

There were tons of places to just pull off and get pictures. Way easier than hiking!

The texture and layers are just stunning.

If you look right next to Joseph’s sleeve, you can see the river!

Love that this kid will still take pictures with me!

Showing me her Navajo jewelry (we found some Navajo women selling jewelry they had made).

After taking a break in our hotel room and getting dinner, we headed back to the canyon to get sunset shots and realized the elk crossing signs were very valid. 😉

The cliffs were completely different colors!

Seeing the sunlight kiss the top of the cliffs was so pretty!

He was so impressed with the entire thing!

I love that the sunlight paints the clouds and the cliffs!

I’ve spent 23 years of my life married to this man and I am so grateful for him!

I was amazed to find trees growing seemingly out of the rock.

She’s kind of obsessed with Smokey the Bear. Don’t ask me where she heard about him, though.

A random pretty pull out between Arizona and Utah.

While in Utah, we toured the Temple Square area in Salt Lake City. This is in the Conference Center and has always been one of my favorite paintings.

A Cristus statue in the Conference Center.

The Salt Lake Temple is undergoing major preservation renovation, so that’s what’s up with all the cranes and scaffolding. The domed building is the Tabernacle, which was the original building where conferences used to be held before the Conference Center was built.

We were sitting in the Tabernacle (they do a presentation where they demonstrate how good the acoustics are because when it was first built, microphones didn’t exist) and imagine my surprise when I happened to turn around and see my Relief Society president from when we lived in Colton! Talk about a small world!

While we were in Utah, we visited my nephew’s elk ranch.

Abigail was pretty keen on the idea of feeding them.

I wish you could see the big grin on her face. Afterwards she was a little grossed out by the elk slobber, haha.

Feeding the elk some of the green stuff they like.

Fireworks fun with cousins on the 4th of July!

Lunch followed by Swig with my bestie was awesome!

My best friend and I took Abigail to Thanksgiving Point which is a huge place that has several kid friendly venues. This was at a farm area. The kids (baby goats, that is) kept sticking their heads under the fencing to try to get at stray pieces of goat food. Abigail was pushing it towards them. 🙂

She was a little anxious, so I stayed close by.

The children’s museum at Thanksgiving Point had a Daniel Tiger exhibit. Abigail was so excited!

Standing next to a display with Mr Rogers’ red sweater and shoes. It’s his show that Daniel Tiger is a spin-off of.

There were other parts of the museum that were fun, too.

She wasn’t too sure about this exhibit. 😉

This was a light harp that would make music when you ran your hands through the beams of light.

I’ve known this amazing woman since our early teenage years. It was so good to get to see her!!

Our last stop at Thanksgiving Point was the butterfly house. This was a fun place!

A nice woman got a butterfly to go from her to Abigail.

Abigail was trying to get it to go from her finger to the bushes but it decided to land on her shirt instead.

These are my favorite butterflies. When their wings are closed, they look like this…

On our way to Arches! We stopped at a random rest stop and this train engine was there.

It’s crazy to see what wind and water can do.

We went walking a little on one of the trails to get this shot.

One has to wonder how the arches get there.

I was so focused on the arch and the holes that I didn’t notice that…

…it looks like an elephant! Now scroll back up to the previous photo to see what I mean. 🙂

This goofball was OVER the heat but still trucked on.

This was as we were driving. It was so cool to glance out and see such cool formations.

I was fascinated by that tiny hole near the top.

The different textures were so cool to look at.

I think this was after we left the official park, so it was cool to get a little parting gift.

We drove through a tiny bit of Colorado.

We stopped at the McDonald’s in Roswell on our way to Carlsbad Caverns.

She also got some wiggles out, which was good.

An elevator takes you down into the caverns.

Once down in the caverns, it’s probably between 1-2 miles that you’re walking as you wind your way through the caverns themselves.

This was a ladder that the earliest explorers used to get up and down. Um, no thank you, haha.

We got Abigail a stuffed bat that she wanted to make hang from the cave.

March, April, and May Catch Up!

Uh, I guess the end of the school year was crazier than I thought. I could have sworn that I had done a blog post between now and February, but I guess I haven’t. Whoops! So here’s a catch up post. March, April, and May hosted end of year festivities, a couple trips to Six Flags, and so much more! Strap in for a lot of pictures!

Annual Book Character Parade at school. Abigail was Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

She wanted to go on a bigger ride but changed her mind while we were up there.

Ready for battle! Don’t worry…it was just a mock battle and Joseph went plenty easy on her.

Abigail was excited to find a huge sucker.

Easter morning: Abigail’s big gift: a new video game.

Abigail and her friend Evelyn showing me their matching stuffies.

Paul did a lot of travelling for the LP. This was from his Austin trip.

It wouldn’t be the end of the year without at least one stomach bug!

With her stuffie Elenor that we got because it’s from one of her favorite YouTube channels.

I like that the directors has the percussion come up to the front so that parents can get good photos!

Ready for the Math Rocks Concert at school.

Paul went to Michigan for an LP thing and brought back a bear for Abigail.

End of year awards for Abigail. Her teacher, Mrs. Hanhart, gave her the Critical Thinker Award. 🙂

A quick selfie with her in the hallway. Someone was keeping an eye on my class so that I could get some quick pictures. 🙂

I took Abigail to see the live action Lilo & Stitch movie.

This might be her favorite at Six Flags.

She made instant friends with these two kiddos.

So I Guess This is a Monthly Thing

I was looking at the blog and realized I hadn’t posted anything since last month. Whoops! Here’s a brief recap: Joseph got a pretty cool award at school, Abigail had her grade-level music performance, Paul went to Liberty Con in Washington DC, we celebrated Valentines’ Day, and I’m plugging away at 4th grade. More in-depth info in the captions. 🙂