Uncle Mike and Aunt Nicole, we loved our visit to Rapid City

Ready to Party!

So Mike and Nicole have an annual Hog Roast every year, and for the first time we were able to make it out there as a family. Of course the rest of Jim's family had other things going on. (Like Jeff buying a house, and Suzy making the sale, and mom and dad doing the slave labor in Jeff's new house.) So Jim, Elizabeth and I headed to Rapid City to enjoy a nice long weekend away. It was a lot of fun and we did a lot of sight seeing. We went to Mount Rushmore, drove through Custer State Park (beautiful, I might add), drove through the Badlands, ate at Wall Drug, and went to Deadwood. It was quite a fun trip. We also went to an amazing party - The 6th Annual Keegan Hog Roast. Here are some pictures.

Mount Rushmore was pretty cool. We were able to do some exploring, and Elizabeth did some "jeeping" in her cool stroller. We had a fun afternoon.

We also drove through the Badlands. We stopped a few places, like the "Big Pig Dig" and saw some amazing views. It was definitely hot, but we believe it was probably the greenest it has been in some years. We saw a ton of wild life, Pronghorns, sheep, buffalo, etc, but luckily we didn't see any rattlesnakes.

Elizabeth enjoyed chilling out with Uncle Mike at the party. We met a lot of nice people and enjoyed a lot of great food. Mike and Nicole were great hosts, they fed us several great meals while we were at their house. Elizabeth really enjoyed playing with Nicole's parents' dogs. They were much mellower then her Max.

Waterfall Canyon

While Jim's brother and wife were in town, they decided to try a local activity. Something called the "Via Ferrata." It is basically climbing an iron ladder up a mountain. Apparently Ogden has one of the few in the United States, so they called a guide and booked an appointment. Mike and Nicole are avid rock climbers and at one time owned their own climbing guide business. They invited us along, but I knew it was something I wouldn't even attempt. Jim was up for it though, and so we headed up to Waterfall Canyon with most of Jim's family. While Jim, Jeff, Mike and Nicole went climbing, the rest of us decided to hike to the top of Waterfall Canyon.

At the beginning of the trailhead, I wasn't even sure if it would be a good idea to take Elizabeth on the hike, I only had a front carrier for her. After some fiddling, we were able to make it into a backpack. (If I do this again, I need to buy a backpack for her.) And off we went, thankfully Elizabeth's Aunt Suzy had her camera so we have a record of this momentous event. Elizabeth's Grandma told Suzy and I, that we needed to hike this again in 30 years, so we would know how she and Grandpa felt. It definitely isn't an easy hike, and it is a little bit hard with a baby on your back. But Elizabeth was a champion and had a good time, even though her legs probably went numb from riding on my back with her feet dangling.

The most eventful part of the hike was losing Elizabeth's sippy cup as we came back down from the top. We thought we'd never see it again, when low and behold, there in the creek where we stopped to have lunch was her cup. It was across the rushing creek and we didn't trust crossing it, so Jim's dad and Suzy tried to free it by throwing rocks. Mom was going to catch it further down. Despite hitting it four times, Suzy only managed to lodge it even deeper. We thought it was over, to be so close, but yet so far. Then out of the blue, a guy and his dog came up the other side. We asked him to grab it for us, and we had it back. Isn't it crazy how things work out. The following are some pictures from our hike. Needless to say we had a very enjoyable day. Mike, Nicole, Jeff and Jim also had fun, but I have no pictures from them to show. The pictures are from our hike, thanks to Suzy who had her camera.

One very tired little girl.

Great Grandpa comes to visit!

Elizabeth's 95 year old great grandfather came for a visit the weekend after Memorial Day. He came with her Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle David from New York. Jim's brother Mike and his wife Nicole also came out for a visit, they live in South Dakota. It was a fun family reunion.
Great Grandpa and Elizabeth liked to play with his cane.

The Keegan Women had to have their picture taken together.
Then the Keegan Men had to have their picture taken as well. The whole family had a portrait, too.

St. George Vacation

So Memorial Day Weekend we travelled to St. George with our friends Rob and Carol. We thought it would be a great weekend to use Rob and Carol's boat. The weather had other plans for us, it was a little chilly so we only made one day out on the boat. So I suggested we head on over to Zion's Park and enjoy the scenery. Jim had never been, so we thought it would be fun. We took the kids to the only trail that was truly stroller friendly - it was made for wheelchairs - we "hiked/strollered" to the bottom of "The Narrows." I love Zion, it is one of the most beautiful places in Utah.
So the next day after our "hike" we grabbed the boat and headed out. It was a little too cool to get in the water, as you can tell, by Elizabeth's face and feet up in the air. Jim wanted to let her feel the water, as you can see, she wasn't thrilled about it. However, we think she enjoyed boating, but we know she didn't enjoy the life jacket that kept her all bundled up.
We sure had a fun trip and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.