Spa Day at Grandma's

Today I had my grand daughters over for our very own spa day. Here was the setting - I hope you can hear the background music I had playing.

We began our experience with a little yoga.

We refreshed ourselves with Pita chips, dip and fresh fruit- including chocolate covered strawberries. Our water was fruit infused. :) While we ate we soaked our feet - ahhhh.

Lotion applied, feet soft - now the eyes. While the girls laid on the floor with pillows and put tea bags on their eyes, I read them a few "fairly stupid tales".

They were a little bit wet from the tea bags - but whatever! Now we needed to do the rest of the face! We made our own masks and let them dry.

Yes, it was kind of gross-feeling going on.

Aren't they lovely?

It was, of course, necessary to wash faces afterwards and we had a little incident with the laundry hamper - don't ask!

With clean and soft faces we moved on to our nails. There seemed to be lots of polish, water and q-tips on the table, but at least some of it made it onto nails!

Posing, is apparently difficult to figure out!

But, we finally made it.

So rested, relaxed, and beautiful we rewarded ourselves with a trip to get a snow cone. Unfortunately, Haley had to leave us - that's why she isn't in the picture. 

Again the table got the worst of it! But, we had fun!! I have the best grand daughters in the world! Love you all. 

Day 8 & 9 of our California trip

Day 8: Mammoth Lakes to Ely, Nevada

What can I say about this drive, other than we crossed Nevada! Kent and Becky refer to it as "the space between Utah and California." [sorry anyone who is from Nevada!] ;)

We did have some interesting experiences in a place called Tonopah. Sorry - no pics. We stopped there for lunch and while we were eating an air raid siren sounded! We looked around and saw no one reacting in any way so we went on eating. After about 1 minute, the siren stopped. Maybe they do it every day at noon?

After lunch we went to this little museum called the Central Nevada Museum. It was kind of fun, mostly old mining equipment, but my favorite antique was an old switchboard! It was a nice, and cool rest before moving on.

So much for day 8.

Day 9: Ely to Home

After breakfast, before leaving Ely, we went to this fun museum. The National Railroad Museum. It is a working museum. The railroad was built and was busy during Nevada's copper mining industry. Went that died, so did the railroad. However, they have kept it alive by charging people to wander through the buildings and even take a ride on the train. We went into the engine house and saw some young guys working on old steam engines. It was really cool. We didn't stay to ride the train. Maybe another time. 

Next stop:

We drove to the top and had lunch in a beautiful spot. Our plan was to go for a short walk on one of the trails, but they were still all covered in snow. 

 Nice view though!

Where is this, you ask?

It is called the Baker Archaeological site, excavated by BYU. It is the remains of a Freemont-culture village.

Last stop before dinner was the Topaz Internment Camp - the place where we kept any Japanese/Americans during WWII. Sadly, we haven't done much to honor this place. Desolation we a few white markers. This was says "High School".

Well, that's it. Our amazing journey to California and back!

Day 7 of our California Trip

Day 7: Yosemite National Park

We left our hotel this morning - already hot! But, look at this beautiful, and cool place. This is Glacier Point in Yosemite. Wow!!!

See the half dome behind me. There are people climbing up the curved side! Me, I like where I'm standing just fine!

This is my favorite traveling companion. :)

We found this lovely spot and had lunch here. Can you smell the pine?

After lunch we drove on Tioga Road - which just kept going up and up . . .

And up and up . . .

Here we are at the summit:

This is a frozen lake. You would think it would be COLD, right? Nope, 66 degrees. Awesome!

Another amazing day and we relaxed in our hotel in Mammoth Lakes.

The rest of the trip

Day 10 -- July 17:

Today was all in Yachats. In the morning we wandered around the tidal pools. The beach close to us was mostly rocks so we drove a little bit south and walked along a sandy beach.

I didn't take any pictures of the sandy beach. :) Next we drove to Devil's Churn. It is a place where the waves come into an increasingly smaller space and crash violently.

We drove a bit further, to the top of  Cape Perpetua. It was an amazing view. We could see for miles. We took a short hike there.

For lunch we went back to Yachats. After eating we went north and did the Ya'Xaik hike. Part of it went through a private botanical garden where we saw both native plants and exotic ones that the owners had planted there. It was pretty interesting, but the best part of the hike was the rest of the trail through the beautiful forests!

I'm sorry that these pictures just don't capture the amazing-ness!!!

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on the grass overlooking the shore by our cottage. What a difference from that morning! The tide pools were all gone. The sandy beach we had walked on was now under water. We loved sitting there and listening to the waves crashing against the rocks. What a day!!!

Day 11 -- July 18:

Sadly, our stay in Yachats came to an end and we began our return trip home. :(  We drove along the coast as far as Reedsport and then followed the Umpqua River to its headwaters. The scenery was breathtaking. Crater Lake National Park was . . . . wow! We stopped at every overlook around the lake.

There were several of these Clark Nutcrackers at one of the lookouts. 

I need a vote on this next picture - I wanted my hubby and the bird in a pic. However, look at the woman in the background. Kind of ruins the effect, doesn't she? Do I crop her out or as my brother suggested - "Label the picture beauty and the beast". ? Anyone??

Another funny thing that happened at this overlook - there were dozens of chipmunks running around right below the wall - that is what the woman hanging over the wall is "playing" with. There are signs all over every park that say "Please don't feed the wild life". Lots of people were doing it anyway. I heard one woman scream and then say "Damn, it bit me!" Duh!

We spent the night in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Day 12 - July 19:

There isn't much else to tell now. We drove a little over 8 hours this day to arrive in Elko, Nevada by late afternoon. We had been dreading this long day through fairly boring scenery, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was a really lovely drive without incident.

Day 13 -- July 20:

On our way from Elko to Orem we stopped in Toole and went to church. On our drive that morning we listened to "The Garden" by Michael McLean. If you have never seen this production you have missed a marvelous experience. I love the music and the story. It was such a great way to prepare for Sacrament meeting. What a difference from last Sunday!

I especially enjoyed the youth speaker. He was a 12-year old who had gone on his first Scout camp and was asked to talk about his experience. Their troop went to an organized camp but brought their own tents to sleep in. He began his talk by saying: I was really worried about sleeping in the tent because we couldn't shower at camp. I thought I should probably bring Febreeze to spray around in the tent.  :)

Then he recited the Scout Oath or Law? I don't know which is which. The one that talks about being clean, helpful, etc. Anyway, he went through each virtue and explained how they did that while at camp. When he got to "clean" he said, "Well, this one was a little harder, since we couldn't shower, but we DID wash our hands before we ate!"

I just thought it was delightful and the other talks were wonderful and inspiring. It was a great meeting and a lovely addition to our drive home.

Kent kept track of our milage every day and told me that our whole trip was 3,367 miles - about the distance from Orem to Bogota, Colombia.  :)