Las Vegas Sep 07

In September, Doug and Shelley took a little trip to Las Vegas. No, we didn't stay at this hotel! 

Nope, we didn't stay at this hotel either!  We did walk a lot and got lots of exercise!  We went to the amazing Cirque de Solei show KA

 

Play the above clip to see a sample of KA. The stage cost 150 million and was built for just this show.

The clip below was so scary to watch! 

 

Of course, you can never get tired of the Fountain Water Show at the Bellagio!

Here is another one set to classical music:

Tahoe

 

Today we decided to go East...to Tahoe. We heard there were good beaches at Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe is HUGE! It covers 191 square miles and has an average depth of 1000 feet! (It's 1600 feet at it's deepest point!

 

  We also went to NorthStar ski resort which in the summer has a huge mountain biking area. If you want to go hiking, they

let you ride the lifts (there are 4 different  ones) for free and just go hiking.

 

Of course, the kids had to "explore" and try to climb up the lift towers.  Dad obliged and took a picture of them when Mom wasn't looking!

Various Geo-Caches & Letter Boxes

We did a lot of geocaches and letterboxes this year, but we didn't take too many pictures of them!  We will try to do better on this! 

Here are some of the few that we did take some photos of. Jacob is finding it in the photo above, and Marissa is finding it below.

 

 

We think this one is under the bridge, so Meghan is going to find out.

 

If you are not familiar with Geo-Caching, you can go here to find out more.

 

 

 

 

 

Meghan found it and Marissa is going down to take a look also.

 

Basically, Geo-Caching requires you have a handheld GPS and by following longitude and latitude coordinates you find a hidden treasure.

 

 

In this photo, you can see the "treasure" hidden under the bridge. This is looking up under the bridge. Inside the container is a log book, where you log your find and there are also small prizes. We take one prize and leave one behind so that the prizes are never depleted. Most of the containers are in tupperware and are hidden from plain view.

 

Here the kids are finding one at Salt Air on the Salt Flats near Salt Lake City.

 

 

 

 

Here is one hidden under the sidewalk in a small hole.

 

Another version of Geo-Caching is also called Letter Boxing. 

 

 

In Letter Boxing you still find a treasure, but there is nothing to take or leave.  In Letter Boxing however, there is an ink rubber stamp that represents where the Letter Box is hidden.  For example, we did one in Old Town Auburn, where it was hidden under the stairs of the old downtown firehouse. The stamp was in the shape of the firehouse.  Most people make their own rubber stamps.  We have our own rubber stamp that represents our family.  When we find a Letter Box,

we use our rubber stamp to stamp the log book in the treasure, and we stamp our own log bog with their stamp. So we have a record of where we've been, and we also leave a record of us.  The kids like the Letter Boxes more because they can actually participate in the action.  Here Meghan is helping Hannah along the trail, and Hannah is making funny faces at her.

Natural Bridges State Beach

We decided to head to the beach today. Notice the Natural Bridge in the background.  It started out foggy in the morning, but quickly became sunny.

 

 

 

We found a lot of JellyFish on the beach that were washed up.

 

 

 

 

 

All the kids had a great time playing in the water, making sand castles, and just being kids!