Fun Sprinkled with Sadness

We went on our first trip to Flaming Gorge 4th of July weekend. This trip was a little different for me than past trips. My dad and aunt have decided to sell our cabin. I am heartbroken about losing this place that has seemed so full of magic and wonder but at the same time I completely understand and support their decision. In between bouts of sadness we had a lot of fun and I took a lot of pictures of my favorite details of this old place. I won't bore you with those, but I will share a few favorites from the trip:

A family portrait in front of the cabin my grandpa built with the help of family and friends. My grandpa left this world in 2007 but going to the cabin has made me feel as if he is still here. I'm afraid that losing this place is going to feel like he is totally gone.

Now on to happier moments:

Aven was mostly interested in playing with rocks and sticks. I could tell she was hungry when she started trying to eat them.


Aven also enjoyed playing in the water at Mustang Ridge. Is was very cold, but she didn't seem to mind as long as she had a rock in her hand.


We went to a classic car show at Flaming Gorge Lodge. We enjoyed the cars, Aven had fun toddling through the field it was held on.


On Sunday it was 48 degrees and it rained and hailed like I don't think I've ever seen before. We tried to do a lot of indoor things like visiting the dam visitor center and Red Canyon visitor center. We walked along the edge of the cliffs at Red Canyon during a break in the rain.


And last but not least, here is Grace squeezing under the fence after pursing a chipmunk. Don't worry, she's far too slow to ever catch something. She's our big lumbering bunny.


In closing, I would like to thank my grandparents for a lifetime of fun and for the opportunity to have such a unique experience by providing this wonderful home in the mountains for all of us to enjoy. Not having a cabin won't keep me away from Flaming Gorge, but I will have to learn how to love camping. Here's to enjoying this place as much as possible while trying to sell it!
(L-R): My grandma (Carm), grandpa (Bob), and their friend Roma during one of the early years of cabin construction- they are standing on the very unfinished second floor.

Memorial Day in Moab

We decided to take a long over-due trip to Moab over Memorial Day weekend. A pretty large portion of Ian's family lives in Moab and since we haven't been to Moab since before I was pregnant with Aven she has come to be known as "the phantom baby". Ian's parents spend a lot of time telling the family all about her but since she had never been seen in person they weren't too sure she actually existed. We showed Aven off to as many family members as we had time to visit and there are now no doubts about her existence. Along with family visits we made time for some mountain biking, sight seeing, and general touristy type activities.

We headed out to Dead Horse Point State Park and let our little rock-crawler loose.

While at Dead Horse we also gazed at majestic sights . . .

. . . tried to avoid the Paparazzi . . .

. . . blew raspberries at the camera . . .

. . . and went mountain biking. Aven LOVED it.

Aven got to meet her cousin, Trinity, who is only a couple months older, but is light-years ahead in the hair department. Trinity liked giving kisses- very cute.

I love this picture- a whole family cuddle. I'm holding Aven, Aunt Pam is holding Trinity and Grandpa Bailey is in the background.

On our trip we learned that Aven is a great little traveler. She loved every minute and we are looking forward to many more trips this summer and to returning to Moab maybe this fall.

Cabin Trip with Deer

I wanted to take a minute to post some more photos.
These are from a cabin trip from back in 2005.

This is one of two deers that stopped by one morning. They are about 10 feet away from us, We were out sitting on the deck throwing them old apples to eat.

This one want's more apples

Here are both of the deer together. The one on the right was the one in the above photos. It looked like a younger dear it came closer to us then the older one.

Here is a photo of me and Cara up at the lake after a swim.

A History of Vacationing: Part 2

Somewhere deep in the woods between Flaming Gorge and Vernal, Summer 2007. Ian led my sister and I on one of his famous 'death hikes' on this cabin trip. On this particular brand of hike a trail is usually not followed and steep, rocky inclines with plenty of loose gravel to slide on are a must. We managed to survive and we even came across the remains of an old trapper's cabin.

Mountain Man Rendezvous, Fort Bridger, Wyoming, September 2006. I'm a big fan of the history of the American West, Abe Lincoln, and Priuses. What better way to combine those loves than spending the day at Fort Bridger with a bunch of people wearing period costumes. I even ran into one of my best friends there. Pretty random place to run into a friend.

Flaming Gorge, Summer 2006. Yet again we escaped to Ye Old Malecker Family Homestead, this time with good friends Amber and Dustin Corona. Above you will see Amber and I risking our lives on the edge of a deadly cliff.

Las Vegas, June 2006. Ian got called up for active duty in the eBay army for the second time. He was asked to work gruelling 10 hour days at the eBay Live convention in Vegas for 4 days. We stayed an extra four after the convention to have fun. After eight days in Vegas I decided that I was Vegased out for about 20 years.

I like this picture because you can see where Ian scraped his forehead along the bottom of the wave pool at Mandalay Bay when he was unexpectedly caught in a rip-tide.

Hawaii, June 2005. We spent three weeks in Hawaii for our honeymoon. A week and a half on Oahu and a week and a half on Hawaii a.k.a the Big Island. In the above photo we were visiting Pearl Harbor.

Out of the dozens of cool things we did and places we went while in Hawaii there is one standout un-cool thing: Ian got stung by a Man of War jellyfish while swimming at Hapuna State Beach Park. He was screaming bloody murder and all the lifeguard could say was "I guess you should get in the shower and stay there". Very helpful, dude. His entire back was covered in tentacles along with his neck and the side of his face, one even got in his mouth. This kind of jellyfish has no remedy for pain, and trust me, he tried all the standard stuff for jellyfish stings. It was about 24 hours before he was feeling okay again.

One super-cool thing we saw was a volcano erupting at Volcano National park. The lava was shooting up about 50 feet in the air. Pretty freakin' awesome.


New Orleans, June 2004. Ian's first stint in the eBay army was at the New Orleans conference for four days. We were there eight days and it was awesome. I still drool looking at the picture I took of the fried green tomatoes I ordered at an open air bar on the banks of the Mississippi. i would go back just for those.

Puerto Penasco, Mexico, November 2003. The morning we flew out of Salt Lake it was snowing. In the above photo we were sailing on a catamaran with Ian's parents and brother on the Sea of Cortez in breezy 75 degree weather. There were even dolphins swimming along side the boat.

Cannon Beach, Oregon, August, 2002. Ian wasn't on this trip, I was with my mom and sister, but I couldn't leave it out because of the road sign we spotted driving along Oregon's Pacific Coast Scenic Highway. The sign does not lie.

I didn't realize how many cool places Ian and I have been together until I put them all together in an abbreviated format on this blog- go us!

A History of Vacationing

I was thinking about how many great vacations Ian and I have been on together in the almost 7 years that we've been together and thought I would post a few photos of some of those fabulous trips. Can you tell I'm really sick of winter and constantly daydreaming about warmer times?

Washinton D.C., August 2008. Here we are on our most recent trip outside of Utah. My mom gave us a trip to Washington D.C. for Christmas 2007, which we took in August 2008. We were there for 6 fantastic days and we both loved it.Above, we were standing just outside the back door of George Washington's Mt. Vernon home. Our first president sure knew a few things about real estate.

Moab, August 2008. Ian was born in Moab and did most of his growing up in central Utah. I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of Moab, mainly because we only seem to go there during the summer and I don't particulary care for mountain biking or hiking in 105 degree weather. On our most recent trip we went on a night hike in Arches National Park and that is my favorite thing we have done in Moab so far. There was no moon, which caused us to get lost for awhile, but the stars were beautiful and it wasn't too hot.

Cabin at Flaming Gorge, July 2008. I know I've posted about the cabin before, but this was probably one of the worse trips we've taken there. My poor mom fell at Mustang Ridge and broke her ankle on my birthday. We did our best to have a good time despite the suckiness of a broken bone.

Redmond, Utah, April 2008. We went to visit my dad in his new home and while we were there we burned some stuff in a ditch for entertainment. Let's just say my dad easily acclimated to small town life. I just had to add my dad's favorite geographical joke as an edit- Random person: "Where's Redmond?" my dad: "Do you know where Cedar City is?" random person: "ya" my dad: "well it's not by there". Makes me laugh every time :)

San Francisco, March 2008. We spent 5 days in San Fran seeing everything we could possibly pack in. We also made sure we watched an episode of Monk while we were there. It was all amazing and beautiful. Riding the trolley was one of the craziest things we did there- you need incredible strength and endurance to operate one of those things.

Wow- we went on a lot of trips last year. I'll have to do some follow-up posts about other trips we have taken farther back in our history so this post doesn't end up being a mile long.

Tribute to Summer

With winter raging outside I felt the urge to post a tribute to summer with some pictures of my favorite place on the planet- Flaming Gorge. Okay, so I haven't traveled much, but ask my husband and he will tell you how much I like comfort, familiarity and not trying new things. The above picture was taken at Mustang Ridge, a beautiful place to go swimming that is accessible by car. This particular day there were only two other people and their two dogs. Beauty and solitude.

Here's Grace in what my grandpa liked to call the "babbling brook" that runs through our property. She's a water dog for sure.

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A family portrait at Red Canyon after a day of hiking.

And finally, ye old family homestead. The Malecker Family castle. Oh summer, how I miss you and long for your return . . .