Hoover Dam Raft Trip

For Christmas Grandma Snow's gift to her family was a rafting trip. Since we were all together for my mom's wedding and the missionary homecomings we decided to do the rafting trip the day in between those events. We thought there may be a few rapids but we were wrong. It was more of a river tour but we still had a great time together!

My cousins, siblings, and a couple of uncles.
Our dam picture :)
The captain giving Rex a couple of pointers for driving the boat.

Mom's Wedding

As I mentioned before my mom met an awesome guy named Steve Jappe, and they got married on July 11th, 2008. First we went to the Las Vegas Temple where they got married for time. It was really neat to be there and listen to the ceremony. Next we went to the chapel where my Uncle Murr performed a special ring ceremony and then we ate a yummy dinner. We finished off the night by decorating my mom's car, but don't worry we were pretty nice! (Plus It was a good bonding experience for us and the new step siblings). Love you Mom and Steve!

Home

Rex and I drove back with the rest of his family and stayed in Arizona for a few days. I told Rex that I was really glad that I had the chance to live there for a little while before we got married because in a way it felt like I was coming home. Then we packed up our car AGAIN and headed to Boulder City, NV to see my family. I was super excited because Brandon and Melissa were home from their missions and I couldn't wait to see them!

San Diego

We left Disneyland and headed farther south to a campground near San Diego for the Burk family reunion (Rex's mom's side of the family). We spent the time hanging out with family and I got to meet some of Rex's cousins from Idaho. We played games, told stories, and toasted marshmallows. I love camping. We went down to the beach for the 4th of July and about a million other people had the same idea but it was fun. Rex and I borrowed some boogie boards and caught a couple of good waves. Back at the campsite we walked up a little path and had an awesome view of the fireworks from a couple of the cities below. Yet again, I didn't take enough pictures but here are a few.

Theron and Brady at sunset.

Rex and Hannah Banana just before watching fireworks!

Park Hoppers!

The next day we met up with most of Rex's immediate family at Disneyland. I quickly learned that I am a Disneyland amateur. The Kimball family knows how to do Disneyland! We went on so many rides in one day...I could hardly believe it. A lot of it had to do with the fact that Rex's nephews get disabled fast passes and we got to tag along. We hardly waited in any lines! This was my first time to California Adventure. I loved it! My only regret about the whole day was that I didn't take very many pictures. These will have to do for now!

Our Road Trip Begins...

Becky's family left on Monday morning and we packed our bags and headed south on Tuesday morning. Our first stop was Valencia, California where we went to Hurricane Harbor (a water park) and Six Flags.
Rex and I loved the Tornado ride. This picture doesn't do it justice, but you can kind of get the idea. The tube shoots out from a tunnel and then goes up the side of a tilted bowl-shaped tunnel so it feels like you are about to fall off, then you go up the opposite side. You continue back and forth until you fall out the whole at the bottom. I'll go on all of the roller coasters with Rex but he had to go on the scary water slide by himself. I did it once at a water park in Las Vegas and decided that was enough times for me. I couldn't get very close to get a good picture, but Rex is going down the super steep black slide on the right.
When the water park closed we walked across to Six Flags to continue the fun (season passes are great!) This time the new X2 ride was open so we waited in line to try it out. It had been closed to add some cool stuff like music and a spot where fire shoots out at you. It was really fun and Rex decided it is his new favorite ride.
I agree that it was fun but my favorite ride is still the Tatsu, which we got to ride 4 times that night! We were there right before closing and the workers let us stay on and ride it 3 times in a row (I think they all wanted a ride before going home from work). It was awesome!

Visitors

I haven't had the chance to post anything new for awhile and now I am way behind. Sorry! At the end of June Rex's sister, Becky, and her family stopped by our apartment as one of their stops of their huge summer road trip. We had a late dinner together and then the adults played Settlers after the kids went to bed. Here are the cute kids sleeping in our living room!

Close up!

The next day we decided to take it easy instead of going into the city. We went to see the new Pixar movie, WALL-E. It was fun to go to it with a bunch of kids!