Halloween Pictures

Need I say more, Abi is the cutest little flower princess I have ever seen (I might by biased though).
My FAVORITE picture from Halloween is the one in the top collage 2nd from the right, so funny and cute!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

The Wednesday before Halloween Jolie and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch to let them play and take a few pictures, well more than a few.  The kids had a blast as you can see from the pictures.

North & South Rim Grand Canyon and Williams, Arizona

After 3 nights in Utah we made our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. On the drive you can really see in the distance the "Grand Staircase". In Utah there is a National Monument called Grand Staircase-Escalante. It is 1.7 million acres of geologic features, a ranger in Zion National Park said to consider Bryce Canyon at the top of the staircase and the bottom of Bryce Canyon (geologically and elevation.) is the top of Zion Canyon and the bottom of Zion is the top of the Grand Canyon. Pretty Cool! From the picture you can see different color cliffs in the distance showing the geologic and elevation changes.

Unfortunately there wasn't a KOA at the North Rim so we stayed at the National Park campground. The campground was nice but the showers were not and they closed at 7:00pm, too early for us to take showers at night. The campground was a few minutes from the rim and the lodge. As soon as we arrived at the campground we set up camp then headed to the rim for dinner and to watch the sun set. Earlier we went to the lodge to look around and checked to see if there were any available reservations for dinner at the restaurant, we were in luck, one was free for 7:00 that night. The next available reservation wasn't until 8:00 3 days later. Dinner was delicious!!! Josh had meatloaf with a merlot-demi glaze that was to die for!!!

The lodge sits on the rim on the canyon and has great views. People gather at the lodge to watch the sun set and hang out in the large lounge area. It is full of leather chairs and couches and has 3 huge picture windows looking out to the canyon. Sunset is beautiful, the canyon displays many different colors that you don't see during the day and with the shadows you stand in awe of what God has created. The great thing about the lodge is you don't have to be a guest to feel welcome. Anyone visiting the North Rim is able to roam through and hang out at the lodge. It also has 2 huge porch areas with rocking chairs and tables to sit at and enjoy the view.

The next day we headed out to the rim to hike around and relax at the lodge.  We hiked out to Bright Angel Point, which gets you better views of the canyon.  Abi actually fell asleep in the baby bjorn while we were hiking.  Early in the afternoon we decided to head back to the campground to see if Abi would take a nap, we had to luck, so Josh decided to drive her around a bit so she would actually get some sleep and be plesant to be around later in the evening.

To explain the pictures above:
The Moon: Josh spent some time the second night we were there taking some pictures of the moon
Abi sleeping: also the second night abi was soooo tired, she fell asleep on the way from the lodge to our campsite, even when I took her out of the car she was still asleep, and even stayed asleep while I sat on our bed and went outside to take pictures. I placed her on the bed and she was still asleep!!! Poor thing!!!
Abi eating cheerios: just a cute picture
Strange furry creature: well, at first we had no idea what it was. Is it a squirrel or a rabbit? After reading the map of the North Rim we learned that it is a squirrel, the Silver Ghost of the North Rim or also known at the Kaibab Squirrel. The only place in the world this squirrel is found is at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Abi In her suitcase: Abi was "helping" pack up before leaving, well maybe helping unpack.
Tree: an example of the beautiful fall colors that were beginning to appear on our trip, soooo pretty!!!

The second night we also spent at the rim taking more pictures of the gorgeous sunset. The sky looks painted! The fun part about taking pictures that night was that it was sooooo windy. The rangers had told us that morning that the winds were going to pick up and that we should put anything in the tent or car that could blow away. Winds were expected to be around 30 miles per hour and continue throughout the day into the night. We had no idea how windy it actually would get!!! During the day it was windy but tolerable and during the night. . .well. . . it was like a freight train running through your campsite or as Josh put it, like a rocket taking off and flying over the site. The wind blew the entire night and shook the tent violently!!! Abi only woke up a few times and put herself back to sleep, which we were very thankful for, but Josh and I were up most of the night. Every few minutes the wind would come through, we would hear it coming through the trees before it reached our site and would then shake the tent for 30 seconds or so. Just when we would fall asleep the wind would come and wake us up. In the morning we asked a ranger if he knew what the wind speed was over night, he said about 50 miles per hour!!!! WOW!!! We packed up in the morning, which was not fun, the tent almost blew away and Abi was totally over the wind, way too much for her.
So off we went, headed to the South Rim. The sad thing is the South Rim is only 10-12 miles away from the North Rim but you have to drive 8 hours to get there. I think someone needs to build a bridge across the Grand Canyon. On our way from the North Rim we spotted a heard of bison in a meadow. Josh had never seen wild bison so it was neat for him to see a whole heard.

The wind continued on our drive and made crossing the desert real fun.  Luckily the sand storm we went through wasn't too bad on the highway but definitly worse off in the distance.

We drove along the South Rim instead of driving through Flagstaff.  This gave us the opportunity to see parts of the canyon that we wouldn't have time to see the next day.  The first place we stopped was the Watchtower.  We stopped at a few others on the way to Williams where our campground was but spent most of our time at the Watchtower.  The Watchtower is a tower that was build in the 30's as a re-creation of towers found all over Arizona and New Mexico.  The tower serves as a great lookout over the Grand Canyon.  We climbed to the top and was, once again, in awe of God's awesome work.

After driving along the canyon for a bit we headed to Williams, about an hour south, where our KOA campground was. The whole time we figured that we would again be tent camping, when we got there we reconsidered. Once again weather.com was incorrect with the temperature and the lows were expected to be in the mid-20's and the wind still hadn't died down, we were going to be in for another cold night if we didn't decide to forgo the tent and pay a little extra for a cabin. This way we wouldn't have to set up the tent again, we would be able to stay a little warm and we could relax the rest of the night. The cabin was great, just beds but it did have a heater!!! This KOA had burned down a few years ago and had been completely remodeled, everything was so new and clean.

Our full day at the South Rim was great, very busy, but we got to see all that we wanted to see.  We noticed the day before that the visitor center parking lot was under construction so we knew we needed to get there early to get parking, not knowing if the other parking lots in the park woiuld be full or not.  There were shuttle buses that run along the rim so we just parked the car and rode the buses all day.  We did a few short walks/hikes to lookout points along the rim.  Of course the views were beautiful!!!

Along the South Rim there are a few lodges, museums, and shops.  We found a nice bench to have our picnic lunch out of the wind.  It was a cool day but with the wind it was pretty cold until the afternoon.  Where we ate was a pretty busy area and lots of other families were eating lunch too, and Abi loved to people watch and squirrel watch.  One thing we noticed around the South Rim was Bible versus posted at certain lookouts, very cool (see upper right picture below)!  By the lodges is the Grand Canyon Rail Station, Josh loves trains and we would have loved to take the train from Williams to the canyon, but it was way more money than we would have wanted to spend and it takes too long.  We would need to spend another day at the canyon to see everything because the train takes more time than driving.  The next time we go we will take the train.

After lunch we got back on a shuttle that takes us along the rim where cars are not allowed through. From the first lookout we got a great view of all the lodges that are along the rim. We were not planning on getting off the shuttle at that stop but we saw on the side of the road a few elk. Josh was able to get pretty close to them and take some great pictures.

The last stop we made, which is also at the end of the road, was Hermit's Rest. From here you can see the Colorado River the best compared to other lookouts. We met this couple (bottom, second picture from the left) that were on their honeymoon and they live in Spain and was touring California, Nevada and Arizona. At each destination they have someone take a picture of them and they put on these t-shirts for each picture. The front says "USA 200" and the back says, well you can see for yourself. Soooo funny and creative! We also met, or Abi met, this little girl at the beginning of the day named Emma. She is 16 months old and super cute, they liked "talking" to each other. We ran into Emma and her parents quite a few times throughout the day on the buses and viewpoints. At Hermit's Rest the girls had a few minutes to play together and Abi made friends with Emma's mom, my little girl can be shy sometimes but not that day.

On our way out of the park we had to stop at the sign to take a family picture. This time Abi WAS NOT being cooperative. She didn't want to sit in my lap and wanted to sit by herself, priceless!!! She was probably thinking "my parents think they are sooo cute and I don't want to have anything to do with them!".
We headed back to Williams to get the car packed and ready to go for the next day. We were not going to drive all the way home in one day, that would have taken 9 1/2 hours and that doesn't count any stops. We decided to stay in the lovely town of Barstow. It only took us 5 hours to get there, despite wanting to sleep in our own bed it was better for us to relax and stay a night half way home. Before reaching Barstow we stopped for lunch in another lovely town, Needles. We had lunch at Carl's Jr, and had a great experience. The woman taking Josh's order couldn't figure out how to change the order and had to call the witch to help her, yes she called her own co-worker a witch in front of Josh. Josh agreed that she was a witch and decided not to complain too much about the order being wrong. Then we enjoyed a guy talking to himself while he ate, then I got to hear all about the witch in the bathroom. Two employees were talking in the bathroom complaining about the witch, while I was in there! Then a third employee came in with a cordless phone saying one of the girl's mom was on the phone, and the girl gave her the phone while she was going to the bathroom. . . .needless to say we had a very interesting time at lunch. Don't go to the Carl's Jr in Needles, go somewhere else!!!

We got back to Fresno around 2:00pm 2 weeks after we left. Wow a long trip and totally worth it.

Here are a few closing thoughts or a few things i forgot to mention in other posts:

Don't try to go out to dinner in Utah on a Sunday night, NOTHING is open!
While driving through the small towns in Utah we noticed that there were mannequins sitting in old police trucks or cars to keep people from speeding, only works once!

We liked the freeways in Las Vegas, they were laid out really well and easy to follow.

We were disappointed when the power was out while camping in Glendale, we couldn't take showers and our internet didn't work :-(

What is the difference in signs that say "Falling Rock" or "Falling Rocks", we couldn't figure it out?

All over Utah we saw signs for "bumps" when there wasn't a bump and when there was a bump there was no sign.

We determined that the "spark" does still exist between Josh and I, there is A LOT of static electricity in sleeping bags and we kept shocking each other.

Traveling and camping with a 1 year old wasn't too bad, took a lot of planning but so much fun to travel as a family.

The list of all the animals we saw while on vacation:

4 dead deer
1 fox
1 wild turkey
a herd of long horn sheep
lots of live deer
1 donkey
lots of horses and cows
1 tarantula
herd of bison
chipmunks
North Rim Squirrel
6 elk

Glendale, Utah ~ Zion National Park ~ Bryce Canyon National Park

After Las Vegas we headed to Glendale, Utah. Why Glendale, Utah? Has anyone ever heard of Glendale? I sure hadn't but Glendale is half way between Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park and there was a KOA campground there.

We stopped in St. George, Utah for lunch at Cracker Barrel. Lunch was yummy and Abi loved sitting in the rocking chairs out front.

After lunch we headed to the first Mormon Temple that was completed in Utah. Big and beautiful, of course.

Then off to Glendale. We decided that we were going to rough it by camping but we still wanted a few comforts of home, like, clean (enough) showers that you don't have to make work by adding quarters to a timer, electricity and last but certainly not least, wireless internet. Despite being in the middle of now where the campground was nice, pretty empty and quiet.

I had checked weather.com before leaving and while in Las Vegas to see what the overnight low temperatures were and the reports said 50 degrees or so with the highs 70-80 degrees. I thought that sounded great, until we got there. I asked the lady at the campground what the temperatures were at night and she told me the overnight low was 29 degrees the night before!!! So needless to say we were a bit cold, luckily we had bundled Abi up and layered tons of blankets on top of her.

Other than the cold the campground was great.  The trees were starting to change color and when the wind blew through the trees it sounded like rain, which I loved.

Our site was right next to a horse pasture with beautiful and friendly horses. When we were setting up camp Abi was in her "pop-a-tot" (see picture) and loved watching the horses or to her they were "das" (dogs). One in particular always came up to the fence to talk to Abi. Abi even got to pet the horse a few times.

The first full day in Utah we headed to Zion National Park. The drive is gorgeous and so nice to see that Fall had reached Utah since Fresno still doesn't totally look like Fall. Zion National Park has a scenic drive that is open to all traffic, well it has to be because it is the only road from St. George to Glendale and that part of Utah, if you go around it takes much longer.

We came across a herd of long horn mountain sheep on the side of the road.  Pretty cool.  We pulled over and while Josh took a ton of pictures I fed Abi breakfast sitting in the trunk.  Breakfast with a view, not bad!

On the way to Zion Canyon where the visitor center and Lodge is there is a long tunnel, a 1.1 mile long tunnel, and the tunnel isn't straight it curves. If you are an over-sized vehicle then you have to have an escort, and that means delays for the rest of traffic. Oh well, we had to wait a few times and when an RV would go through we would follow and get to drive in the center of the tunnel. The tunnel is so long and dark that they have side tunnels cut through the mountain to give light (and maybe a good view) to the drivers.

Zion Canyon is closed to traffic so you have to park at the visitor center and take shuttle buses into the canyon. This is where traveling with a one year old gets tricky. You have to bring all that you'll need for 3 people in a backpack. We brought our umbrella stroller which doesn't have a ton of storage and the stuff would have to be pulled out each time we got on the bus anyway so I carried the backpack with lunch, snacks, abi's things and whatever else we thought we would need for a day of exploring.

The First stop we made in the Canyon was Weeping Rock. It is considered one of the shortest hikes, only .25 mile, but it climbs over 100 feet in that distance. The map also said it was a "paved" trail. . . . well it was paved but very rough and not very easy to push the stroller. The view was pretty and very wet. The ranger said snow falls on top of the mountain above and when the snow melts it seeps into the sandstone cliffs and eventually drips out creating Weeping Rock. It also supposedly takes this water 1500 years to make it from the top of the cliff to where we were, so the water dripping on our heads was 1500 years old.

When were heading back to the shuttle bus stop we walked past a guy with his camera staring at the dirt. . . .we asked what he was looking at and he said a tarantula. I have seen plenty of huge hairy spiders but they were always in the zoo or my science classes, but never a "wild" tarantula (picture above on the right hand side). So needless to say, kinda creepy but luckily we were not camping there.

Next on the shuttle tour we headed to the River Walk Trail, another "paved" trail that followed the Virgin River back into the canyon. The canyon was too narrow for buses/cars that if you want to see more you have to walk along the river. The trail was very nice but certainly not paved like the map said, it was packed dirt in some places and sand in others. If we would have know this before we would have left the stroller in the car and used the baby backpack, oh well. Abi got a quick nap while we walked and got to the end of the trail. You can walk farther back into the canyon but you have to walk through the river. You would need water shoes and i didn't want to take Abi that far back, some day we might.

After the River Walk, we were pretty tired and HOT!  We took the shuttle to the Zion Lodge, we wanted to relax on the lawn outside the lodge and get something to drink.  While Josh was in line getting a soda Abi made friends with a little boy named Jackson, he was 8 months old, and a very BIG boy.  The two of them crawled all over together and had a great time.  It was nice for Abi to connect with other kids while we were gone since she spent 2 weeks with just Josh and I.

When we were getting stuff ready to head to Bryce Canyon one morning Abi decided to attempt climbing into the car. She really likes to "drive", Josh supervised her attempt and as you can see she made it onto the seat, without any help.

The drive to Bryce Canyon was just a pretty as the drive to Zion.  Before ever entering the park there are beautiful red rock formations and tunnels cut through the rock.

Bryce Canyon is very beautiful, we choose not to take any hikes that went down into the canyon, too hard with an extra 20lb baby to carry somehow.  We stuck to the rim trails, a few parking lots with trails headed toward the canyon and then along it for a while.
After hiking around for a while we decided to drive along the canyon, it was an 18 mile road that stops at the end of the canyon.  We stopped for some lunch at one of the lookouts and stopped at a few more before getting to the end.  One of the lookouts had a view of a natural arch, pretty cool.  On the way to the last lookout at Rainbow Point Abi finally fell asleep, but I still wanted to get out and look around.  So I took a very sleepy Abi out of the car and walked around with her sleeping on my shoulder.  Rainbow Point is at 9100 feet, so from fresno which is at 300+ feet above sea level we have traveled pretty high up in the sky!

The 18 mile drive was nice, the trees were changing colors and there were great views of the canyon. Then drove to a place that Josh heard about while two guys were talking in the bathroom, I know, i thought that only women overheard things in the bathroom but I guess guys do too!
The place Josh heard of was the Mossy Cave and waterfall hike, it was outside the park but pretty close and the hike got you inside parts of the canyon and you get a different perspective of the rock formations.  For this hike we put Abi in the baby backpack and Josh got to carry her.  The hike was beautiful, and not a huge elevation change.  Bryce Canyon is a pretty dry area in the summer, it does get some snow in the winter but during the summer there is one creek that is full of water from a spring.  There is a waterfall that is maybe 15 feet tall but sooooo pretty.  After the view of the waterfall you can hike up the hill a bit to get to the mossy cave.  Needless to say that Josh was very happy he overheard a conversation in the bathroom that lead us to this beautiful little place.

This is it for this part of the trip, stay tuned for the next exciting adventure to. . . .the North Rim, Grand Ganyon.

Shark Reef Aquarium ~ Mandalay Bay ~ Las Vegas

Our last night in Las Vegas we drove to Mandalay Bay on the strip, they have a Shark Reef Aquarium. It was pretty cool, not super authentic like other aquariums we have been to but very nice. The best part was Abi's reaction to the huge tanks. She loved standing at the glass looking, pointing and laughing at the fish. She cried when we pulled her away but we did just to take her to another tank.

Las Vegas So Far

Day 1 of our vacation was full of driving, not so much fun we left fresno about 8:40am and made it to the resort about 4:30, not be bad, we thought. Abi wasn't too thrilled with being in the car that long but she survived. The Vue was PACKED to the brim and we even had my dad's car-top carrier to hold all the camping gear for next week.

The room is great, big and modern looking. the bathroom is huge, larger than abi's bedroom. It has a large soaker tub with a tv and a large marble tiled shower. There is a closet just big enough for abi's pack-n-play which is great becuase she can't see us when she's trying to fall asleep.

Sunday morning we left early for Hoover Dam. I had seen the Dam years ago but josh hadn't seen it before. Leaving early was a great idea because when we left a few hours later traffic was backed up A LOT on the 2 lane road, we would have waiting a long time for a tour but we ended up being the 2nd tour of the day. Since we had Abi with us we coudn't do the Dam tour but could do the power plant tour.

The biggest difference for me this time was seeing a HUGE arched bridge (http://www.hooverdambypass.org/) being built across the Black Canyon over the Colorado River. We drove across the Dam for the last time, once the bridge is completed the dam will be closed to thru traffic.

Sunday Night we went down to the strip and walked around. Abi loved seeing all the people and lights. We walked from Mandalay Bay to Bellagio to watch the water fountain dance to music, soo cool, abi liked it too.

Monday after lunch Abi and I spent some time at the pool before nap time. Abi loved the water, she was totally cold but kept crawling back into the water. The first 6-8 feet into the pool was only a few inches deep and had lounge chairs all around the pool. the few inches of water was great for abi to play in.


Here a few cute pictures of Abi from the bathtub and playing with her poker chips on the bed, i wonder what she was betting on?

Wednesday night Josh had another dinner so Abi and i took a drive to Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area. It is only a few miles up the road from the resort and a beautiful place. There is a 13 mile scenic drive, picnic areas, hiking and off roading trails. Evening wasn't the best time to go but it is the time we had, i imagine some of the red cliffs would be much more vibrant if the sun was shinning on them verses behind them.

I think that is it for now. We are planning on going to the Shark Reef Aquarium this evening at Mandalay Bay and we'll have pictures to post later. Then off to Glandale, Utah KOA campground and Zion NP and Bryce Canyon NP.

Abi's First Ever Birthday Party

Last Friday we celebrated Abi's 1st birthday. Since we left for vacation on Saturday morning (her actual birthday) we had her party Friday night at Josh's parents house. Having it there was so helpful since we were packing. Thursday night i went over to Monica's house to work on the cake. She baked the cakes and laid the chocolate fondant on the cakes then i got to work on the fun stuff, decorating. I spent probably 3+ hours placing fondant flowers and dots on her cake. It turned out so beautiful and delicious. I love this picture of my friend Kristin and her son Alexander. And the one of Denise and is cute except for Abi not having a good time at that moment. The picture of us 4 mommies is in the same order as the picture we took at my baby shower last summer ( http://joshandstephmikow.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html) now we all have babies and thought it would be nice to have a before and after picture.

Abi wasn't quite sure what to do with her cake. She took a few bites, tried to share with Ethan and was done. I guess she wanted to open presents instead.

She had lots of fun opening gifts. Of course she loved the tissue more than some gifts but that's ok. She got some cute clothes, great toys and lots of tissue. she can't wait to get home so she can play with all her new toys.

365 Days of Abigail Lauren Mikow

Our goal for Abi's first year was to take at least 1 picture each day. Here they all are 365 days of pictures. Its amazing to see the changes from day 1 to day 365. I am putting all these pictures in one book seperate from her baby book so they are all in one place.
Enjoy!

The Many Faces of Abi in September

A whole year has come and gone since Abi has come into our lives. It is as they say that time flies (espicially when having fun). I LOVE being a mommy, espicially Abi's. This year has been a learning experience and so much more joy than i thought possible. So many people told me that the first year would be really hard and yes some times it may have been but over all this year hasn't been that hard. We are very blessed to have a healthy baby, that slept thru the night early on and took to a schedule. I am so thankful that God has provided a job for Josh that allows me to stay home. i hope you all have enjoyed these collages as much as we do!