our hi uinta adventure with the esplins

in july, we went up to the high uintas with our friends, the esplins. we got up there on wednesday afternoon and came back home on saturday evening. it was a great time. the pictures show the highlights.

 marlene sharing the lovely cherries the esplins brought.

 s with the big she caught within minutes of fishing on the first day!

 b holding the good size fish he caught.

 action shot! marlene throwing out her line.

 b and emron cleaning the fish we caught on the first day.

so pretty.

 hanging out at the campsite.

 our tents on our first morning. we had gorgeous weather.

 moses and w wearing the shirts they made for the trip.

 on our first day hike--this was the most challenging hike we did. 

 

 aww, a heart.

 oh these views. i love it.

 emron with his first fish.

 anya with her first fish of the trip.

 a fun pic of the kiddos.

 the pork chops cooking on the fire. oh they were good!

 the esplins are such good cooks.

 hanging out by the campfire.

 fishing on day two--and swimming. we went to a lake that had a floating island (note the grass emron is standing on). the fishing was fairly poor (we caught 6 or so), but the swimming was fun. 

 b and e diving into the cool, cool water.

 splashing in the water.

 moses won the award for best swimmer. he swam and played in the water longer than anyone. it was like he couldn't feel the cold. 

 w feeling the cold.

anya playing in the big rocks by where we cooked our fish. b and i and the kids saw several pikas in the rock piles there. and boy do i love pikas!

 anya and s eating apples.

 i like this shot. it makes the trees look like redwoods.

 cooking s'mores.

 moses carrying the "big boy" over to the fire. he found this big knotty piece of wood on the first day and had been anxiously awaiting the time when he could put in the fire. 

 moses was so excited. so excited. 

 moses was proud. so proud.

 telling stories around the fire.

 all of us right before we parted ways. it was such a fun time.

 we went back out to a nearby lake to go swimming. it was so great. honestly, not much beats swimming in an alpine lake on the top of a mountain at 10,000 feet. that's my small head out in the water. william is in the forefront.

 treading water--i was starting to feel sluggish by this point (i'd probably been out there 15-20 minutes). 

 enjoying the view.

aqueous photos from maui

i am finally getting the underwater camera pictures from maui up. as you'll notice, not all of them were taken under the water.

 oh the sea turtles. we saw so many of them. this one looks beautiful floating in the water.

 we saw lots of great fish. roro and cathy gave us a fishes of hawaii book so we could start identifying them too.

 a favorite of mine. this was down near la perouse.

 an eel!

 moorish idols.

 i love, love, love seeing eels.

 w and a turtle.

 great pictures of s snorkeling. she's a great snorkeler.

 brian capturing the force of the waves we had at kameole III beach our last morning there. they were biggies.

 roro diving under one of those big ones.

 i love this picture of roland. the coloring makes it look like it was taken in the 50s or 60s.

 an octopus! we saw a few octopus, but this one is the one that we saw best. this was in lana'i.

 b at the bottom of the ocean in lana'i.

 a gorgeous image.

 roro looking tough.

 there were so many fish in lana'i. and there were amazing canyons under the water. it truly was an amazing site to see.

 while snorkeling in lana'i i pointed a shell out to b. it was at the bottom (about 15-20'). b dove down and found it wasn't latched on to the rock--so he pulled it up. it was a triton's trumpet. we each hefted it for a few minutes and then b took it back down to the bottom. 

 i love this picture.

 another eel!

 i love this one too. b is such a good diver.