Awesome Summer Trip!!!

Yosemite

I have a thing for lighthouses apparently

I realize I only blog about trips we take. Sorry about that! This one has so many great memories. Too many to post. We started out in Newport Beach for a day, then to a cousins baptism in Redlands, CA where we also watched the most amazing fireworks we have ever seen. We took a side trip to Big Bear ski resort with family and rode a lift ride that takes you down on wheels and cement...no pics.  Then we drove to Mammoth Mountain, another incredible ski resort where Duane and I went skiing before we had kids. On the way, we drove up the path to Mount Whitney (yes, our daughter is sort of named after it). It's the highest peak in the U.S. It's amazing to go from the low elevation up so high, and thats just the drive to the hike starting point! After those amazing views we drove over to Yosemite (our favorite national park) and camped 2 nights. We recommend booking the day they open reserved campsites way in advance. There we also visited the giant sequoia trees. After that we had decided, why not go on to San Fransisco..it's only another 3 hours. So we had a blast going over bridges, driving steep rodes, looking at strange people, buying chinese stuff in china town (Sadie's favorite), eating chocolate in Giradelli square, and hanging out near the bay and Golden Gate park. On the way home we decided our drive was not long enough and drove a little out of the way down highway 1 along the coast north of Monterey. There was a cool lighthouse with a great view. Whew! We needed another day at every location. Now I need to figure out how to move these pics again on here.

Whitney HAD a helmet

So as you can see our sweet Whitney had to get a helmet. We want to get her started on baby football asap! Just kidding...she totally had a lopsided head by 6 weeks and it wasn't improving by 9 months. Anyway this was in October at Disneyland, and she just stopped wearing it a couple weeks ago! It looks much better now... I'm so glad we did it, even though there are so many other things we could have used that money on!

More highlights from this year- skiing!

This past winter Duane fulfilled a life long dream of teaching his kids how to snow ski (2 of them). My Dad came along to help (first 2 pictures) and they had a blast! This is on the first trip where they were learning. After a couple more times going Audrey and Annelise are now great skiers and can go down green and some blue runs without any help! I was at home dealing with the gassy newborn ...but I hope to go this next year!

They did get tired

Sea World and the beach

Audrey, Annelise and Duane went on the rapids ride and and were completely soaked. This was right after so they were a little chilly.

We found a beach with some great climbing trees
and a park facing the ocean

We have a strange black dot on our camera and don't know why!!

An actual posting from the Dana's!

It's hard to believe a year has flown by! At the same time it seems like so much has happened since I last posted. The most exciting thing that happened was the birth of our 4th girl Whitney Lael on Dec. 17, 2009. We came up with her name a few weeks before delivery. The name Whitney was chosen partly due to the fact that mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevadas is the tallest mountain in the US (not counting Alaska). We love the Sierra Nevadas and my Dad has climbed to the top of Mount Whitney. Duane and I love hiking (we hiked Camelback on our 3rd date and our first kiss was on top a ASU's "A" mountain). Lael is my Aunts name and means "of God". She had a fast delivery as did the others (Annelise holds the record at 15 minutes from time of arrival to the hospital) and was 6 lbs. 15 oz., 19 inches long. Our heaviest but shortest baby! I am soaking up every second with her...and the other girls are loving being little mommy's. She is now 6 months old!

Once I remember how to get these pictures in the right layout I will be posting other highlights from this year.

Fun Trip!

This is what is looked like when we arrived at the North Rim, Grand Canyon! We were originally wearing shorts :)

Here we are at Zion National Park in southern Utah.

This is an awsome view of Zion in the background

We saw this snake on a hike!

We were glad our campsite had flush toilets right near by with me being pregnant and 3 girls!

Audrey's Baptism

It's hard to believe we have a child old enough to be baptised! Audrey got to pick out a dress for after the baptism and fell in love with this beautiful pale pink one. She couldn't find a white one she liked as much, so here she is, setting a new trend in LDS girls baptism dresses! The spirit was strong, and we are so proud of her. We did have to go a couple hours before the baptism and buy last minute new shoes because her other white ones disappeared from our house somehow...