Spring Break Day 2

We finally made it to Valley of Fire.

Every time we drive down to Las Vegas, we pass the signs for Valley of Fire State Park. So, this time for Spring Break, we planned a stop. After spending the night in Overton, we headed out to the park early. Our first stop was Elephant Arch, and it wasn't busy at all. Best of all, the arch looked exactly like an elephant. 

This park was super fun.

The boys enjoyed exploring nooks and crannies in this park.

There were lots of places to climb!

Elephant Arch was cool!

We wanted to stay in the CCC cabins.

The red rocks look just like a valley of rocks on fire.

We continued into the park and passed the Visitor Center before it was even open. We did some pretty cool hikes throughout the morning, including two different slot canyons and a hike called the Fire Wave, which was really colorful. All of these hikes were pretty short and sandy, but we didn't mind. 

Cutest baby goats!

Dax loves slot canyons for this reason.

Dad walked right under Mark.

We loved the Pink Canyon trail.

Always climbing!

The rock layers at the Fire Wave were amazing.

We couldn't believe how cool it looked.

So may different colors and lines.

Dad found a great spot for a jumping picture.

Seth wanted a jumping picture, too!

Dax, too!

Mark quietly sat and enjoyed the rocks.

As it got closer to lunch, we drove back to the Visitor Center. They were rewriting the Junior Ranger program, so they just gave our boys the badges! Then we stopped at a nice spot called the Seven Sisters. It was shady and pleasant, so we had a picnic at a table. .

We drove back out for another few short hikes, and we managed to see some animals. On one hike we saw over a dozen chuckwallas. There were also some bighorn sheep right on the side of the road, and since it is spring, we saw the cutest baby goats!

Dax found this Jupiter hole!

Slot Canyons make us happy (and cool us off).

Seth wanted to do the slot canyon stretch.

We found this cool arch.

If you step back it looks like the skull of a crocodile, right?

Goats were everywhere.

Mom, Dax, and Mark hiked a trail while Seth rested with Dad.

The Chuckwallas scared Mom to death by sitting in bushes and then jumping out. 

You can't tell in these pictures, but they are huge.

Our picnic was a lot of fun.

There were fun places to explore by the picnic table.

We swung around the northern loop of the park and ended up at a spot called the Beehives. We climbed around for a little while and spotted a few more chuckwallas. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a gila monster nor a desert tortoise, but we looked really hard.

By mid-afternoon, it was time to head to our next hotel in St. George. This one was much nicer, and since we were staying for several days, we were happy to get settled in.

A few hikes had cool petroglyphs.

We thought this looked like baby Elephant Arch.

The final trail led to petrified wood, but it wasn't as good as Petrified Forest National Park.

Spring Break Day 1

Mom loves hanging with the cousins!

Dax had a baseball tournament in Las Vegas on the first weekend of Spring Break. It also happened to be Easter and General Conference, which meant that we could travel, so we decided to all head to Las Vegas and stay with the Pooles. Unfortunately, Dax's first tournament game was early Thursday morning of the week before Spring Break, and Dad and Mark couldn't miss that much school. So, Mom, Dax, and Seth drove the van down on Wednesday night while Dad and Mark stayed home. There weren't a lot of adventures those first few days, but there was a lot of baseball. Dax played really well, slamming a triple to right-centerfield, but his team only went 1-3. Lucky, Tiff made everyone feel better with a Passover dinner.

Ben was really excited to see us!

Dax played stellar in his tournament!

Tiffany played a few April Fools Jokes. Luckily, no mean ones!

The cousins came to watch Dax play one game.

We celebrated Easter with a Passover Dinner.

Dad and Mark flew down on Saturday morning. Then we all enjoyed playing cards with the cousins, watching General Conference, and enjoying Easter. We played games outside and got fancy sodas, too. Jonny even deep-fried a turkey for Easter dinner.

After dinner, we made the short drive to Overton. It was longer than an hour because Dad had to return for his wallet, Mark had to go back for his retainer, and Mom had to pick up some clothes she left in the bathroom, but we still made it to the hotel in Overton and went straight to bed.

Mark and Dad had to be at the airport early in the morning.

The kids played Super Smash Bros between conference sessions.

The boys watching Priesthood Session.

Seth and Ben loved driving the pink jeep around together.

Lots of four square games!

Randy and Audrey are best buddies.

A Happy Easter picture!

Best cousin friends!

March Fun

March was another fun month for the Ockeys. We spent a few weekends in St. George, but we also had plenty of fun at home. Mark and Mom continued to enjoy their Wednesdays together. The weather was mostly dry, though still very cold, so they had a few great adventures. 

Mark got his braces off!

We celebrated the Jazz at the All Star Game.

The puppies are bigger than the boys!

And they don't love being held anymore.

But that doesn't stop Seth and Dax from trying!

Seth was chosen as one of the winners from our school fundraiser and he chose the prize of spraying the principal with silly string.

He said it was so much fun!

When the Ferlans visit, we always go to Brookers for ice cream.

This year we treated ourselves to a Thanksgiving Point Pass. It's been a while since we've had one, so we wrote it off as a business expense. So far, it's been great, and we've visited all our old favorites. One thing we love is the Butterfly Biosphere. We decided to check it out since we hadn't been in more than a year. There weren't any crowds, and the butterflies loved spending time with us.

Dad landed a pretty blue butterfly.

This beauty landed on Seth.

Mark loved this exquisite orange and black.

Dax's is blue on the inside.

We are glad for our Thanksgiving Point Pass again.

Mom loves the butterflies almost as much as the tulips.

U Dig Fossils has been on Dad's list for years, but it's just so far out in the West Desert! When they finally called us and asked if we'd come out for a visit, we couldn't say No. It's a family run operation, and the family treated us so well. We were amazed that you can find and keep trilobytes in almost every rock you pick up! And since we were in the Delta area, we visited an old hermit's cabin and tried out a new restaurant, too.

Mark was most excited about finding a good fossil.

Seth loved breaking things with a hammer.

Dax found a lot of cool trilobytes.

We found a fossil in almost every rock we split.

Mark split rocks like a pro.

We had such a great time on this little adventure.

We also did some hiking, while the boys did some climbing.

The hermit's cabin was really remote, but pretty awesome.

You can almost see Dad's desire to move out of society.

Dad and Dax posed at the restaurant in Delta.

On the way home we finally stopped at the kilns we always drive past.

All growing up, Mom and Dad painted Easter Eggs. It was a pretty big deal. We still spend some time painting Easter Eggs, but a bigger tradition for us now is decorating sugar cookies. We laugh and mix frosting colors, which Mom pretends to be upset about it. We eat way more cookies than we should, but it has become a wonderful tradition for us. Best of all, though only a few of us eat boiled eggs, we all love sugar cookies!

Some people like dying eggs, but we do better with Easter sugar cookies.

The boys made faces on their cookies. Mark's is not impressed.

Seth made the cutest Easter bunny.

We love visiting This is the Place in the Spring to see the baby animals. We didn't have too many open days with baseball and soccer season starting, so we squeezed it in one morning, and then that afternoon we headed to Las Vegas for Dax's baseball tournament and the start of our Spring Break.

This is the Place Heritage Park is one of our favorite state parks.

We usually don't have time for the playground, but Seth really enjoys it.

Dax was so excited to see a fake trilobite fossil like the ones we had been digging for last week.

The boys enjoy a good pony ride. 

Mark is too big, but Dax still likes a ride.

We took a few moments to honor the pioneers and visit all the memorials in this park.