Nevada Trip!

We had a nice trip to Nevada this year.  This was the main reason for traveling out west--to visit Lee's parents in Ely. 

We met up with Lee's parents and his brother Paul, and wife Cindy, at Lehman Caves.  After a yummy lunch our crew headed to the caves for a tour.   The rest of the group waited for us to get out.










The cave tour was a lot longer than we anticipated, but everyone waited for us!  We then drove up to see the Bristlecone Pine Trees, some of the oldest trees in the world.  This was at an overlook on the drive up.  And see, Lee has tall genes in his family too!  Lee the youngest, with Paul the oldest, and their parents.  It was Lee's mom's birthday that day too which was fun.


We had a nice hike up to the trees.












We made it!  We never saw Methuselah though.


Isn't this tree crazy old?  Born 1230 BC, about the time of Joshua in the Bible.  So cool!










We wanted to see the stars that night but it was too cloudy.  We arrived in Ely about 10:30 or so that evening and went to bed.  Cal's feet are soooo clean!


On Friday we hung out in Ely.  Lee was busy all day taking kids on the ATV and dirt bike.  The kids love it.








I went out myself!








Grandma had lots of yummy popsicles for the kids, and they loved it.  I love seeing kids just hanging out and talking.


Lois and her family ventured out to Ely, arriving that evening.  It was great of Lee's parents to let them stay.  We met up at Economy Drug downtown, then headed to back to the house.  I bought the Heit boys "Reppin the Y" t-shirts.


Again, cousins hanging out.  So cute.


Saturday morning we headed out to Cave Lake to kayak and eat lunch.  This picture is out of order, but more rides outside!


Lee's dad rented three kayak's from the local sports store--Sportsworld, where Lee worked as a teenage in the bike shop.  They all loved kayaking.  The evening before we were able to visit with Lee's sister and husband, Lynn and Marv.  We were going to meet them at Cave Lake that morning, but Marv's mom was not doing well health wise, so they took off to Utah to be with her.  I'm glad we saw Lynn and Marv the night before.






















After a fun morning/afternoon and lunch at Cave Lake, we headed back to Ely.  More rides!


I went on a ride with Lee on the dirt bike.  I must say, it's so freaky riding with him.  I always think we're going to tip over, but we never do.  He does a great job.  Lee even said that he would be nervous about being a passenger because you can't see exactly what the driver sees.


That night Lois and Jeff and crew took off.  Later did a little excursion with Nathan to see a SNO-CAT he gets to use sometimes during the winter.  He even drove it for a us a little bit. 




He backed out of the garage for us, then pulled in.


And the big truck to haul the SNO-CAT! 


A trip to Ely wouldn't be complete without a little convertible car ride with Nathan.  This vehicle he bought for his business partner, a LeBaron, right?  They bought each other a junky car for Christmas...so funny!  Oh, and Lois and I dropped her laundry off at the laundry service in town that Nathen-co owns (with the guy who he bought the car for).  I was going to treat Lois to the service, but Nathan was ahead of us and covered the cost.  Thanks Nathan!  We also go to see the progress on Nathan's house, which was really fun.  I am looking forward to seeing the finishes and what not that he'll do to it.  Nathan....do Pale Oak by Benjamin Moore throughout your house.  Perfect light gray in my opinion.....


Clark found Risk in the game closet and enjoyed playing a few times with willing persons.


We enjoyed church meetings, and visiting with family.  We also saw Kent's new optometry office.  So nice!  I asked Lee if it made him anxious to want to get an office right away.  He said no. This brought up the discussion of how to get a building...with cash.  Quite daunting. I've "sworn" off ever going into debt again.  Getting a home mortgage was so frustrating--I mainly dealt with the mortgage company and getting the loan (there were lots of tears, ask Lee!).  But thankfully because of this we came up with a plan to save a certain monthly amount for the next 10-15 years in a mutual fund.  This will put Lee around 50 with a paid for building--or the start of building an office building.  Sounds pretty good to us!  We are so glad we thought of this now and not when we're 45.

We had a great time in Ely.  It's fun to go there ever year (unless there is a Robertson reunion).  Thank you Mom and Dad for all the great meals and the fun visits.  Thanks Nathan for all of your help and company too.  The kids love hanging out with you.  I'm sure you never noticed....

We kept going west after our Ely visit.  Next stop was Reno and Fallon, Nevada.  We wanted to play at the Sand Dunes off HWY 50 (Loneliest Road in the US).  But we came on the wrong day.  They wanted $40 for us to stop and hike around. No thanks!  We took pictures and left. 




We loved going to Reno to see our good friends the Yorgason's.  We lived near each other while Lee was in optometry school and spent many Friday and Saturday nights together. A few times we would put Clark and Cal to bed at their house in a port-a-crib and play games.  Then we would haul the kids home when game night was over.  It was so fun seeing their house, cute kids and catching up for the past 9 years.  The visit was much too short.  We definitely want to see them again soon. 


On the way back to Fallon we stopped to see Lee's nephew Aaron.  We enjoyed seeing him, and it was fun to see where he works too!  See...more tall genes!  Aaron is 6'9". 






We finally made it to Carl's house in Fallon.  We had a yummy dinner, visited, and played outside.  Clark and some of the kids watched the Olympics too and probably played some games.  Carl and Susan have such a fun house, especially for entertaining and kids!  The younger kids had a fun, short swim in their pool, and we also hung out around their fire pit.  Cal and Elden loved going around the sidewalk that goes around the perimeter of their back yard, and playing with their hammock. We loved visiting with Thomas who will soon be heading to Japan on his mission.


We did some optometry talk (Carl is an optometrist too), and it was interesting hearing about Susan's experiences as Relief Society president and their travels to England and Thailand.  Of course we had yummy food there too!  Carl made us a traditional Swedish breakfast dish that was oh so good.  A cross between baked oatmeal and coffee cake.  I need to get the recipe.You put butter on it, and then milk.  I ate it with just the butter  So good. Our trip was short, and we took off the next morning.


Thanks everyone!  We loved our Nevada Trip!  I love that we were able to see many of Lee's siblings this summer...all but two, Keith and Sue.  Hopefully we'll see them next summer!