Hiking in the river through the Narrows/ Temple of Sinawava

Oh how we love the Narrows, it is one of the most beautiful parts of Zion.  The Virgin River begins to run through all of Zion National Park Starting a good 18 miles north of the Watchman Campground, where we camp and play in the river.  We take a bus 8 miles north into the park and start our hike on a 1 mile paved path called the Temple of Sinawava.  Then we hike in the Virgin river until the walls start to Narrow on us.  Thus the Virgin River Narrows.  We only hiked in about a mile and a half because it is a slow tromp through rocks, the current pushing against us, and not to metion 5 small children.  Hyrum and Aaron really wanted to keep going but we knew it would get too strenuous after a while.  Hector and I hiked in 3 miles or so about 8 years ago and hurried out because it started to rain and we feared flash floods which do occur sometimes.  We have promised the kids we will take them farther in when they are older and stronger.  The farther in the more beautiful and amazing the walls become that have been carved by the river.  These pictures do not do justice to the actual beauty.  It truly is an amazingly beautiful adventure.  This is one National Park no one should miss.

Tubing in the Virgin River

Wednesday the 27th of August we spent 8 plus hours going up and down the Virgin River just having the time of our lives.  Thanks to my Dad and my Angel Mother who took us here practically ever summer I am passing on some of the greatest memories and traditions of camping and swimming at one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  It was hard to pull the kids away to do some hikes and visit other parts of the park.

Back to Zion! Our last fling before school starts!

As you can see the kids were being really helpful while Dad put up the tent.  They did eventually help hammer in some of the stakes but not without first destroying some rocks.  Mila made sure she came dressed for the occasion in her whitest dress.  It mixed well with the red sand. We stayed in the Watchman campground, named after the beautiful sandstone mountain you see in the first and last photo.  These are some of the mountains you see upon entering the town of Springdale just outside of Zion.  We love the red rock mountains.  We wish we could live here.  In fact were talking about visiting over Thanksgiving break we love it so much.  It's only about 4 and a half hours from home so we love going.

Wall Arch Crumbles!!!!!!! August 10, 2008

These are pictures we took of Wall Arch back in March of this year, the kids had so much fun playing in it.  Unfortunately it fell yesterday blocking the 7 mile round trip hike into the Devils Garden area of Arches National Park.  We were so lucky we got to enjoy its beauty before it collapsed. The park rangers kept saying, " one never knows when an arch may fall, it could be gone tomorrow ".


The Collapsed Wall Arch

Mila misses her cousin Ezra!!!!!

I just had to put these pictures up because Mila is so in love with her cousin Ezra.  She talks about him lots. We have only been home for a couple of days and its hard to be apart from the cousins.  We love and miss you all so much.  What a great  and unforgetable summer it has been!

It's Tia Lula's Birthday!

We caught Tia Lula and Uncle Larry in Layton, Utah just before their trip to Washington.  We had a picnic and played in the park.  We're sure glad we got to visit.  We love you both very much!  Have a wonderful birthday Tia Lula!  Lot's of love, La Familia Torres 

4th of July with Family in Utah

Here are some pictures from the 4th of July.  We were in Utah with many of our cousins at aunt Cindy's house.  Suzy and her family of 5, Brenda and her kids made for 6 more, and myself and my 5 kids made for 17 extra guest in Cindy's cute little house.  It was tight but we were happy to be together. The big guy is Fui Vakapuna he  plays full back and is definitely the star of B.Y.U.'s football team. Look at those guns.  The next is a photo of the triplets with our friend and uncle Doug's business partner Chris' triplets!  How cute!    The kids and I at the parade after our run.  They did a 5k and I did the 10k.  Sophia beat all her brothers.  We think when she couldn't see anyone she got nervous and kept running faster so she could catch up but she was really way ahead.  She beat Daniel by 10 minutes and came in before mommy finished her 10k.  She might have been scared but she was sure proud she beat everyone in the end!     Here's 13 out of the 19 grandkids/cousins.  We loved swimming at Veterans pool.  We had so much fun just being together.  How wonderful family is.  There's nothing like being with those who love you unconditionally and can laugh with you and at you through the good and the bad.

The night of the Idols Concert.

Here are a few photos from the concert and after when the idols were signing autographs again.  I forgot to mention that Suzy had asked David to sing to us and he said he didn't think he was aloud to so crazy fun Suzy told me to sing "You're the Voice " with her.We began singing and we made him laugh his little nervous laugh.  Then he said," they do that pretty good."  Someone in the crowd video taped us because we saw it on youtube later.  In the video you can hear us and see him signing all my kids shirts.  That night after the concert we were silly and we sang to him again because someone in the crowd asked us to ( they had heard us earlier) Cindy begged us not to but we did it anyway.  You can see David's smirk in one of the pictures as we began singing.  I'm sure he thought there goes those crazy ladies again.  Michael Johns sure like it though he even sang along with us and said he had some Mates in the crowd.  "You're the Voice" is an Austrailian song, thus the cooperative photo with him.  

More American Idol Pictures

Here  we are before the Concert and pictures of the Big day meeting our sweet Angel David Archuleta.  He was so kind.  Mila kept saying Archuleta mommy, Archuleta mommy! and when he noticed he said," Ah was that her?  She's so cute."  We told him how proud we we're of his great example.

     Brooke White was so beautiful and we talked to her for a long time.  We told her how we loved her modest dress and her great example and she told us how she really had to work hard with the costume designers to get them to cooperate.  Everyone was so nice and gracious even with all the crazy screaming and shouting.