July 12,2010

Hey everyone! Today was a very eventful day! First, all the girls went down to a little plaza in Malibu where we did some window shopping and also went to a playground where it was known to see famous women and their kids playing, like Jennifer Garner. But, we didn't see anyone, unfourtunately. So after getting some starbucks and walking around, we went back to the house and joined the boys and drove about 45 minutes away to 20th Century Fox Studios, where one of Donald's friends from college who works there gave us a very interesting and cool tour! After that, we ate lunch and headed to Malibu Beach! When we got there, it was very windy and chilly so we didn't stay for too long, but we still stayed long enough for all of us to go into the Pacific Ocean and ride the waves! Then we came home and ate some chili for dinner (: so, that's about it for today! We're having a ton of fun and, again, thanks for following!

Hey everyone! I finally have a laptop for the next few days so i will be able to update this a lot often! So the past few days have been very interesting and fun! After Zion, we spent a day at Bryce Canyon and hiked to Queen's garden there. It was very pretty with all the colors and views! After bryce, we headed to fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada! We stayed in an amazing hotel for one night called the Golden Nugget and, in my opinion, it shouldn't have been classified as a hotel. It had restaurants, a three story pool, a starbucks, and a HUGE casino (which by the way, my mom won 20 dollars at, haha) We got there around 12 noon and swam for about 4 hours in 107 degree weather! So i got a pretty good tan, i must admit. (: And then we took a double decker bus downtown to the Bellagio Hotel to see a pretty cool water show along to music. But, since it was a Friday night in Vegas, all the buses back were packed full, so we had to wait around in Vegas for about an hour and a half in 99 degree weather (yes, 99 degree weather at 11pm) but we eeventually got home and have a good story to tell now! So, vegas was a lot of fun and now, we are in Malibu, CA with my dad's old roomate from college, Donald and his wife, Trina with their 3 kids, and we are having a blast! Today, we went downtown to Hollywood and had a grand tour, shopping in Rodea Drive and passing by million dollar houses in Beverely Hills, and seeing the stars on the sidewalk of all the celebrities! Thanks everyone for following, we are having a lot of fun! (:

July 7, 2010

Wow, I finally found a computer so i can update this thing! Sorry to all of you who have been following, our laptop broke. Well, right now we are at Zion National Park in Utah and we're staying here for 3 nights, and on the the 3rd day we're going to bryce national park. This morning, we met up with my grandparents who are also traveling and went on a very cold creek hike in the narrows. So basically we were at the very bottom of the Zion Canyon! It was very fun though! Everyone else that we passed had walking sticks to help them not fall. Did the Schmidt family? No way, we're tough (: Also, last night we went to a ranger program at the ampitheater at our campsite and learned about the night sky and saw a sky full of stars! So that's i think about it for now, keep following!

July 4th, 2010

Hey everyone! Our 4th of july was spent at the grand canyon! Although we were a little dissapointed that we couldn't see fireworks there for safety reasons, it was still awesome! We arrived there from Durango at about 7 pm Arizona time, and werre able to catch the last sights of the sunset over the grand canyon from some of the lookout sights. The next day we hiked about three miles along the canyon, stopping at some points were there was a great view! In addition, later that night, we went to Imperial Point, the highest lookout point at the grand canyon, 8,803 feet above sea level! We also went to Cape Royal to watch the sunset and see the colrado river, or the very bottom of the grand canyon. So, even though there were no fireworks, it was still one of the best 4th of July weekends i've ever had!

Hey everyone! We are currently in Durango, Colorado and we love it! The Rocky mountains are gorgeous! Last night we went to a really nice restaurant that the locals recommended after about a 6 hour drive from Colorado Springs. This morning we went about 5 minutes away from our campsite to a white water rafting site and rode down the lower Animas river! We also had a great tour guide, Kevin who was very smart about the environment. (Pictures to come later) So, we hope to have a fun day for the rest of the time & keep reading!

Since we got a little behind on the blog for day 3, this is gonna be a combined post of day 3 and 4. Day 3 was interesting to say the least. We left our campsite in Missouri at about 9 am and it was supposed to be an 8 hour drive to Colorado Springs. However, what fun is a family road trip without a breakdown? Well, that's what happened to us at about an hour from our destination. The bolts on one of the tires on our camper broke off, resulting in the tire coming off as well. So we had to pull over and call triple a. But there was a miscommunication as to where exactly we were so the guy that was coming to help us took about 3 hours to get there. So when we finally were back on the road again, we got to the campsite at about 11pm, and had to set up in the dark. But this morning we were amazed to see that our campsite is completely surrounded by the rocky mountains! It was beautiful! Today, we drove downtown to see the Focus on the Family Radio headquarters, and us kids got to do our own recording of an Adventures in Odyssey! We also got a pretty cool tour of the Olympic training facility down there. So far, pretty good! The trip is far from over, and i'm excited to see the adventures we will have in the future!