Time traveling!

     Within a month's time, we traveled from 70* weather in Florida to 20* weather in Montana. We figured we went back 2 months in time, which only makes us more eager for spring!

Eldon's sister-in-law gave us a box of fun food when we left Pennsylvania. 

We spent a night at Cabela's in Hammond, Indiana. It's a great place to walk around for an hour or so. The children were thrilled to ride the escalator. 

Jelly Belly Tour, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin

     Turn down a free factory tour right along our route? Nope! We loved riding on the little cars that took us through and showed us all kinds of cool stuff and taught us how Jelly Bellies are made.

A portrait of Queen Elizabeth-done entirely in Jelly Bellies.

We all had to wear the cute little hats.

The engines that pulled our trains around.

Along the tour we saw lots of retired equipment. 

We thought it was really cool the outer coating is made almost entirely of sugar and added as it mixes in a machine similar to a concrete mixer.

Singing Jelly Bellies! Our "free" tour ended with us buying several bags of Belly Flops (candies that aren't perfect) to share with friends. 

While in Wisconsin, visiting a cheese house is a must! Sadly, they weren't making cheese the day we were there but we still stocked up on cheese.

There is still lots of snowdrifts!

     We spent a few days at my Grandma's in Minnesota. It was a wonderful resting point after traveling hard for a few days. She cooked us lots of delicious food and Eldon's did all sorts of odd jobs for her. On Monday I enjoyed having several of my step-Aunts and cousins stop to visit.

It makes me happy to see Michael loving puzzles.

There is a similar picture of me like this when I was about 6, all my dolls lined up on the couch!

Ethan had fun with the many toy cars and trucks in the toybox!

I am so thankful and blessed for this dear grandma of mine! We get along famously- probably because we are both low-drama and practical :).

Leaving Grandma's and making a beeline for Montana!

Our private tour of Glen Canyon Dam

     Earlier this year when we were in Page we took a tour of the dam and loved it. Ironically, our landlord's son-in-law (also our neighbor) is a security guard at the dam and offered us a private tour. We were especially excited because this week they had opened all 4 bypass tubes in order to let several million gallons down to Lake Mead. We met Gerald and his family, as well as another family from their church, and our landlord's wife Monday evening at 6 for our tour. 

     It's an awesome sight looking down at the dam from the Carl Hayden Visitor Center anytime and this was even better! The dam was lit up and it was shocking to see how much water was pouring out!

View through the glass.

One of the many tunnels inside the dam that we walked through. At this point we had only 150 feet of concrete between us and Lake Powell. That little ditch on the right catches all the water seepage.

Apparently, being possessive with pens is a guy thing. I thought is was just my dad and husband! 

The plumb lines measure how much the dam moves - up to 2 inches at times!

He took us back into the cliff, which the kids thought was super cool!

At the bottom of the dam we had to stop and check out the 2 acres of Bermuda Grass. This seems to be a high source of pride to all the employees 😂.

I was holding my breath that our tour wouldn't end at the generator room. Nope, he told us all to get a hard hat on and we proceeded into a part where only about 1,000 others (who aren't employees) have been before.

Close up views of the massive 8 generators.

Emily was so giggly about going into "special" places!

We did a LOT of walking!

And then, our biggest wish came true. We were able to go within 10-20 feet of the bypass tubes! The noise as well as the high volume of water was incredible! Pic credits to Makayla

Interestingly, the only lights shining were red and blue but on pictures it mixes and makes purple. Pic credits to Makayla

Pic credits to Makayla

Makayla was a busy little photographer and got better pictures then I did - with my old camera! Maybe this is her future 😍.

Family photo!

Each generator had 8 boxes like this. This particular one was being worked on. Each mechanic puts a lock on it and he is the only one that can unlock it before it starts. I'm guessing this one had at least 30 locks!

     So yes, we had an incredible time! It was made even more fun since we somewhat knew most of the people with us and had a very casual guide. I don't have a picture, but he even opened one of the small doorways on the front of the dam and let us peer out. I'll try to remember what we all said our favorite parts were:
Ethan-Wearing a hardhat!
Emily- Going into the "secret" tunnel in the cliff.
Michael- Watching the colorful water shoot out.
Makayla- The lights on the water.
Monica- Being so close to the bypass tubes.
Eldon- I don't actually remember if he said this, but he was fascinated by the fact that this dam's concrete is completely cured and Hoover's is not, even though Hoover is 30 years older. This has largely to do with the fact that at Glen Canyon, they shoved pipes into the wet concrete and stuffed them with ice water to cool it faster.

Lower Antelope Canyon

We've been told multiple times that we must see Antelope Canyons while we're in Page. So we did! After doing research (aka, a quick Google search), we opted for Lower Antelope instead of Upper because Lower is cheaper, less crowded, deeper, and you get to climb ladders and steps. We chose Dixie Ellis Tours and had a great experience.

Reasons to go:

#1. It's stunning, beyond words or pictures.

#2. Our Navajo Indian was extremely knowledgeable at explaining every little bump. Plus, all my good pictures he took!

#3. It's just downright fun to be 100 feet in the earth and look waaaaay up and see the sky!

#4. Climbing all the ladders is great exercise and the children thought it a great adventure.

Reasons I would have a hard time going again:

#1. People. So many people. While we were the only ones in our group, we were waiting on the group right in front of us and had another group crowding us from the back. This was at 8:45 on a Thursday in February!

#2. My pictures are an embarrassment. Our guide adjusted the settings on my camera but it still did a terrible job. If I had it over to do with, I would have put the camera away and just totally soaked up my time in the canyon.

#3. Cost. Makayla was the only child we had to pay for and our tour cost $135. 

6 flights of steep stairs to get to the bottom!

Lots of places were even more narrow then this!

Numerous flash floods hit the canyon every year and then they have to close it and clean out sand and rocks. When it completely floods, water at the bottom is flowing through at 90 miles an hour! 

Ethan refused to look for every single picture :).

See Clark the Shark from Nemo?

So many cool waves!

 The canyon changes with each flood. As it wears and breaks away in places, in also deposits sand and minerals in other places. So basically, it self-repairs!

Don't forget to give your guide a tip at the end!

I'm glad we went but I'm also looking forward to find more canyons to explore on our own :).

Glen Canyon Dam Tour

The first two times we wanted to do the tour of Glen Canyon Dam, the elevator to the bottom of the dam was not working so we opted to wait. I mean, who wouldn't want the chance to go inside a massive dam if given the chance. Side note, if both elevators went out, workers need to use the 53 flights of steps to get up and down! Their other option is to drive about 5 miles around and come in the 2 mile tunnel, which is what most of the guys that work in the powerhouse do anyhow. There's just no quick way up to the top!

We showed up for the 9:15 tour and were delighted to beat the crowds and only have 2 other couples join us. Tickets only cost $5 each and seven and under are free so we only needed three tickets. The children were SO excited to go through security and thought it hilarious that Eldon had to be wanded down because of his steel toe boots :).

On top of the dam.

 Our guide first took us 80 feet down from the visitors center to the top of the dam. He shared so many interesting history facts as well as current information that my head was soon swimming trying to remember it all.

One of the 8 original turbines in the dam.

One of the buckets used to pour concrete in the dam. These were suspended on cables so they could quickly get concrete in whatever section they needed.

A closer look at the turbine.

A rock bolt.

      A rock bolt is a......well, a bolt that they put in the canyon walls to hold rocks up. When the dam was built in the 1950s, "high-scalers" were hired to go down the canyon walls with ropes and use jack hammers or dynamite to knock the loose rocks down. Next, they pre-drilled a hole and inserted a rock bolt 40-75 feet into the wall at places where cracking was likely. Since this was such a dangerous job, high-scalers were paid the large sum of..........$3.25 an hour!

Lake Powell

     The lake has been full several times and the high water mark can be clearly seen here. Currently it's at about 50% full.

Looking up at the bridge from the top of the dam.

      We walked half-way across the dam then took the elevator down. It took over a minute and was Ethan's favorite part! Our guide explained how there is hallways all through the dam and they use them to keep a check on things and do repairs. As a kid, he was able to race freely though the miles and miles of tunnels in the dam but now no one but employees is allowed in.

2 acres of Bermuda grass!

      To the left is the dam and the on the right is the substation where the generators are. Instead of having the huge pipes exposed that carry water through, they put dirt and grass on top of it! It's got a sprinkler system and in the summer gets moved about every 10 days. Last year they hosted an Easter Egg hunt for the town kids down here so we're hoping they do that again :).

Looking way up at the bridge from the bottom of the dam!

Vegetation growing on the canyon walls.

8 massive generators! We couldn't go in but looked through a big window and watched a short video on how they work.

A map of where the electric goes. Makayla thought it was so cool that Montrose, CO where her cousins live get electric from here!

Workers use bikes like these to ride the miles of tunnels in the dam.

     Touring the dam was a great experience and we'd highly recommend to anyone coming through the area!