THE TRIP!!!

It begins! Ryan's envoy is rolling over!

The pony takes us to the sand dunes near the OR coast!

the pony and the niki will hunt you!

next stop: redwoods in CA!

inside a burned one.

look out, ryan's got a giant hammer!

look out, Ryan's got a giant... thing... seaweed i think! (Cali coast on our way to see Ellen)

strange workings are afoot!

Yosemite National Park!

half-dome at sunset!

twisty wood: cool!

lichen: cool!

check out the rocks on top of the giant rock: cool!

ryan's getting his climbing monkey on! and then he brought me a small stone from the top.

the other side of half-dome!

CHIPMUNK! cool!

all the mountains are made out of this amazing stone! plus my big toe nail was coming off on my left foot.

we stopped at this lake...

it had 'gold' sand! no kidding!

out of Yosemite and heading for the desert!

cresting over into DEATH VALLEY National Park!

when we set up camp it was 101, when we woke up it was 98! but that night we watched the summer meteor shower for three-hours: absolutely spectacular!

Vegas: gratuity and decadence to the extreme

met up with tyler and his buddy for some lunch and strolling around the strip.

shooes!

omg, shooes!

the great Hoover Dam!!

On to Prescott, AZ!

(i'm the one in the middle)

Gardner family dog: the lovely Daphne!

we hungout in the town square, ryan and daphne are way too cute together: i'm jealous!

Ryan's mom is super nice (as is his dad and brother)

Thumb Butte

old granite rocks just outside of town (really neat place!)

i like the stones in the bottom, all standing in a row together.

different rock, different lichen, and shoes this time. (my toenail came off the next day!)

Time for a day in jerome and sedona!

there was this sweet kalidoscope store!

sedona, AZ!

do you see the "hawk"?

Ryan took me to the Grand Canyon National Park!

this is the face of the best parking spot in the lot!

the grand canyon has weird, flat, fat squirrels!

big horned sheep: cool!

the colors!

we went three miles down. i twisted my ankle horribly, then on the way up we ran into this guy!

Welcome to Zion National Park!

hah! we nabbed the last reservation the day before via phone!

the last pic. after this we went through the tetons and yellowstone, and didn't take any pictures. Ryan and i are wearing the tye-dye we made while we were staying at his parents'. (plenty of those earlier in the summer, if you want to check them)