Family is so important and I hope everyone who reads this can think about their families for a few minutes and thank God for the blessings a family brings to your life. This trip for me has been a blessing because I am reconnecting with family that I haven't seen for a while and some that I've never met. A couple weeks ago I was able to share a roof with my Grandma's sister Lola in San Diego and her children. I was hesitant to see them because I have never before met them, but the minute the door opened and I felt the warmth of their hospitality and familial love and I was right at home. It was amazing meeting Lola and Ray and seeing Diana and Ski again because family is one of God's greatest gifts and so often your families can be so disconnected because of distance that you lose touch or in my case, never meet at all. I am very grateful that this trip has provided a way for me to connect with my family all around the country. My brother just left and it was very nice for him to be here. He's such a sweet guy and I can always count on him to be there for me, not because he particularly likes me, but because we are family and that's what family does. He must have felt 3,000 miles away that I was starting to get homesick because he hopped on a plane on three days notice and flew out to meet us. My seester will be coming shortly too and I am on my way to visit my wonderful grandparents and my Uncle Joe who is the funniest and nicest guy I know. I think I am the luckiest person in the whole world. Thanks Mom for the Easter care package, I forgot how much I missed your flour rabbit prints on the kitchen floor until they weren't there. But having Colin here made my Easter just as good as if I were home again. I hope everyone had a nice Easter and I hope that you thank God every day for your special family.

I've been to Las Vegas 3 times now so I think I've got a pretty good grip on this city and what it has to offer. Now, a lot of people would not even consider "Sin City" as an ideal vacationing spot because of what the city represents and I can fully understand their reasoning in that. People are tempted in many ways, but Vegas can be a fun place to visit, one of my favorites, without having any regrets when you leave. Gambling to me is a form of entertainment and should be viewed as such. You win some, you lose some but its all part of the fun. Take for instance a day of entertainment in the Tampa Bay area. Two Busch Gardens tickets, $10 parking, sunscreen, four meals in the park, a couple T-shirts, that dumb picture of you screaming your head off on Montu, and a couple bottles of water can cost you upwards of $150. That $150 is gone when you get home and you don't think about it twice because you had a great time. Well, in Vegas, I spend $50-$100 a day, that money is gone too, but I had a great time. The key to Vegas is to do it cheap, and since we are on a budget, I'll let you in on our secrets to doing Vegas under $100.

1. Stay cheap. The best time to check in is Mon-Wednesday since rates go up to accommodate the weekend crowd. You'll get the best deals on those days. You can stay off the strip and save a buck, but then you may incur costly traveling expenses getting to the strip so my advice is to stay on the strip at the best rate you can find. I've found that Expedia and the others don't always have the best rates, so it would be best to call around and try to find a deal. We stayed on the strip for $32 a night. Not bad!

2. Play cheap. Maybe gambling isn't your thing, there's plenty to do without it, but there are ways to gamble cheap too. A lot of the casinos just want you to get through their doors so they offer things like free pulls on slot machines and memberships that include promotions and discounts. These memberships give away match play on table games or like $50 free money toward slot machines. Chris and I spent all day and all night last time we were here walking to the different casinos, signing up for their promotions and playing the free money they gave us and leaving. You could get all the slot machine pulls out of the way with no charge to you. Plus, penny and nickel slots are the way to go because on $1.00, you can pull the lever 100 times and you might get lucky and hit the jackpot. I won $103.50 on a penny slot just because I wanted to pull the lever enough times to convince the waitress I was playing so I could get a free Cherry Coke. That's another great thing about slots, you drink free as long as you are playing so $1.00 could mean a lot of free sodas! If you like blackjack or roulette, there are casinos like Slots-A-Fun that have low minimum bets, $1 or $0.25 so you can still get that Vegas experience, get to know the other players and laugh a lot on $20. Watching other people gamble is fun for me and its completely free! I love watching people in the high limit slot go through $100 in a couple minutes.

3. Eat cheap. This is a big part of keeping Vegas to a budget. There are so man y places to eat but gone are the days you could get a steak and lobster buffet for $3 in Vegas. You have to look, but the deals are still out there. On the strip, check out Penny Heaven that has a pretty greasy dollar menu but it gets the job done. If you can go off the strip, Ellis Island has a steak special for $4.95 that includes a salad, steak, potato, and veggie and I mean, it is GOOD! Wild Wild West has a great burger and fries for $2 and if you can stomach this nasty casino, the Gold Spike downtown has ginormous hotdogs for $2 as well. Eat cheap and you'll have money to do other things.

4. Ride cheap. If you can rent a car that would be optimal because the best food deals are off the strip, but if you are stuck on the strip without a car, DON'T EVER TAKE A TAXI! They are expensive and you could be using that money to have fun. The Deuce will take you up and down the strip for like $1.50 and since the airport is so close, the bus system can take you there no prob if you have a little patience.

4. See cheap. There is so much to see and do in Las Vegas, you don't have to spend a lot of money to be entertained. There are some great headliner shows that can cost a pretty penny, but if you check out the 1/2 Ticket kiosks around, you can get a good show for a lot cheaper. We saw a great magic show for $17. There are free shows evevrywhere so do your research and plan your trip around them, you won't regret it. The fountains at Bellagio are a must see. Others include the Masquerade in the Sky at the Rio, the tiger habitat at the Mirage, the flamingo sanctuary at the Flamingo, the Lion Habitat at MGM Grand, The volcano at the Mirage, and the Sirens Pirate Show at Treasure Island. Your hotel should be able to give you discounts on their own shows if you ask. The casinos and hotels themselves are always trying to one up each other and the themes and beauty of the architecture takes my breath away sometimes. It took a lot of creativity and money to build these hotels so you will have a great time just walking down the strip and admiring all the unique hotels.

A typical day for us includes lunch at Wild Wild West for $2, checking out the free show at the Rio, playing a couple dollars of penny slots while waiting for our $17 magic show to start, grabbing a $4.95 steak dinner, singing karaoke at Ellis Island, watching more free shows around the strip, and then sitting down at a table and playing $20 of $1 black jack for a few hours and then falling asleep in your comfy $32 room. Under $100 and we had a blast. If you ever come to Vegas just remember this: You can have a great time on a budget, there is a lot to see and do, and you should never have any regrets when you come home if you just remember who you are.

While we were in Salt Lake City, we took a tour of the Temple Square. We are not Morman, so we were not worthy to enter the most holy Temple, but we toured the square and the historic chapel. On the tour, our tour guide, Sister Cliff (who was about 18) told us a little about the Morman faith. We patiently listened to the founding of the church, the beliefs of the church, and the most sacred possessions and places of the Morman faith...and the only thing I thought the whole time was, "Are you kidding me?" I didn't know much about the church until that tour, but doesn't common sense negate most of the principles they base their entire faith on? To give a brief overview, one family escapes the Babylonian invasion of Judah and travels to America and there they record for 1,000 years, the acts of God and the Holy Spirit in the Americas and write this down in reformed Egyptian which would later be the scripture known as The Book of Morman. Joseph Smith in 18something receives direct authority from God to find these scriptures buried in upstate New York and translate it to English from which the newfound faith was born. Joseph Smith was the first prophet of the new age and there have been 23 consecutive prophets since then receiving and acting upon the direct authority God grants them. There are things about the Christian faith to some are unbelievable, like the immaculate conception, the flood, Adam and Eve, etc. but they all compliment each other in the grand scheme of things through the fruition of the symbols and promises of the old and new testaments leading the way to understanding the "mystery" of the universal church through Jesus Christ. While these may seem fantastical, they still have meaning and logic through reason and faith. The Morman faith is riddled with holes and contradiction, even during the question and answer session with the girls, when they could not completely answer a question that someone raised, they beat the bush and changed the subject. We all noticed this and it was very annoying. Sadly, these missionaries are more equipped than most to convert the foreign nations, the congregations whole heartedly preach this news of expanded authority to the world as we sit by and watch. Even though it may seem ridiculous to us, they are reaching people that we are too scared to talk to, and even reformed Egyptian buried in upstate New York is believable to those desperate for answers.

At home at my computer I remember searching the web for hours trying to somewhat plan out things to do at our various locations. I came across Pikes Peak and thought to myself, "I've never climbed a mountain before." Hundreds of people climb the mountain every year so I thought it would be a cinch right? Wrong! The day of the climb we woke up late because we were at the laundromat the night before until 2 am. After about a dozen stops at Wal-Mart for last minute supplies and attempts to flush out our systems, we headed to the mountain for the ultimate hiking adventure. Let me stop a minute and give you an idea of what I was carrying. I dressed in leggings (thanks Laurel!) under my jeans, a pair of sport socks with wool socks over them, my running shoes that I sprayed waterproofing lining on the night before, a long sleeved shirt, a polar fleece, a thermal vest, beanie, ear warmer, two pairs of gloves, my sports watch, and my giant jacket from Goodwill that looks like it was the height of fashion in Aspen circa 1992. My backpack had 5 sandwiches, a bag of beef jerky, four granola bars, a liter of water and a 2 liter bladder full of water, a change of shirt and undies, odds and ends for hygiene, a bunch of hand warmers, my sleeping bag, and other misc. items. All in the all, the backpack weighed about 25 lbs. The weather was dark and ominous over the peak. The clouds had rolled in and the temperature became cooler as we neared the trail. There was talk in the town of a storm coming our way. Naive and energetic, we arrived at the trail head about three hours later than we had planned. After the third or fourth switchback, I realized I was in way over my head. My jacket and all warming devices came off immediately and I was drenched in sweat even though there were patches of snow on the ground around us. I had to stop and rest every ten to twenty yards or so. The incline was ridiculous and the pack weighed down on my back. Every step I took, my calves would burn and I couldn't ever get enough breath to slow down my heart rate. About a mile on the trail, I realized my time was a lot slower than anticipated and I started to worry that we would be caught in the dark on the trail, or worse, a storm. We met two experienced hikers who were already on the way down and they had some very discouraging news. The looked at me and instantly told me I was not dressed properly and I would never make it. They told me my pack was too big, I didn't bring enough water, and my jeans would soak up water and I would freeze in the waist high snow at the summit. They also told us the trail is not even visible right now and only 12 people have made it to the summit this year and they had serious snow equipment and have summited the peak before. I was crushed. I am such a fighter though that I could not turn around after we came this far. Already very tired, I kept following the boys trudging up the incline. After 4 miles, the trail did not incline nearly as bad, but it was getting colder and the altitude made it almost impossible for me to breathe. Chris and Hanlon were very patient with me and stopped as many times as I needed to. Hanlon was worried and knew that this pace would never get us to camp before dark and it had been a mile or so since we had seen another person on the trail. I regained some energy after eating and using the bathroom, which was an entirely different kind of experience than I am used to, and we were able to pick it up a little. The sun was dipping low when we saw the sign that read 3.5 miles to Barr camp. I knew it was impossible to turn back at that point because the trail can be very dangerous at night, people have died on this mountain while hiking it at night, even people who have done the trail 13 times. By this point, Col. Springs was far behind us and the silence was only broken by a few birds here and there. The trail was now completely covered in the snow and my shoes didn't have enough traction to keep me up most the time. You have to look down constantly to follow the hard-packed footprints of earlier hikers. If you deviate an inch or two to the left or right, your leg would sink in 3 feet of snow and your body would be thrown forward. I have cuts on my wrists and bruises every where where I hit the ground hard, although I must say I stayed on my feet more than Chris did. :o). The sun was gone and it was pitch black and I was barely walking. I would take 3 or 4 teetering steps forward then sit in the snow until I could get the energy to get up and keep going. I am not going to lie when I say this is the hardest thing I have ever done in my whole life and looking back, I have no idea how I made it. We walked 7 miles I think uphill in the the snow with our packs completely unprepared and out of shape. I passed a sign that read .5 miles to Barr Camp and just kept repeating to myself outloud, "That's two times around the track, only two times around the track, cmon Julia." My mind was determined but my body was done. I literally was about to just stop for good. Hanlon and Chris kept encouraging me and that's what kept me on my feet. We finally saw the fence for the camp and it seemed like forever but we finally made it up the steps to the rustic cabin where caretakers Neal and Teresa were waiting for us with a hot fire and lantern to welcome us. They made me hot chocolate and it took me a few minutes to realize the hard part was behind us and I could relax. After staying up with them for a about an hour and eating hot dogs, we crashed in the bunk in our sleeping bags and were up before 7 am to keep going. I was rested and had a new energy. We took only water with us and had a new goal: we would make it to the timberline if we could not summit the mountain. We left about 9 am and had a new skip in our step. After about 2 miles though, the trail became less trodden and the trees more sparse. The wind whipped around us and at 12,000 feet, it was getting harder and harder to take a deep breath. I was falling more in the snow, my gloves were wet and my jeans were soaked up to my thighs. After about a half a mile of crawling on my hands and knees up snowy inclines (the snow, ice, and incline made it impossible for us to walk upright) we got to a big rick. Looking up at the next stretch, I decided I was done. If anyone knows me, I don't like inclines and the next tenth of a mile or so was just climbing icy rock to icy rock with your hands and I was done with that. My hands are sweating just thinking sbout it again! I urged the boys to go on and I staying on the rock and slept for a while, praying a bear wouldn't come eat me. I formulated a plan though Mom, I was going to throw my beef jerky up the mountain and slide down on my bottom. Haha, thinking about it now and how scared I was is so silly. Anyway, the boys were certain they could find the trail again and go up farther, so they made it beyond timberline ( I stopped about 200 feet or so) and then turned around for many reasons: they felt they could summit but it would have taken a long time to forge their own trail, it was snowing at the peak pretty bad, they were worried about me, and we had left too late to return back before dark so they took a picture of their location and headed back down. I'm snoozing on the rock by that time and the sun was warming me and the jays were singing in a nearby tree. It was great. I started worrying about them after an hour because the peak was black and snowy and I was worried their testosterone would get the better of them. Not to mention both their cell phones had died. A little while later though I heard Chris yell out my name and I knew they were ok. We had to slide on our bottoms in the snow which was fun and after my nap, I was trucking it down the mountain. We made it back to base camp and got more hot chocolate to fuel us. Teresa after seeing the photo Chris and Hanlon took said they were less than a mile from the peak and that was disappointing to know they didn't make it all the way, but it only made us want to come back in the summer and do it right. We left base camp around 3:15 and made it all the way down the mountain by 6:00. We were basically running and I kept thinking how much easier it was to go down than to come up! The last four miles were pretty jarring on our knees and backs as we descended the incline that was so steep for us at the beginning. Out of water, starving, dirty and exhausted, I'll never forget the feeling I felt when I stepped off the trail to our car. I did it. I may not have summited the mountain or made the best time in the world, but I set a goal for myself and achieved it. I was so proud of myself and of all of us that I nearly cried when I hit the bottom. I miss the mountain already and I can't wait to go back and summit during the summer. It is so true that you can accomplish ANYTHING you put your mind to.

Woohoo! The days are starting to blend together as they fly by. Sorry it has taken me so long to blog. We are so busy doing stuff during the day and at night we all get together for a couple hours and reformat the trip. Now that we have a more realistic idea of our limits, we are restructuring our trip to accommodate the gas mileage, the mph, and how long it takes us to get ready in the morning. We've already bypassed some cities and added some things we originally did not have on the itinerary. I know a lot of you want the itinerary posted on the website so you know where we are headed, but to tell you the truth, we don't even know exactly where we are going! It literally changes every day. We have a general idea where we are headed, and we are stopping along the way at things that look cool.
I really have to restrain myself from blogging about nature and landscape. I immediately turn to that because it is what makes the biggest impression on me. Must be the science nerd in me. I thought I'd take a minute and tell ya'll how living with three boys has been this far.
Number one: boys are gross. At least three times a day I hear the phrase, "Ok, who did it? No, it's not me, I always claim mine." The smells these boys emit can be fatal at times. We could be at the most historically significant and most beautiful place in the whole world, and they would be running around trying to find a funny picture to take. A cozy night in consists of Mortal Kombat battles and finding new fatality moves. For those of you who are not video game saavy, fatalities are moves you can do to another player in the game that "Finishes Him". This can be ripping out his spine or exploding his head between your hands or my favorite, the "torso crusher" which is the player kicking the top half of the other player clean off at the waist. Um, no thank you. Boys, at least these boys, fight about the dumbest things. For instance, is vanilla ice cream a flavor or is it just ice cream? If you could pay someone to be your best friend, who would it be? Why is AJ's soap the communal soap bar? KFC or Pizza Hut buffet? Does urine have enough ammonia in it to give someone a migraine? Why don't you get your own chapstick? I'm just hitting the tip of the iceberg here. But you know, I don't feel too sorry for myself. I'm the only one on the trip that can use this excuse to get out of doing just about everything: "Because I'm the girl, that's why!"