God Bless The 222!!!



(for some reason these all went on out of order!)
OOPS!













On June 4th, we went down to Cedar City to see Jace off.  It was such a hard, emotional day! But I am SO proud at the same time!  He is so brave, and so willing to go and do all he can for US...and the U.S.!




Jerry and I with Jace and his boys!





Cody just kept wanting to hug on his Daddy!!!!




Kim & Jace




It just broke our hearts to see those little boys have to say good-bye to their Dad!  They were so good and tried to be so brave!




Last good-bye   :(...







Shaking hands with the Commanders, Govenor, and others before boarding





A gift from Mom & Dad!



 

In formation for Roll Call!




It ripped my heart out to see Jace get down and give tose boys one last hug!  They'll miss their dad, their buddy, their HERO!



Shaking hands with the Commander



Heading inside to get ready to board.......



Off to serve our country,
Off to a foreign land.
Off to defend our freedom,
Off to TAKE A STAND!









GOD BLESS MY SOLDIER, MY HERO, MY SON!

I LOVE YOU SGT. JACE ROBERT SORENSON





My Dad! Austin Mecham

My son-in-law found this picture of my Dad! And it was a blessing and a much needed reminder of what this dear man means to me! My Dad passed away when I was 14 years old. He worked long hours on the farm and I really didn't know him very well. Being as young as I was when he passed, I was more into my friends, starting to notice boys, and just doing "girlie" things. I will always regret that I didn't cherish every moment with him more. But who could have ever guessed that he would be gone at the young age of 56! And leave behind a wife, 8 children and hand full of grandchildren.

My Dad was a great man! I've learned SO much about him and his life over the years. From family, friends, and men that served in the War with him! He is my Hero, my Daddy, and the 1 man that will always be by my side! Because for 35 years now, THAT is exactly where I have imagined him to be!

St.George with the GiRlZ ;)

A few years ago I started planning a trip to St. George for just us GIRLS! Its always so much fun!!! This year we only stayed 1 night but we had a GREAT time! We went to the Tuacahn and seen "Tarzan"! Which was SOooo good! :) We all just loved it! And we can't wait to get back down there again!

We do "Our Favorite Things" and share with each other! These girls always bring the funnest and most YuMmY treats! THANKS girls for EVERYTHING!!!!!

Headed to Tuacahn!


Kayla went APE over this guy!!!

"Mwah"!

"Terk"! He was SOooo good and funny!

With Jane & Tarzan! Ummm....he was packin some muscles let me add!

Chels with Little Tarzan :)

Trying on random hats @ Target

Thanks again girlies for a fun trip! Next time we need to go longer, shop more, giggle the same!, and get everyone there with us! I love you all and I feel so blessed to have you in my life!

CANADA---ALASKA---MONTANA

It has taken me SOooo long to post about our trip!!! It couldn't be because I only had 800 pictures to choose from! :) We went for 17 days and drove 4,200 miles! And I would do it again tomorrow!!! It was such a fun trip and we got to see SO much!


We flew into Anchorage and "met" our motorcycles there! Friends had trailered them that far for us! The next day we went to see "Danali National Park"! WOW!!! It was AmAzInG!
We got to see alot of wild life!

At North Pole, Alaska :) Us ladies had SO much fun walking around and seeing ALL of the neat Christmas things! The reindeer were out back and were SO skinny! Holy cow, it'd scare kids to death! By them, there was a sign that said "Please do not feed! Reindeer are on a special diet" Ummm....WHAT? STARVATION????? Crazy! We threw them snacks anyway!!!

Chris, Libby & I are pretty small next to this BIG GUY!

Bear and Libby

This is when we crossed into Canada! They were the nicest people!!! EVERYWHERE we went they were very kind and curtious!

Everywhere in Canada there was road construction! It was unreal! BUT!, the scenery was WAY worth it all!!!

"Oh there's BEAUTY all around" These flowers are called "Fireweed". It grows ALL over the place in Canada! Absolutely beautiful!

We all loved the Yukon Territory! It was so remote and just little country towns!

We went back & forth from Alaska to Canada quite a few times over the first 10 days! I'm not really sure what Allan was doing with the big stick?!?!? Chris was not amused though!

At Haines we drove our bikes onto the ferry and headed to Skagway! It was such a pretty ride! So many waterfalls, cruise ships, and beautiful mountains! And the "Ferry Food" was pretty darn good too!!!!!

We had just got our bikes off of the Ferry and headed to our Motel.

SKAGWAY

At the HARLEY shop there! There is such a brotherhood with riders! They are always SO excited to see you, talk to you, and find out your story!!! While there the missionaries came by! It was fun to talk to them! They were both from UTAH! 1 from Ogden and the other from Provo :)

On our way out of Skagway the next day I seen this train way up on the hill! I thought it was such a pretty shot of it going over this waterfall.

Scenery along the way!

Back into the Yukon! Oh did we have an experience here!!!! A few of us had to go in to the bushes real quick ;)..... and when I dropped off of this little hill I heard some ruffling in the trees but just fugured it was a squirrel or something SMALL! When I was walking up out we heard yelling and gun shots! SCARED me to death! I thought they were shooting at ME! Then right down the road a black BEAR came running out of the trees and crossed the road right next to us! I had scared it down into these guys' camp and they were shooting into the air to scare it back out!!!! What a BEAR SCARE that was!!!!!

A little town called Carcross! It got its name because every year this is where the caribou cross . This Lake was so pretty there! We just had to hang out there for awhile and take it all in!!!!!

Bear begging "Mum" !

It was too cloudy for us to see the Northern Lights.... :( So we went to an IMAX show about them that was FaNtAsTiC!!!!!

This Sign Forest was unbelievable! We had read about it but had NO IDEA it was this HUGE!

Jerry & Bear hanging up our sign I had made

We seen Buffalo all over the place! These signs would crack us up because the buffalo would be all around us and there would be 1 of these signs! We'd always yell, "YA THINK" :)

After being rained on for 4 days we were SO glad to get to these Hot Springs!!!! And were they HOT! WOW! But we loved it!!!! There was so much bright green foilage all over! Still smelled like rotten eggs now & then but we didn't even care! We just wanted to be WARM at that point!

This area was really deep and not too many people were there! So we sat and visited there for awhile and just relaxed!!!!

This guy was just right next to the road! Just watching the traffic go by!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy to Becky!

At Dawson Creek we got to see the actual "Mile 0" marker that begins the Alaskan Highway!

More waterfalls along our travels!

So many of these places just blew me away! It was like walking into a postcard!!!!!

On our way to the Columbian Icefield

You had to be on a special tour to go out on the Glacier but it was so neat just to see it and how HUGE it is! And the rate of how fast it is shrinking is unreal! They had markers all along the hike up to it. Its slowly disappearing........

Another "postcard" moment! We stopped at this Lake and I thought this would be a pretty shot! It turned out to be 1 of my favorites!

We wanted to go into Jasper and see what it was all about and boy did we!!!!! Its for the rich and famous and we are NEITHER!!!!

We went into their main Lodge and looked around. It was SO elegant and just beautiful! I took this picture looking out the window! We seen autographed pictures from Queen Elizabeth and Prince Albert! They go on "hoilday" here sometimes! Oh YA! -- Well so do these "Wild Hogs"!!! :)

The next day we went into Banff National Park! This is Lake Louise and let me tell you THIS was woth the entire trip!!!!! Oh this place was a DREAM!!!! The water was such a pretty turquoise! (K, let me just say I look like a 10 ton Tilly in this picture! Ugly me, but pretty background!)

Looking up to the Glacier that feeds Lake Louise. A piece of HeAvEn!!!

This was one of those "You've got to be KIDDING me" moments! We stopped for gas and this was across the street! Look close at the sign! Weird was an UNDERSTATEMENT!!!

We heard so many stories from the locals about bear attacks! So I decided to get a picture of this as a reminder of all of them!

Back in the good old USA! "HELLO MONTANA" This guy wouldn't get off of the sign so everyone has him in our pictures! At least he was handsome!

I loved G. N. Park!!!! SOOOooo many glaciers of course but TONS of waterfalls also!

We decided to go and take the hike to the top! It was well worth it!!!! The view was amazing and the sheep were just walking around the hills and the trail!

At the TOP!!!!!

Yellowstone Park

Allan having a heart to heart with one of the LOCALS!

Good Old Faithful!

Libby---Me---Chris---Becky

The Tetons!

We stopped to watch these guys as they had their afternoon snack!

MIRROR LAKE

I am so glad we got to go on such a GREAT trip with such great friends!!! Next big trip...up the Oregan Coast!!!! I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!