Utah--the drive there, day 1

Well, we made our annual trip to Utah for the summer. We've decided to make it a tradition and go to Utah every summer. It works better for us since Afton is in school now. Last year we went to Utah for the 4th of July and had a blast so we decided to go the same time this year. Our trip was July 2nd through July 12th. We left that Thursday afternoon and actually took a different route this time. I've always wanted to go this way and we finally decided to do it. This route goes up through Yosemite and across the middle of Nevada and takes us to Delta, Utah. It's shorter mileage wise, but longer time wise because it's a two-lane road the whole way. And Jason and I actually really liked this way. It was very beautiful through Yosemite and Tioga pass and we went through an awesome thunderstorm in Nevada. We stopped in Ely, Nevada and stayed the night there. Afton, Dax and Logan did really well on the drive. I think they were very excited to be going to Utah, so they were really good on the drive.

We stopped along the pass through Yosemite because we needed a potty break and the scenery was gorgeous. This was my first time in this area and it was so beautiful. There was this really cool meadow, I think it was called Tuolumne Meadows, and we walked across the road to it and took some pictures.

I'm sure there is a name for this mountain/dome, but I don't know what it is. We thought it was pretty cool.

Afton and Dax

There were some pretty sweet rainbows from the thunderstorms, so I snapped a few pictures of them. Afton was so excited to see a full rainbow. It was pretty neat. And the rain just poured on us for a couple of hours. I think we had our wipers on full speed the whole time. It was crazy! And we saw lots of lightning. The kids loved watching for the lightning strikes and so did I. I love thunderstorms. They're one of my favorite things.

There was also a double rainbow. The second one is really faint right above the brighter rainbow.