before salt lake... Cairo!!

So this year for my school trip,  or "Discovery week" i got the chance to go to Egypt! it was amazing, wonderful, fascinating, beautiful!! and more and more! I loved it!!!! we had a great time!  Below is the view from our hotel room.. the river in the back... yup... thats the Nile! =]

the first place we went was the citadel which was kind of like a fort and inside there were several mosques and the palace.

We also met some new friends there. =] we came to really love the egyptian people. they are all really friendly.. and this was the first but deffinately not the last time we got asked for pictures.. and most times i don't even think we were asked =] but we loved to see them all smiling and waving.
The nile.. where we had lunch and went on a felluca (a kind of boat) ride.
A cat! yes in egypt cats are also everywhere!!!!!!!! this happens to be in the village of giza..mhhhmm right by the pyramids =]
Before going to the pyramids we went on about an hour camel ride in the sahara desert right by the pyramids. It was so fun! a little nerve racking at firs but once i got the hang of it camel riding was really fun!
We rode up to a hill where we had  this amazing view of all three pyramids... it was...well.. amazing!
me, on a camel!
The puramids were so cool! this is the great pyramid which we actually got to go into. there is a small tunnel that you have to crawl up into to get to the kings chamber which was basically a small dark room in the middle of the pyramid.. it was so interesting!
actually touching the pyramid!
the sphinx!!!!!! need i say more?
in egypt we happened to find a henna place so we stopped and got some on our hands.. it was really cool =]
on our last day in cairo we went to maccadum hills... or garbage city. Garbage city is just what it sounds like. Its and area in cairo where people dump there trash and several thousand people live there.. living off and recycling the trash. Most of the population there is surprisingly christian and so we visited a church there and an orphanage.. it was an amazing experience!!!
the church is carved out of a natural cave and on the side is also carved faith which i thought was really nice =]

after cairo but still before salt lake.. Siwa and the Sahara!!

Siwa is an oasis about 10 hours away by car form Cairo. We spent a few days there and it was so amazing! It is literally in the middle of the sahara desert and there are thousands and thousands of palm trees and hundreds of natural springs. The cutlture there is also fascinating as it has stayed the same hundreds of years. women still cover themselves completely and i was even asked if i was engaged =] seeing as i am the right age for it. 

Our first day in Siwa we traveled everywhere in donkey carts, which other than motorcycles and bikes is the most common transport in Siwa. I did help drive the donkey cart for a bit =].

First we went to the mountain of the dead where i saw yet another cat =] (above) and afterwards we spent the afternoon swimming in Cleopatra's Bath one of the many natural springs in siwa where cleopatra apparently swam after visiting the temple of the oracle... where we also went. Alexander the Great also visited this temple to ask whether he was the son of a god.
After swimming in Cleopatras bath we watched the sunset over.. i think.. a lake.... in siwa.

It was beautiful the picture doesn't nearly capture it well enough =]

The melted fortress of siwa... is literally just that. It was a great fortress for many many years until it rained for 3 days straight, which in the desert is obviously unusual. Seeing as the fortress was made out of a kind of mud brick.. the rain actually melted it.
Me and my friend Kendall with our new friends in a rug making factory. I helped make that rug by the way... maria.. the girl with the brown head scarf... taught me how and let me make four knots in the rug =] Maria was the one who thought i was engaged to someone else on the trip =]
The Sahara!!!!!!!!! It was sooooo cool!!!! the desert was perfect... you know in the beginning of aladdin?.. yup that is exactly what it is like.. disney never lies  =]

Sahara sunset...

Egypt just has beautiful skies in general.. especially when you are out in the desert. We spent our last night in the desert and me and a few friends decided to actually sleep outside. it got cold and sand was everywhere but that is unavoidable in the desert anyways.. but it was totaly worth it!!!!!! The sky was beautiful there were thousands of start out and i saw at least 8 shooting start that night =]
A group of Siwan men came to play traditional siwan music for us out in the desert and eventually they got us all up and dancing at about 12 at night =] they are playing in the tent which was set up for us out in the desert.
Our last morning in egypt we woke up in the sahara desert and as we were driving away i got a last picture of the sunset  through the window of our big four wheel jeep =]

Texas Blue Bonnets

In Texas at this time of year the Blue Bonnets are in bloom and everyone gets out to enjoy them.  This next week there will be the 'Blue Bonnet Flower Festival'.  They grow wild in the fields, and, obviously it doesn't matter what the sign says, we just have to get our pictures...      (I am sure they didn't mean us!!!)

Isn't Avery just so cute???

What can be said?... More cuteness...

Okay, it was a little windy...

Oh, good, Avery is helping so the hair doesn't get blown around so much.

From Salt Lake we went to Houston

While we were Nathan and Rachelle and their little ones we went to the BlueBell Ice cream factory.  After the tour and the free sample we played around outside.

 In Texas everyone wants to be a 'cowboy'

'So where are we taking this cow?'

more Salt Lake

Here's a whole group of good-lookin' family

Well, the good-lookin just keeps going... Happy grandma and grandpa with Olivia and Bowen

And even better lookin' - Jenny Allen, GraMarne' and the Pieper girls

General Conference Trip to Salt Lake

 We were with family when we went to Salt Lake for conference - it was soooo fun.  We love to be with family.  

Here are the Pieper girls...

Oh, and here are the Tuttle boys... ( a little more dignified)

And the grandpas...  with Olivia and Bowen

Olivia and Clarissa enjoying some winter...