Continuing on our way up to Sa Pa, we stayed a couple days in Da Nang. Super hot, but way beautiful! That was the first time I had been to a beach with palm trees, smooth white sand and beautiful aqua waters. Just like you see out of those tropical paradise calendars. We stayed at The Finger Hotel --giggle, giggle. Why it's called that, I have no idea. I'll leave that up to your own imagination. The staff there were super nice and most spoke Engish very well. Sophie was a fan amongst most of them.
The other day we went to the market here in Sa Pa and bought some Rambutans a.k.a Chom Choms (we like that name better.) Sophie loves them! We decided to do a photo shoot of her expressing deep infactuation with them.
It was the first time I had seen a wild monkey. Ashley and I got off the bus, leaving the comfort of air conditioning behind for the insane heat reflecting off the massive amounts of blacktop surrounding the temple. Strangely, everyone's first thought was, "I need to go to the bathroom." My first thought was, I need to get back on the bus. But maybe that was just me.
Now that we are finally settled down here in Sa Pa, I feel like I now have enough time to sit down and recap our travels thus far in Vietnam. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on the 20th of May around 10:00 am. The temperature was 99 degrees Fahrenheit with 60% humidity. When we stepped out of the airport it was like walking into a sauna! There were tons of people hanging out around the entrance. Taxi drivers, bus drivers, hotel greeters, and tour guides, but mostly families waiting to be reunited with loved ones. As we made our way to bus 152, people were staring us down like zoo animals. I think their eyes were mostly fixated on Sophie. Vietnamese people adore Sophie for some reason.
Here is Sophie's one year photo shoot! She got some new dresses for her birthday, so we thought we would model them. Washington was the perfect setting! Everything was so green and tons of flowers were in bloom.
9 months is such a fun stage! Sophie's personality is really starting to shine through! She's becoming more active which means she's a busy busy bee. Always finding boxes, baskets and cupboards to dig through and examine the things inside. And she's walking!!! I can hardly believe it!
To close off the summer season with the best of the best, we decided to backpack Coyote Gulch. It was probably one of the coolest places I've ever been; towering high walls and breathtaking narrows. Every turn of the canyon had a new and amazing feature that you couldn't help but photograph. We hiked about 31 miles in and out and it took us about 3 days and two nights in the dessert. Talk about big difference from hiking and camping in the High Uintas.
This was our second ascent to the top of Mt. Timpanogos, but our first time with a baby. I have this brilliant idea that we should hike it each time we get a new kid, that way we can have this cool collection of pictures showing our family growing each time we reach the summit. We'll see how that goes. So far, this is what we have.This was our second ascent to the top of Mt. Timpanogos, but our first time with a baby. I have this brilliant idea that we should hike it each time we get a new kid, that way we can have this cool collection of pictures showing our family growing each time we reach the summit. We'll see how that goes. So far, this is what we have.
This is documentation of our Red Castle overnighter. Sophia's first qua-backpacking experience. First day we hiked 10 miles and the second we hiked 14. It rained almost the whole time, which was fine--kept people away, we hardly saw a soul the whole trip! Good times, but the 14 mile day was killer! :)
Sophie turns 4 months today! She is now starting to get more and more mobile! She’s able to roll over during tummy time and scoot around on her back. One time I laid her on her play mat and I walked away for a few minutes only to find that she had wormed her way under the coffee table. And so it begins…