Moab Trip

Day 1: Arches
On October 22nd the MBA program had a fall break for people to get caught up on internship work and homework but since Ethan has accepted a job offer he just had Wednesday-Friday off so we decided to use the break as a mini-vacation. On Wednesday we drove down to Moab to walk around Arches national park.
We got there around lunch time, had a picnic lunch while Kelsey finish her nap and then started hiking around. We mostly did all the l the tiny hikes where Kelsey could walk herself and she was in heaven. Arches is a very beautiful hike and surprisingly very family friendly.

While we are at Window arch some guy wanted to get our family picture mid jump. We kind of all thought it was a terrible idea but obliged. It was awful and finally at like 4 attempts or something we were like "okay, we are so good!" We wasn't satisfied, but  reluctantly gave back our camera. Needless to say the pictures were not great. I'm mean lets be honest, how high can I really jump while holding a baby!

Kelsey thought all the jumping was fun however and started posing for us so we got some good pictures of her in the end.

After some more small hikes and snacks we met the Apkers, Morriss, and Barrets to join their hike up to the Delicate Arch. Ethan was so awesome to take the backpack the whole way up. It was surprisingly  doable with kids. All the other families had 2-4 kids and all the 3+ kids walked the whole way up and down. We were quite the circus!!

The whole gang: Mark and Kaite Apker, Stacey and Jake Morris, Scott and Virginia Barrett 

The hike took about 2 hours so by the time we got back to the cars it was getting close to sunset. Ethan and I finished the daylight by driving around Arches and then met the Apkers in Moab for dinner at Miguel's Mexican Grill. Maybe some of the best salsa I have ever had and definitely the biggest portions of food I have ever beheld!

After dinner at Miguel's we drove to Monticello where we stayed the night in our cabin.

 

It was entirely made of wood inside and out. It was such a roomy and beautiful cabin which just added to the fun and vacation feeling of our trip. The highlight for Kelsey was probably the loft above our room. Unfortunately the ladder was super steep and so we couldn't comfortably let her climb unsupervised. This caused some tears, but so did the falls off the ladder so what do you to. 

As great as it was, the cabin was complete with a giant wolf horse dog named Inja! He was there to protect the chickens from predators and I'm sure was nice enough  but I was kind of annoyed that a dog was allowed at our party you know. He was HUGE and the only way he knew how to play was by biting your feet and tackling little kids. He was doing this in fun, but I was so annoyed that I got all the kids to start yelling "Go away Inja!" I was so successful (throwing the rocks at him may have helped too) that every time he was around the kids would yell "Go away Inja!" without any prompting. Eventually he left us alone, but not before Kelsey snuck in a few kisses. 

Ethan's face kind of sums up how we all felt about having this wolf horse dog around!

I've come to realize that I don't love dogs. I love Rudy, but I don't love dogs. Especially with Kelsey around. Even nice dogs go crazy and can bite. Thats what scares me about dogs.

Day 2: The Needles

Day two started with our trip treat of doughnuts from THE store in Monticello. If you have never been to Monticello the best way to describe it is small town and that's being generous. We are talking literally one stop light, one store (that closes at 6!) one school, one gas station, one fast food place, etc. There is a Main Street and a Center street and thats about it. Oh and there is the temple.

This girl obviously doesn't see too many doughnuts in her life

From our doughnut run we drove about 45 to Needles National Park. This may have been my favorite park. It was so different from Arches and just beautiful. The drive in was honestly the best part. The way the mountains cut in and out of the landscape was just incredible.

Once in Neeldes we again looked for a bunch of little hikes where the kids could potentially walk if needed. Katie found a hike called Slick Rock hike that was so cool. The whole hike was a big loop on whats called slick rock hence the name. It didn't really incline or decline but was more like hiking across very smooth boulders.Very cool

 

  

There were 4 view points along the way that were really beautiful. They weren't like canyons or mountainy but you could see miles and miles of the unique Needles landscape. I tried so hard to get a picture of THE Needles mountains but they were just too far. Imagine hundreds of needles sticking up to the heavens.

After our hike and lunch, we went back to the vistor's center and got to see the solar eclipse through a telescope and then we went on some baby hikes to some Native American markings. From there we made our travels back to Monticello.

Ethan was trying out a new smile. I don't really like it

We also saw tons of these guys

Thursday night may have been my highlight of the trip. We got rid of Inja and then had a fire complete with smores and hot dogs. The sky was beautiful, the fire was wonderful, and the company was fantastic.

Day 3: Canyonlands

We didn't wake up early on purpose (thanks Kels), but on Friday morning we woke up early enough to catch the sunrise. It was beautiful, but I can honestly say that I don't think I will even wake up on purpose to see a sunrise. I just love sleep too much.

After loading up the car, we parted ways from the Apkers and headed back up north to Provo but not without a stop at Canyonlands National park. We didn't have time to hike around Canyonlands but the views were enough for us. By far the most magnificent views of the whole trip.

We did get out of the car and made the .4 mile round trip to see the Mesa Arch which was so cool. It was a little scary because once you walk up to the arch and immediately the rocks dropped off straight down. It was a little spooky, but breath taking.

We were taking a family picture and this tour of 6th grades came and photo bombed our pic. I clearly didn't hide my disappointment very well. The cool thing about this picture though is that the man taking it was from Brazil and so after Ethan got to talk to him in Portuguese about Brazil. They talked for like 10 minutes. It was pretty fun for us to hear. 

After the Mesa arch we only stopped at viewpoints to take in the beautiful landscape.

And after all the viewpoints, we made the 3 hour drive back up to Provo to get back in time for the BYU football game.

As much as I am gratedful for our full time job quickly approaching, I am really going to miss the school life. The random breaks in the semester have been wonderful and I totally love them so much. This year we have been able to take advantage of them because life isn't as much up in the air as last year and that will be totally missed next year. This Moab vacation was definitely well worth the drive and such a fun time with some really great friends. 

Heber Creeper

On October 20th we met Diana and Robert in Heber for an evening on the Heber Creeper. They had Holden and Harper with them while the Mannings were in Vegas and so it turned into one of Kelsey's happiest nights of the month.
We picked up Hannah and Ethan from school at 4:30 and drove through the beautiful canyon up to Heber. It was such a warm evening. It felt more like the end of September instead of the end of October.
Once we all gathered, we ate dinner at Dairy Keen and then headed to the Heber Creeper train station.

Before we boarded the train there was a little "play" with horses and robbers. Unfortunately Kelsey got a little scared of the guns (thanks BYU) and so we spent most of the play in the gift shop playing with the toy trains. After the play we boarded the train for a ride through the canyon. It got dark during some of the ride so we couldn't see all the scenery but riding at night was fun too.

There was lots of signing and dancing from our section of the train and Kelsey and Harper quickly discovered that you could jump on the benches. I'm pretty certain that everyone had a great time.
The train got a little stuffy for my taste, so Holden and I went to the refreshment car for a lot of the ride where they had the sides of the train open to the evening air. While we were in the car Holden kept telling me "I won't judge." I had no idea what he was talking about and finally after like 5 times of him say this I asked him what he meant.
"I won't judge you if you buy refreshments for us to eat," was his reply! I laughed so hard!!! Oh Holden. You are a rock star. Seriously though I think hanging out with Holden was my highlight. I don't get a lot of one on one time with Holden and so it was fun to talk and joke with him.

Completely unrelated, lately when I tell Kelsey we are going on a walk she "gets ready" We never the leave for a walk without our purse, ears, shoes, and baby. Look out teenage years right!! This girl does love her accessories.

While I was shopping for our Halloween party this happened! WHAT!! I'll take it

Also Kels loves to dress herself but sometimes we forget the order of clothes. Don't worry Kelsey it happens to the best of us. At least its still cute when you wear your underwear on the outside of your pants. I just get weird looks.