Arches & Goblin Valley Fall Trip

The past couple weeks have been..insane? yeah that's the word. I ran the marathon, it completely wiped me out for several days. I was completely exhausted. It was kind of a blur actually. Well, then this last week was so so so busy. Good things though, not bad. My brother and his wife came to visit with their 2 boys and we loved seeing them. We don't get to see them very often, as they have been living in Georgia the last 7 years. However, they just moved to AZ and so now we get to see them more. YAY! We had fun eating tons of good good food, working out together, we went to the pumpkin patch, made a big fall breakfast (complete with the yummiest pumpkin pancakes ever). And just hung out as much as possible. Our kids loved playing with their cousins and it was just a joy to see them again. Thanks James and Em for coming, we love you guys!

I also had an RS activity I was in charge of last tuesday, we had a service project and made the cutest things for Primary Children's Hospital. I will have to take a picture and post it. Seriously, so cute. After the activity I realized we were leaving for Arches for several days and I had better start packing!!! So like a mad woman I packed, cleaned and shopped and got us all ready to go.

I was pretty excited to go to Arches since I have never been there. (isn't that sad?) And I was not one bit disappointed. That place is absolutely amazing. I couldn't get over its beauty and majesty. Seriously, it was awesome. We hiked all over, our kids were really good sports about going on about 3 hikes a day and we just had a great time. The nights were freezing, and I felt really bad for little Sophie when she woke up just shivering. But we lived through it.

Okay Favorite things about our trip:

-running down the trail from the Delicate Arch with James. He kept up with me and it was awesome to just fly down that mountain with him. Loved it.

-seeing Sophie try to climb all the little "goblins" in goblin valley. She was so determined to get to the top she even got pretty stuck one time and cried out "STUCK STUCK STUCK". So cute.

-Showers at the campground. Thank heavens.

-Seeing the Double arch for the first time.

-getting milkshakes in Moab after a long hot day hiking, and drinking them in the tent while watching a movie together on the ipad.

-Playing in the Sand dune, running and jumping down it with the kids. We all loved that.

-Shishkabobs. Those were definitely a favorite.

-Seeing Ben and James climb all over everything at Goblins Valley.

-The fact that our kids were willing to go on hike after hike with us. They were really good sports and we all had a good time.

Here are the not so Favorite things:

-freezing cold nights. brrrr. I will forever get a hotel when we go to Moab/Arches

-Kids popping our air mattress. Sleeping on rocks really makes your joints hurt.

-Getting up over and over with kids at night. boooo.

-Sophie dumping a water bottle all over our sleeping bags and blankets.

James at Goblin Valley. He said, "this place is more fun than disneyland!" WHAT?

James and Harrison finding cool places to climb to.

Sophie, playing in the dirt. It is one of her favorite things.

Harrison climbing around at the Double Arch. I was really impressed with his climbing skills. He climbed just as much as James did.

James and ben hiked up to where Indiana Jones is filmed. James thought that was really cool.

Hiking Park Avenue. I loved that hike. It was a walk really, and so so beautiful.

Here we are at Arches! THis was our first stop when we got there, the Double Arch.

Delicate Arch. James and Harrison really wanted to go climb on the actual arch. yeah, no freaking way kiddos.

And me with the kids at Delicate. That was a fun hike, and the kids did great hiking it.

Goblin Valley. We thought this looked like a diving board so We told James to go up there and pretend to dive off. I have to say, that place is crazy cool.

Anyways, another camping trip done. We are planning our next one, can't decide where to go exactly. James wants to go to Yellowstone, I would like to go to Yosemite, and then there is still Bryce Canyon, Zion's..plenty to choose from. We'll see where we go next, but it will have to wait until next summer.