Moab 2012

I was telling a friend about our trip to Moab and she said, "oh, for your annual trip?" I paused to think about it and then said, "Yeah! I guess it has become a bit of an annual trip!" This is our third trip to Moab and we've gone in May each time. I don't think we'll go every year but we're usually itching to go camping and when it's May we try to think where it is warm enough and Moab wins the prize! This year we invited our neighbors to come with us and we were so excited when they said they could come!

We left for Moab early Thursday to make sure we could get a good campground. When we got there we found out there weren't any big events going on that weekend so our anxiety about finding a campground was set aside, especially once we drove out to where the campsites were free.  We had a lot to choose from.  We found one that looked fun and set up camp there. It was hot and I was getting a little headachey and feeling super weird so we drove to Mc Donalds and once I got some food and COLD water in me I was almost instantly better!  After that we drove up to Arches to hang out up there until our friends the Morgans arrived (they couldn't leave until after school).

What hiking trip could be complete without a little dare devil scrambling up a big rock?
Daddy and Griz followed shortly thereafter and then gave me a little heart attack as they tried to get back down. Griz was completely unphased by it, waving at people as they passed by.
I bought this squirt bottle right before we left. It was quite possibly the best .97 cents I've ever spent. The Thursday afternoon we got there was HOOOOT and this was the perfect remedy for us all.
The second best remedy for the heat was Sand Dune Arch. We took a short little hike into the fins and hung out in the shade. Ahhh, it felt so good. The sand felt good too, the boys loved playing with it.
Brent showing off his awesome skills...

hope you don't mind, I'm going to post two more cuz I love my hubby and think he's awesome.

They were having fun climbing around but at one point Chico and Brent left us down at the bottom while they climbed a bit more. Oh my, Griz did NOT like that... this is just a small sampling of the power of his lower lip.

These are some scenic shots from when we weren't inside the fins:
Then we drove back down to Moab and met up with the Morgans (the Mowdans as Chico would say it) as they arrived at our meeting point within 30 seconds of us getting there! Then we showed them the way to the campsite. This is a picture I took as we drove past the Colorado River:
They set up camp while we got a fire going to cook the tinfoil dinners I had prepared back at home. I was lovin how the sky looked and took this one:
Then we sat around the fire eating and roasting marshmallows. Then went to bed which I had been somewhat dreading because at home Griz is a nightmare at night. He slept fantastically well though and it was SO warm I didn't even get inside my sleeping bag. Never had a night camping like that before! We woke up early the next morning and Brent captured this beautiful morning scene.
While he was busy capturing a photo, Riv was off capturing a scorpion...
He had whacked off the tail with his knife and then caught it!  He then proceeded to cook it on the fire and eat it. He said it wasn't very tasty though. After eating my tinfoil breakfast burritos which I had also prepared at home we all packed up and drove up to Arches for a hike to Double O arch. It was a lot shorter than Brent and I remembered but just as beautiful as we remembered.
Chico cracks me up in this next picture, he was posing for Steve and he does the funniest contortions with his body when he's posing.
It was a group effort (with no help from me) to catch this whip tail lizard, Ty ended up catching it and I can't remember how it happened but somehow Suzie ended up with it dangling from her hand like this...
She said it didn't hurt, hurt or not I would have been freaking out I'm sure!
It's quite hard to catch whip tails by hand but the Morgans are good at that kind of stuff. Well then we kept on a hikin and made it to Double O arch!
After eating lunch, playing with lizards, and relaxing we hiked back down.
Good thing Ty has long arms, Dude was trying spray him when he had nowhere to run! Chico was pretty amazed by how deep Ty dug that hole. Chico thinks and plans and dreams about how to dig big holes. He's the best three year old digger I've ever seen.

On or way down from arches we stopped at a big ol' sand dune hill. We somehow got "lucky" enough to be there right during some very strong winds which started up when I was 2/3 of the way up the hill. Brent trucked back down with Griz to protect him from the pelting sand but I was determined to make it to the top because I wanted to prove to myself that I could. I ducked my head and made it to the top where I waited. The top was nice because the sand wasn't pelting my face, just my legs. If you want to see what the hill looked like and how the Morgans enjoyed themselves on it see this link and fast forward to about 6 minutes in.

Once we were back at camp I had to put jackets on the boys because of the wind. Griz was intent on putting Chico's shirt on, so I finally just put it on top of his coat and he looked so funny but cute.  They sure got filthy playing in the dirt!

That night Brent found a baby rattlesnake, everyone was so excited when he nonchalantly told them.  They all ran over to the spot but they couldn't catch it at the time.  Next morning as we were packing up camp Ty was determined to find one and so he went out a searching and nearly stepped on it as he was looking for it. He called everyone over and Steve caught it. I told my boys to stay at camp while I went over and took pictures. They of course followed me but Chico was so protective of Griz, telling him to stay back and practically pushing him down to keep him out of the danger he perceived.  My boys were making quite a bit of noise so I handed off the camera to Brent and took them back to the camp.  Brent got some awesome pictures though.

We think Steve should print this one and insert text "I heart Rattlesnakes"

 

After we left our campsite we stopped at "Indian Crack" because apparently if you can climb it than you can "become a man". I didn't even attempt it, someone had to watch the kids! ;) Brent, Steve, Ty, Riv, and Suzie all climbed it successfully. Good job you guys!  

And if you keep climbing you end up clear up there!

 

After that the men all jumped in the river. Then we sat and ate lunch in the sand. Everyone then started catching lizards. I finally got up the guts to hold a baby whip tail. Then after a few minutes it jumped out of my hand and Riv went to catch it. Unfortunately he was holding a larger whip tail in his other hand and held them a little too close to each other and the larger one bit the smaller one's head.  It was crazy weird and quite sad.  Luckily they also caught a different whip tail that wasn't a murderer and we got to keep it and take it home. Hopefully this one does better than the lizard we caught in Zion last year.  Oh, and we decided to name this one Archie.  Seemed like a really clever idea at the time but that was on the drive home when we were exhausted so now it seems a bit cheesy. Oh well. :)

Anyway, next we hike Delicate Arch. It was beautiful and amazing as always. We didn't stay at the top very long which we regret but we did have quite a fun time playing down in the bowl.

When I was taking this picture I saw a guy point at me and say, "hey, how did she get down there!?"

 When I was done taking the picture above I turned and saw Riv and Chico doing this:

It was steeper than it appears in this picture. Chico's skills always amaze me! Then we sat in the shade and had some snacks and the kids explored around. This is the view of the arch from where we were sitting:

The structures on the left look like a sphynx and a pyramid to me.

 This was the end of the trip so I insisted upon a family picture, I didn't care if we had an arch in the background, okay well I would have preferred it but I didn't feel like hiking back up there just for that shot. So this is us: 

And this is the Morgans:

What a fun trip it was! Thanks Morgans, for coming along with us. It was a blast!