Moab - Again!

We took a weekend off, then headed back down to Moab again.  We are apparently making up for lost time because we have another trip planned at the end of the month.  Josh has decided that it's his happy place and there are some stressful things going on right now, so we will go with whatever works!

We left the side-by-side home this time because I was running the Canyonlands Half Marathon and we knew we would be short on time.  I ran this race three times in 2000, 2001, and 2002.  I loved being back.  I will be back every year, whether I'm racing, jogging, or cheering for someone else.  It's just fun.  I really wanted to run a sub-1:30, but it didn't happen.  I ended up with a 1:31 and was pretty happy with it.  I had been sick all week leading up to the race and I just didn't have a lot of pep in my step.  I ended up 10th overall female and realized that I have dropped my time on this course 35 minutes over the course of 13 years.  

The best part was getting caught up with an old friend from high school, Hailey.  We haven't seen each other in years and we got to spend the morning together riding the bus up the canyon and catching up.  Here are a couple of pictures at the finish.

Josh took the girls to the park while I was running.  The race finishes right in a big play area, so they had a blast playing in the nice 65-degree weather.

We spent the rest of the day eating good food, swimming in the hotel pool, and driving through Arches National Park.  We got some great pictures of Balancing Rock with the girls.  We tried to explain to them how the arches and rock formations are created with wind and water and somehow it got jumbled up in their minds that they were "water mountains".

 The views in Moab just never get old.

The girls kept asking when we were going to Moab.  We told them over and over that we were IN Moab.  Finally, Piper said something about our other hotel and we realized they thought Moab was actually the hotel we stayed in earlier this month.  It's confusing being a three-year-old sometimes!

The next morning we were back in Arches and we decided to hike up to Delicate Arch.   Neither of us had done that before and the sign said it was three miles round trip.  No big deal!  I thought it was just a walking path, but it turns out it was a real hike up some slick rock.  We weren't really prepared and didn't have our backpacks to pack the girls in, so we ended up carrying them 80 percent of the 3 miles.  However, it was really worth it to see.  The view up at the top is breathtaking and its a shame it took us so long to do this.  Delicate Arch is on our license plates in Utah!

 The girls were troopers.  They stopped and picked up some rocks for souvenirs and we saw some lizards and little rock chucks.

We drove home with tired, sleeping girls and made it back to SLC just in time for Conor's birthday dinner with my family.  All in all, it was a perfect weekend.  Can't wait to go back.