New Adventures in Moab

We had a great trip to Moab for fall break.  We decided to try something different and stayed in this little cabin way up the canyon near the river.  It was awesome.  It was so peaceful up there - no wifi, hardly any cell service, and just all of us together.  I had originally planned to run a half marathon down there, but after three straight weeks of illness, I made the decision not to run.  Which was fine - it left more time for fun adventures.

We ended up having some great company down there because Brett was camping with his kids, and my parents were down there as well for the first real trip to Moab.  We were only able to meet up with Steve and Bubba for dinner one night, but it was fun talking about our day's adventures.

When we first got there, we had fun exploring around the ranch where we were saying.  The cabin was on the Hauer River Ranch, which is a real working ranch with horses.  We took the dogs down by the river and Cash decided there was no way he wasn't going for a swim. All was fine and good until the current starting taking him away and we all freaked out.  Luckily, he's a lab and dude can swim, so he eventually made his way back to the shore.

The next morning, the Naisbitts came up the canyon and met us for a hike up to Fisher Towers, which was right across the road from where we were staying.  It was a beautiful day and the kids and dogs had a great time.

 I couldn't help but snap this picture of the happy couple.

Our dogs have never been to Moab before.  They were hot and happy.

 We met up for dinner that evening at Eddie McStiff's.  The girls always love playing with Leah.

The next day, we decided to try something different and go on a little raft adventure down the river. The river is pretty low key and perfect for kids.  Our guide was great, although I'm not sure how much the other people on our boat appreciated all the kids.  Oh well!

The next morning was supposed to be the race day...we had to be out of the canyon by 7 a.m. in order to avoid being trapped up there when they closed the road for the race.  This was great because we got going early, had breakfast at Love Muffin, and went on another hike, this time to Corona Arch.  This was 3 miles round trip with a few tricky spots where they have ropes placed to assist you.  That didn't help the dogs much, so we ended up boosting them up some of the trickier places.

 There was a sea of cairns about halfway up the trail.

 Family pics in front of Corona Arch.

 The girls made their own cairns to contribute to the selection.

 We hopped right in our car and headed right home.  We be headed down there one more time this fall before winter sets in.

Moab: Spring 2014

We headed down to Moab in March for the Canyonlands Half Marathon.  I ran a very poor race and struggled with shin splints and other ailments, but luckily we were in Moab and still had a great time!

Friday afternoon, we had fun playing at the park and hanging out in town after we arrived.

Jen and Jess ran the race too!  It was so fun to meet them before, ride the bus up with them, and hang out with their families afterwards.  We didn't get any pictures, but we all met for dinner at Eddie McStiff's the evening after the race and it was so much fun to catch up.  Josie and Piper LOVED all the attention from their kids.

We always go into Arches, but we had never really explored around Canyonlands National Park, so we decided to head there for a few hours on Saturday.  It was windy, but we enjoyed the views and got some good shots.

 

 Sunday afternoon we hiked Negro Bill Canyon.  I was so proud of my girls.  We were out there hiking for around 4 hours and they didn't complain at all.  They hunted for rocks, threw them in the stream, hid underneath little cliffs, said hello to people, and were little troopers.  We wore them out for our drive home.

Camping in Moab: First time in a tent!

 Earlier this month, we headed down to Moab for a weekend of camping and some fun in the side-by-side.  We went down with Brett and his kids and another friend and his daughter.  This was the girls' first "real" camping trip, i.e. sleeping in a tent.  They loved it - almost as much as they loved setting the tent up in the basement and "camping" there.

We set up camp in the slickrock area.  Here's our group enjoying some breakfast.  Josh made homemade scones over the fire.  Yum.

 Saturday morning, we all headed out to ride fins 'n things, a trail we've ridden before.  It was a little too hot.  Moab wasn't quite ready for summer to be over.

The girls had a great time playing with Leah (and Hayden too).

Heat + camping = a trip to the local Moab pool, probably a highlight for the girls.  There was an indoor and outdoor area, with big slides in both and the girls ran back and forth.

Next year, we'd definitely like to take more camping trips, but I will be more picky about the weather.  Call me a fair weather camper, but 95 degrees is no bueno when there's nowhere to escape.  But we did have camping on our summer checklist, so I'm glad we made it happen!

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.