4th of July Weekend

Just like last year, we decided to head up to Snowbird again for the 4th of July.  It's hot in the valley, and lovely and cool in the mountains.  Plus, we love it there.  We decided to stay the night this year as well.  Grandpa and Nate were working, so Brynn, Emery and Bubba joined us for part of the day as well.  We started off with the pancake breakfast.  

 Then headed over and rode the tram up to the top of Hidden Peak to enjoy the beautiful views.

 The whole group together.

Can't wait to do some skiing here this winter.  Actually, I can wait.  I would gladly take many many more months of summer. :)

Then, we rode the alpine slide again.  Josie rode with daddy, Piper rode with Bubba, and I rode with Piper's babydoll while Brynn and Emery waited at the bottom.

During the afternoon, Brynnie and Bubba headed home, so we checked into our hotel and did some swimming at the hotel pool.  We had a great time cooling off, then had dinner at the Mexican restaurant.  The next day, we woke up, packed up and headed out only to find a note in the elevator that a rock slide overnight had closed the canyon.  We had some weird torrential downpours in the middle of the night and the canyon was blocked off for the better part of the day.

So...with everything closed (employees couldn't get up the canyon), we made our own fun doing stuff like this.  And chasing squirrels (which the girls call chick-munks) over and over.

Eventually we packed up the car and went for a little walk on a nature trail.  At around 3 pm, we heard the canyon was open, so we headed home.

 The next day, we met the Naisbitts up Bountiful Canyon to ride our side-by-side.

We rode to the top for some of these views.  It was actually freezing up there and we didn't have any warm clothes (yet still 95 in the valley).

All in all, a great weekend.  Happy birthday America.

Spring Break in Moab

Another weekend, another Moab trip.  We headed down there for one more trip this spring.  We could go back again and again, but there are so many other places we'd like to show the girls this year - Bryce's Canyon, Zion, etc, etc.  Even so, we were talking about how many times we have been there, but how much there still is to see.  We have only seen a fraction of the area.  We had a great time with Jim and Rebecca and their family.  The kids had an absolute blast with their cousins and we all had a great time riding the side-by-sides together.

After pulling into town Thursday night, we hit the sack and headed out early Friday morning to ride the Dome Plateau trail.

The trail is known for its old mining cabins, caves, and incredible views at the end.  Our first stop were these old creepy cabins, where we pulled up for lunch and the kids went exploring.

Just a short hike down the hill we also went exploring in some old mine shafts.  The girls and I skipped that part.  Too dark and scary for the little ones.

Our next step were these natural rock formations which were perfect for a little climbing and some photo opportunities.

Piper skinned her hands on the red rock climbing down and it threw her off for a good hour.  Now, two weeks later, we are still putting bandaids on her two fingers every night.

After another hour or so of riding we came to the end of the trail.  We had no idea what we were in for, but it was an amazing view of the canyon, the Colorado river, the La Sal mountains and miles and miles of red rock.  The drop off was pretty steep, so the girls stayed in their car seats and Uncle Jim almost peed his pants because of the heights.

 This is the panoramic view, which doesn't do it justice at all.

We acted like dorks and scared Jim by getting too close to the edge.  

On the way back we got a little bit lost.  Okay, a lot lost.  We probably rode for an extra two hours.  We were in front leading the way and holding Jim's GPS and we'll say it was a combination of me not understanding how the "bread crumbs" on the GPS and Josh zooming along in too much of a hurry to look at the trail markers closely.  So, when we finally pulled up to the car, the girls were DONE with the side-by-side (and we kind of were too).  It was close to dusk, we were tired, hungry and absolutely covered in red sand.  We went straight to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  No showers, so we washed faces and hands in the bathroom.  Good times.

The next day, we headed out on another trail called Snake Creek.  This was perfect - a little more low key and you get to cross the creek about 15 times on the way up.  Just enough splashing to make the kids laugh.  

Jim and Rebecca and fam in their side-by-side.  They also have two people ride on their four-wheeler.

 The girls loaded up and ready to go.  Baby doll likes to ride on the side-by-side too.

A little more than halfway up the trail, we dropped Jim and Josh off to hide eggs for the kids.  The rest of us rode about 10 minutes up the trail, then turned around to come back.  This is an annual tradition for Jim and Rebecca's kids, but the girls were pretty shocked to find out the Easter Bunny had come to Moab and hid eggs on the trail.

 They looked for eggs in trees and bushes, behind rocks, and up on the side of a hill.  Jim told his kids to watch out for two snakes he saw earlier (liar!).

After some time splashing through the creek on the way back down, it was time to stop for lunch . We found a spot by the creek and pulled up shop.  We ate, then had fun throwing rocks into the creek.

The girls found another use for the side-by-side.

We got back in time for a real shower before dinner at Eddie McStiff's.  Then it was an early bedtime for us.

 

The next morning we woke up on Easter.  The Easter Bunny brought baskets to the Holiday Inn where we were staying.

After breakfast, we hopped in the car to head back home to SLC.  We made it back in time to have Easter dinner at my parents where the girls got more baskets and got to find a few more eggs around the house.  All-in-all, a perfect weekend.

Moab Time

Last weekend we took our first trip down to Moab since being back here in Utah.  We bought a side-by-side to play in (sort of like a 4-wheeler, but bigger and safer) and we finally got a chance to use it.  I had some reservations when Josh told me he wanted to get one.  I admit that I sometimes get annoyed with motorized vehicles plowing around the dessert.  Plus, there is the obvious safety concerns.  But it has a full roll cage, fits two carseats perfectly in the backseat, and we can easily hop out if we need to while Josh goes up anything sketchy.

We went down with the Naisbitts, who also have one.  Josh and Brett have been dreaming about these trips for a long time.  While we were there, they were reminiscing about the first time they met in Moab in 4th or 5th grade.  They are like an old couple, always talking about the old days.

On Saturday, we rode a trail called Fins 'n things, which was near Slickrock.  The weather was perfect (more than 60!), and the girls had a great time.  It was probably an hour too long for them and they somehow fell asleep back there at the end despite all the bouncing around.  They also had fun playing with Leah and Hayden.  We stopped for a picnic for lunch and they ran around the slick rock for awhile.

All the kids ready to go.  Leah is just four days older than the girls.

 The Nasibitts.

 Josh at the wheel.  I got to drive a little bit too.  Too fun.

 Stopping to scale a little red rock.

 The girls in our side-by-side.

 Holding hands.  And of course baby doll got to come on the ride too.

We're headed down to Moab again this weekend for a half marathon and hopefully to do a little more riding.  We hope that we'll get a lot of use out of this thing over the summer.