Lagoon

We went to Lagoon the other day.  This was the kids first time here.  They were a little hesitant at first but after awhile, they were good with it.  Bryan and I tried to prep them for this by showing them youtube videos of the rides.  However, the videos don't do justification of just how big some of these rides are.  We are to convince them on a few rides to go and ride it once to decide if they like it and then if they don't and the don't want to ride it again, then that's okay.  Good thing we took them on some of the bigger rides before we hit Kiddieland.  They had no problem with the rides in this area.

When we asked the kids what their favorite rides were, Daniel said Wicked.  This was interesting that he said this because of how afraid he was to go on it and then it didn't care to go on it again.  After they both tried Colossus, they both said they hated it, but later that night, Megan said she wanted to go on it again.  Unfortunately, she was unable to go on it again due to some problem it was having.

What a great day!

Arches

This past weekend we were able to take off and go on our main camping adventure, Arches.  I've been to Arches before, but it's been about 10 years.  It was fun to return with my family.  This was by far one of the best and most relaxed camping trip we have taken.  I think it was partly due to the fact that we took five days for this trip.

We arrived on Friday and found our camping spot.  We set up and headed into Moab to get some maps and find out about off roading trails.  We came back and had our dinner.  After that, the kids enjoyed going exploring.  We finished off the evening with some reading of Harry Potter book one.

Saturday-  We headed into Arches.  We were lucky enough to not have to pay the park fee.  We can't remember what the reason behind it was, but they weren't charging anyone on this particular day.  Not that we ever have a problem paying to get into a national park.  It was just a nice surprise.  We headed straight to Delicate Arch.  We wanted to get the long hikes completed before it got too hot.  We were also expecting to have very high winds that day.  The winds were pretty mellow until we got close to the top of the arch then the winds really picked up.  It was a bit frightening with the wind pushing us around and knowing that it wouldn't take much to blow the kids off balance, so we found a nice spot that the kids could lean up against.  After seeing Delicate Arch from hiking to it, we drove down and looked at the lower viewpoint of this arch.  After doing this, the kids were beginning to argue and bother each other so we decided to head back to the campsite to have a bit of a break.

After some rest and some dinner we headed back into the park and to the hike that went from the Courthouse Towers to Park Avenue.  Due to the timing of this hike, we got quite a bit of shade which was nice.  It was a pretty warm day in the upper 90's.  After this hike we drove up and saw Balanced Rock, North and South Windows, and Double Arch.  We added up the miles and figured that we hiked about 10 miles this day.

Sunday-  We decided to take it a bit easier being Sunday.  So we took an off roading trail called Chicken Corners.  Bryan definitely enjoys doing this type of driving a lot more than the rest of us, however, if we didn't go and find these trails there would be a lot of things that we would miss.  This trail travels the Colorado River canyon.  The trail ends about 400 feet above the river across from Dead Horse Point.  We had beautiful weather this day.  I don't recall it even getting into the 90's.  I believe we just stayed in the upper 80's.

Megan asks Bryan to catch a lizard every time she sees one.  This is the second he caught for her.  She asked to hold it.

 Monday- We went back into Arches to finish viewing the arches we didn't do on Saturday.  Bryan wanted to bet a bit more off roading in so we took the dirt road from I-191, Willow Flats, and came into the park that way.  We then headed up and saw Sand Dune Arch, and Broken Arch.  As much as Bryan and I would have like to do the 7.2 mile roundtrip hike of Devil's Garden, we didn't think the kids would like that too much.  We'll have to come back in a few years and take this hike and see all the arches that are in this area.  So instead of doing this, we took another dirt road over to the Tower Arch hike.  We were lucky enough again to have nice weather that stayed in the 80's.

 We saw lots of wild life on the trail of Broken Arch.  We saw about four deer and one rabbit.  I think this was due to the fact that we somehow lost the trail for a bit.

Tuesday-  We enjoyed a nice breakfast and then packed up and headed home.  It was such a shame the trip had to come to an end.  It was so nice just taking it easy.  Taylor was a trooper.  I was a little concerned about how she would take it not being able to lay out or sleep in her familiar surroundings.  Once again, she got to sleep in the tub.  She didn't see much of Arches, she pretty much slept the entire time.  She didn't like being hooked up in the hiking backpack that we have, but once we got her situated and strapped to Bryan, it didn't take long before she dropped off.

It was a wonderful time!

The Zoo

Megan had her Kindergarten field trip to the zoo.  What a great time she had.  What a difference it is to go with a bunch of girls versus a bunch of boys.  I would have expected the boys to be more out of control and not listen very well, but when I compare the two field trips I've accompanied, the girls were by far the more out of control.  After about two hours at the zoo I was beat from trying to make sure I didn't lose any of the girls.  The zoo opened it's new exhibit for the water animals.  It was a lot of fun to see these animals.

She did it again!

Megan...........I don't know what the fascination of cutting her own hair is, but it's driving me crazy!  It's been just over a year from the last time she cut her hair.  It was looking good.  She wanted to grow it out like Rapunzel.  All of sudden...destroyed!  When I asked her why she did it, she said she was sick of it being in her face.  Her bangs were at the point of being totally annoying.  I try to keep them pinned up, but that's hard to do when she keeps taking everything out of her hair that I put in it.  So she came up with her own solution.  I had some students yesterday that have grown their bangs out.  So I pointed out to Megan that once she allows her bangs to grow to the same length as the rest of her hair, it wouldn't be annoying her any more.  I think she said she'd like to try it.  Sheesh......if you want to cut your hair so it's out of your face, ask me.  I will cut them for you so that you don't have a mullet.  Luckily, she didn't hack it nearly as bad as the first time.  Oh....and one more thing.....she has her dance pictures on Friday!  It's not going to be fixed by then.  She has wonderful timing with these things.  She can drive you nuts, but you can't stop loving her!

What kids will do for something new.....

Yesterday I attended an excellent teaching convention.  Being an all day thing, Bryan had the joy of having all day with the kids.  During a break at the convention, I noticed Bryan had called me.  So I returned his call to see what was up.  The reason for this call isn't that important to share.  However, before we hung up he told me that the neighbors are moving and they came and gave Megan two huge bins of toys.  I didn't think much of it until I got home and saw these bins and the extreme amount of stuff in it.  I happened to make the comment while Megan was around that I wan't sure where all of this would be stored.  Her room is already very full with toys that she doesn't really play with anyway.  Megan cheerfully pipes up that she will go through her toys and get rid of all the toys she doesn't want.  I kind of chuckled at this.

Let's take a visit to the past:  About two months ago, she was complaining that she didn't have anything fun to play with.  I mentioned all the toys that she had in her room.  She said that those toys were all boring.  So I asked if she would like to go through the toys and get rid of what she didn't want.  She said yes.  So I brought in a big bin for her to place all the toys she didn't want in it and then I would figure out what to do with them from there.  She said okay.  I left and let her get to it.  About thirty minutes later she came down practically in tears saying she didn't want to get rid of anything.  I told her that was fine and she didn't have to get rid of anything if she didn't want to.

Now come back to the present: So after chuckling a bit that Megan wanted to get rid of all her toys, I didn't really think she would be able to.  Bryan brought a big bin up for her to place in it whatever she wanted to get rid of.  In the end, she pulled everything off the shelves in her room.  Both Bryan and I kept checking to make sure she was really okay with getting rid of these things.  She was very cheerful with her response.

These toys that were brought over are toys that Megan has never cared much to play with.  But because they are all new toys, she was willing to give everything else up for it.  I suspect she will play with these things for a couple of weeks and then not play with any of them.  I wonder if she'll ask for any of the other toys back so that she's "not bored."

Goblin Valley

Our first camping trip of the year was at Goblin Valley.  What a neat place this was to visit.  Goblin valley has TONS of rock formations that look like Goblins.  

The Three Sisters

In the valley

Taylor was a trooper

 

We found a nice little off road trail to take which gave us a good view of Molly's Castle.  There was a lot of soft sand on this trail.  This created a bit of an adventure.  Especially when we got to a spot where there was a bit of a hill, with a slight drop off.  In an effort to not get stuck, Bryan gunned it a bit.  As we went down the hill and made it back up the other, we heard a couple of loud thumps.  We knew there were some rocks that we were using to keep traction.  We thought it was only hitting the running boards.  So when we got out of the sand we stopped and took a look at the truck.  The rocks hit more than the running boards.  It ripped the driver side bumper off and bent the feather of the U of U hitch cover.

We went back to the valley the next night to take in the full moon.  We've heard that it is really neat at night on a full moon.  And it was.  The moon made the rocks cast lots of eerie like shadows.  There were a lot of people there at night taking it in like we were.  There was a scout group there as well playing capture the flag. We played a bit of Sardines while we were waiting for the moon to come up.  It's a great place for hide and seek.  Just be sure to put some boundaries on it.  Otherwise, someone may never get found.

Taylor slept in the tub - it was a perfect fit

Taylor at 3 months