Weekend Trip to Moab

We decided to take a quick weekend trip to Moab, Utah. We had such a great time! It was all-around an enjoyable, fun get away. We headed out on Friday, drove through Monument Valley, and then stopped at a dive in Mexican Hat, Utah. The town consists of 4 buildings - one gas station, one motel/diner, and 2 restaurants. It's at the crossing of the San Juan River, and a place for river trips to launch/take-out. Otherwise, the 4 buildings wouldn't even be there. The place we stopped at for a drink/food sat on the edge of the cliff overlooking the river. Then we booked it into Moab. Saturday morning, Brian took a shuttle up for an extended mountain biking ride. The kids and I headed into Arches National Park, and saw Windows Arch, Turret Arch, Double Arch and the Fiery Furnace. The kids really enjoyed the morning, and me too. All Jacob wanted to do was climb the rocks as high as he could and run to each stop. Annie doddled along with a purse in hand, as expected. Then we met up with Brian for a late lunch at the brewery, swam in the pool and walked around town. After dinner, Brian met up with some fellow NPS people for a quick drink while the kids and I took a walk on the walking trail. Sunday morning, we headed back to the park, this time to see Delicate Arch and Balanced Rock. (Delicate Arch is way in the background of the picture of Annie sitting down.) On the drive home, we stopped at Newspaper Rock near Canyonlands, which is named for its many petrogylphs/pictographs. It resembles a 'newspaper' of the Native Americans, as it contains so many and covers such a long period of time. Then we took a bit of a short-cut through the La Sal National Forest and climbed high in elevation to see two mountain lakes (Loy Lake and Monticello Lake). Both were stocked with trout and still surrounded by bits of snow. After that, we just headed home.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend. We laid-low this weekend, as Jacob was under the weather on Saturday. He seemed better on Sunday, but then crashed and burned at dinner time. He's back in bed with a fever. We did have an Easter egg hunt with Landon, and you can tell Jacob isn't well in the picture. Annie and Landon had fun. We also had a nice dinner at the Davis home. Thanks!

T-ball

Jacob had our first T-ball game on Saturday. It was a tad cold and windy, but I think everyone had fun. I was impressed by the players. The kids were far more structured, organized, and engaged in the sport than I expected for 5-6-7 year olds. I think I was used to soccer, where it seems like a chaotic mass of kids running around the field. This should keep us busy for the next 7 weeks.

"The Wave" / Coyote Buttes North

Today Brian and I took a hike to Coyote Buttes North ("The Wave"). I sent away for permits in December, and we were given March 30th as our time. The kids were in pre-school, so we headed off by ourselves. It wasn't a kid-friendly hike anyway, and it was nice to keep a faster pace. The destination of the hike: the rocks that look like a wave. I thought it looked like swirled taffy or candy. A very nice day.

Trip to Phoenix

We had a great, quick trip to see Aunt Annie! We went to the zoo and spent a long time looking at the animals and wandering around the setting. Jacob was excited and wanted to run as fast as he could to see a certain animal. Then he'd see that animal, focus on seeing a different one, and want to get there as fast as he could. We tried to curb his enthusiasm enough to see everything else along the way. It was, probably, their first exposure to a zoo that they'll remember. I did forget my camera in the car, and the crowds prohibited an easy run to the parking lot to get it. The next day we went to the climbing gym with Aunt Annie. Jacob loved it and Annie just liked to swing on the harness and rope. She's a bit young, still. We also rode the new light rail and hiked to the "hole in the rock". The kids are standing next to the skeleton of a saguaro cactus. I didn't know that cactus had a wooden frame. The drive home was fine, but the kids were very sad to leave Aunt Annie.

Start of the Season, Maybe

It's Springbreak here and we are enjoying ourselves. We've had BBQs in the nice evening weather, and even made it out to the beach. It was warm enough to wear bathing suits, but the water was still quite cold. Though that didn't stop the kids from playing in it. The beach was quiet, and we were just about the only beach goers there. The rest was filled with the resort trucks gearing up for the season. The water is way down, which is natural for this time of year, and we sat in between large concrete pillars. These pillars must be anchors for boating ramps, or floating houseboat parking lots. Anyway, Jacob liked climbing all of them. We're off to see Aunt Annie in Pheonix today. That should be fun and it'll bring more pictures at the end of the weekend.

Congratulations Brian!

Congratulations to Brian -- he has received a promotion! He now has a fancy title and a whole bunch of extra work to go along with it. Chief of Planning, Compliance & External Affairs for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, National Park Service. We'll have to do something to celebrate, as we've just been busy with day-to-day stuff for a few weeks. The weather has also taken a turn to the exceptional (nearly 80 & sunny), which is even more reason to be happy.