Moab - Arches

Warning EXTREMELY long post!

This weekend we went camping in Moab with my sister Becky and her family. It was so much fun! Friday was Becky's husband Paul's birthday so we went out to dinner that night. Roman saw a pickle on Spencer's plate and that was that he wanted it, devoured it, wanted more!


After dinner we went back to camp and before bed we sang Happy Birthday to Paul. Doesn't he look so excited about his birthday cake! Ha and the candles were bigger than the cake.


The interesting part was we all slept in one tent. It was a 10 person tent, there were only 7 of us (although that night I couldn't count and I accidentally counted 8, so the rest of the time Bob (the giraffe) counted as the 8th person in our tent. It is a 2 room tent, but well, the kids didn't get to sleep very quickly. We planned better the second night!

We got up Saturday morning, ate breakfast then went to Arches. The were a little worried because we didn't have any cash with us. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that it was National Public Lands Day so it was free, all weekend!

We hiked to Delicate Arch first. It is rated "strenuous" in their guide of hikes (good thing we didn't tell Becky that before we went!). It is a 3 mile round trip hike, and with a baby on your back it is STRENUOUS!! It was super fun though! Kaylee was a trooper and walked almost all the way by herself. She wanted to pose in a picture with me and Roman.

Becky and I stayed across the way from the arch but it was calling to Spencer and Paul and they had to go climb on it and around it. Here they are under the arch.

On the way back from Delicate Arch Roman took a catnap!


After Delicate Arch we went to Sand Dune arch for lunch and to let the kids play in the sand. (and by kids I mean Spencer and Paul).

Here's Becky, Paul, Kaylee, and Gabby up on a rock near Sand Dune arch. I forgot to mention, we were playing near the arch for close to 2 hours before we actually finished the last 100 yards of the hike and saw Sand Dune arch. Who needs to see an arch when you can play in the sand?

They started out just playing in the sand

Then burying people in the sand

Somehow this turned into hole digging.

First try Roman didn't want to go into the hole. . .

He finally went in, and it was up to his waist. . .

so they kept digging . . .and it was up to his chest . . .so they kept digging . . .

Until it was up to his head!

Finally got out of the hole and is playing peek through a rock with mom

After that we went back to the camp to dump the sand out of the kids clothes. They brought plenty back with them!

Saturday night we had a better idea to get the kids to bed. Gabby to bed at 7:30 Roman to sleep in the car then Kaylee to sleep at 8:30 after the other two were already asleep. It worked amazingly. No talking, they were all out by 8:45, probably before that. The problem was they were all up at 6:30 this morning! Here is the tired crew first thing this morning!

We packed up camp and went back into Arches. The rocks were calling to Spencer and Paul again, they couldn't resist climbing.

And jumping. . .

Then the kids wanted in on the action. . .

Finally at the very last arch I got brave and climbed up into the arch, one of Spencer's favorite and posed for a picture with some random guy who was eating his lunch in the arch.

Thanks for a great weekend guys! We'll have to do it again, and we'll have to make sure we have more than just 5 bags of goldfishes ;)