Birthday Grandma/Girl

My super sweet, awesome Grandmother celebrated her 92nd birthday last Friday, May 4th. I feel incredibly blessed that I was able to be here to share it with her this year. Most of my family was able to get together for a little party in her honor the day after. The day of, Mom, Dad, Sarah, Ben, Zach, and I went up to see her in Brigham City, and we all went out to lunch at Maddox.

 

I am grateful for every day Grandma Ruth is with us. I know her eyes are giving her trouble, and hearing conversations in a group environment is pretty much impossible now, but I'm so glad that she is still willing to attend our very loud family get togethers. I overhead Grandma talking to my mom about mom's (I think the word she used) progeny. My mom kind of laughed and alerted Grandma to the fact that she's just as much behind the numbers. I think it must have felt pretty special for them both to look at a room swarming with children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren that were theirs.

 

Also celebrating a birthday the day after Grandma was my beautiful niece, Saffy. I know birthdays are a big deal to kids, so I hope she felt special and celebrated too.

When Nature Calls

There may be a day where Ben is embarrassed by naked butt pictures, so I opted to condense these (in my mom opinion) adorable shots to make the deletion process a bit easier if he asks me to take them down when he gets older.

Capitol Reef

The last day of our camping/parks adventure took us to Capitol Reef. We started out at the Visitor Center to pick up a trail guide and spent way too much time perusing the gift shop. We only intended to stay in the park until midday which limited us to one good trail and a few other brief stops on the way out of the park.

Our trail pick was the Grand Wash and out of all the hikes we went on over the past few days it was my favorite. The trail is a gorge which cuts through the upper portion of the Waterpocket Fold. All along the trail there is streambed sediment, so there were lots of interesting rocks which we all enjoyed picking through to find our favorites. The narrow section of the trail closes in to about 15 feet wide while the surronding walls tower hundreds of feet upward. I think Ben's favorite part of the trail were all the smooth holes/caves/craters in the walls. Many of them were the perfect size for him to crawl into.

Our stops on the way out of Capitol Reef took us by a short river walk with views of petroglyphs and to the Goosenecks Overlook. We barely scraped the surface of the park, and this is one place I am anxious to return and spend a few days exploring.

Instead of taking a major highway home, we opted to drive through the county we grew up in. We spent a little extra time driving around Spring City and found a field full of llamas for Joy's viewing pleasure. Our drive took us by our old home which is difficult to look at now. I glanced and winced and it was all I wanted to see. It's sad that the people who bought it aren't as interested in keeping the property as nice as we once did. There are definitely some changes to the area we used to call home, but for the most part things look very similar to the way I remember them. In some ways the detour felt a little uncomfortable, but I'm still glad we took it.

Our super speedy tour of four parks in three days took us over 900 miles around the beautiful state of Utah. There is so much more of this state to explore. I'm super excited for the next adventure!

I really enjoyed the time with Dad, Joy and especially Ben. Joy just finished up with a photography class and she probably took over half the pictures from the trip, so kudos to Joy for some of the awesome shots!

Dead Horse Point & Canyonlands

After spending a full day at Arches, we opted to find a different campground that offered facilities a few steps above a pit toilet with no door or roof. We found a very nice RV park just north of Moab with covered campsites and some very lovely bathrooms with showers. There's nothing like camping to remind us how good we've really got it.

After packing up, we headed north on US-191 to UT-313 to Dead Horse Point State Park. On the way there, Dad filled Joy and I in on the main legend of the park which is really very sad and morbid. Supposedly cowboys rounded up wild mustangs and herded them to the point, which the park is named for. This point is practically an island in the sky with the neck leading to the point being only 30 yards wide. After the cowboys herded the horses across the neck, it was then fenced off with branches and brush and a natural corral was created. After choosing the horses they wanted, for whatever crazy reasons they had, the cowboys left the remaining horses on the waterless point and eventually the horses died of thirst 2000 feet above the Colorado River. After hearing this possible history of our destination, and especially after seeing the point, I really hope the legend is wrong.

We walked half the Point Trail which took us from the Visitor Center to the Dead Horse Point Overlook, and we realized that after walking it, we could have saved a lot of time and energy by enjoying basically the same views from the van driving on the road, which was parallel to the road and often times in sight of it. I realized Ben's little legs were probably sore from the hikes the day before, and he was definitely not as excited to be on the trail with us.

A day after seeing the Delicate Arch for himself, Ben pointed out this puzzle in a gift shop and knew just what it was. I'm so glad it left an impression on him.

Even though the trail wasn't all that exciting and the history of the park was dark and sad, the views from the overlook were fantastic.

The views waiting for us at Canyonlands were equally as awesome. To think I grew up in Utah and never took the opportunity to visit these parks until now is pretty sad. It was impressive to see how many different states were represented on license plates we saw throughout the parks. There were also many different languages we heard spoken along our walks and hikes. Of all the places these people could visit in the world, they all chose to explore Utah. I totally get why now.

We didn't take on a lot of trails in Canyonlands, but we did stop at several overlooks. As we headed into the park, we didn't realize at the time that there are two separate entrances to the park, both of which are quite a ways from each other. We ended up exploring the north section of the park, and I think if we had had more time, we would have loved to visit the Needles area in the south part.

We spent the late afternoon and early evening making our way to Capitol Reef. We were hoping to stay in the park's one campground and were disappointed to find it full on our way into the park. We tortured ourselves a little more by driving through it anyway wishfully thinking maybe there would be a spot for us. We continued driving until we exited the park to the west and found an RV/campground in Torrey. After setting up camp, we continued driving west on 24 to Bicknell.

About 20 years ago my dad discovered this cafe in Bicknell by the name of SunGlow that is unique for serving a few unusual flavors of pie. It's no surprise really that most of my pie-loving family knows of this place and many have tried their selection. After dinner we shared a sampler plate which offered small slices of oatmeal, buttermilk, pinto bean, and pickle pie. The only one I didn't care for much was the pickle, with the pinto bean being my favorite.

Upon returning to camp Ben said goodnight to the horses in the field behind our tents, and we snuggled into our sleeping bags for one more night under the stars. I'm so glad he loves to camp!

The Split & Arches

Zach to Darius on the phone: "Mommy left me! She didn't want me to go camping!"

Zach's statement is partially true. I did want to take him camping, but part of the camping trip included lots of hiking, and walking in general seems to be quite taxing for Zach, so for that reason I decided for the overall good of the group, it would be better if we left him home with Grandma.

Fortunately for the boys and I, Darius' flight benefits kicked in and we were able to come to Utah to visit with family and spend some time with my parents before they head off on their mission. A couple days after arriving, my dad, Joy, Ben, and I headed out to check out a few of the national parks here in Utah. We left last Sunday afternoon and spent our first night at a BLM campground on the Colorado River just south of Arches National Park. Before dark we checked out a short trail that led us up to some dinosaur tracks and a few petroglyphs.

Monday we spent most of the day exploring Arches. We started off with the Park Avenue trail and then made our way up to the Windows Section after stopping to check out Balanced Rock. We climbed up and sat beneath the Double Arch and then Dad and Ben took a little puzzle break while Joy and I checked out the North and South Windows and the Turret Arch.

After we stopped off for lunch we tackled our longest hike of the day, Delicate Arch. About halfway up the trail Ben had a little meltdown, and I questioned whether the hike was too much of a challenge for him. We sat down and took a little breather, and Joy and Dad continued on. Losing sight of them was all the motivation Ben needed to keep going. We took the rest of the hike nice and slow, and Ben only asked for a couple of short rides on my shoulders. I'm glad he was a trooper and stuck with it because the payoff was pretty spectacular. After a snack and a couple of photos, Ben had enough and fell asleep after burying his head into my pack. Dad lost his hat in the wind and left us to look for it, so Joy and I took a little longer to enjoy the arch while Ben rested.

We finished off our day at Arches after spending a little bit of time in the Devil's Garden area of the park. Ben was pretty much done with the hiking portion of the day, so Dad stayed in the van with him while Joy and I took a short hike to the Pine Tree and Tunnel Arches. On our way back down the trail Dad and Ben met us towards the start of the trail, and Ben and I kicked off our shoes and enjoyed the cool sand on our feet.

Arches is awesome! What an amazing part of the country to visit.

It was strange not to have Zach with Ben and I. This was the first time the boys have ever spent more than a few hours apart. I didn't quite know how to feel without Zach around, but I will admit that it was pretty special to have that one-on-one time with just Ben. I knew at the end of the day I made the right call to leave Zach with Grandma. The boys interests are as different as their personalities, and it's not always the right call to ask one to do something he's not going to enjoy or appreciate. I only hope as Zach gets older that he might show more of an interest in the more physical outdoor activites because Arches was so much fun to explore.

More parks to come!