Arches

I'm finally done editing my pictures of our little vacation last weekend. Is everybody ready for TONS of pictures? Sorry about the amount of pictures but I already narrowed it down so much that I didn't want to leave more out.

So, we left last Thursday for Moab for a quick weekend trip. It was a spur of the moment trip which is kind of not like us. I'm glad we went because it was nice to get away and our kids did have fun despite the intense heat. It was 94 degrees which felt very very hot to us. I know some people will think that isn't very hot at all. All of my kids get super hot, super fast, just like their mother. You can tell in some of these pictures with how red their face is. They don't have a sunburn at all, they are just hot. The kids were really excited about the hotel most of all, I think. They couldn't wait to get to the hotel all for different reasons. Jaden was excited about the cable TV and the pool. Maelyn was excited about the pool and the hardboiled eggs for breakfast. And Claire was excited about swimming and the "alligator" (elevator). We got to there just in time to go swimming and to eat dinner. Thank goodness for the pool! My kids love to swim so it is always nice to have a pool in the hotel.

The first day in Arches National Park was pretty good. The kids did great and we were able to do three little hikes before heading back at 2:00. It got too hot in the afternoon to do any more hiking so we went back to the hotel to SWIM!

Our first stop in Arches was at Balanced Rock. This was more like a little walk than a hike but my kids still liked it. They were able to see a few lizards which probably was the highlight of this stop. In the top left corner of this picture collage they are all bending down to look at a lizard. The picture next to it is the lizard itself. It is probably hard to see the lizard in both pictures so look closely.

The second stop of the day was at Double Arch. This was Jaden's favorite place because he got to climb. This boy is a monkey, I tell you. Claire was also a monkey here and it was terrifying us. She has no fear and no sense of danger. She wanted to climb up where Jaden was and got mad when we told her no. If we weren't right by her every second she would try to climb somewhere else she wasn't supposed to. This Arch was probably my favorite. It was very cool.

Double Arch

The third and final stop of the day was to Sandstone Arch. This was Maelyn and Claire's favorite spot. We were able to spend quite a lot of time here because there was some shade and TONS of sand to play in. It would have been fun to have a bucket and shovel for the kids to play with if we would have known to have them. Claire had a good time getting her legs buried in the sand. The drawback of that though was that all the sand would go up her shorts. One of the pictures below shows all the sand coming out of her shorts. Maelyn and Jaden enjoyed seeing how the sandstone turns to sand by rubbing on a rock. They did played with that rock almost the whole time.

On our way to Sandstone Arch we found this cool place where Jaden was able to prop himself up on the rock above the girls. Sorry about the sunglare on the picture. I think it is cool though.

The second day was a bit harder on the kids than the first day. It might have been that it was hotter or that we did a little bit longer hikes. Originally we were going to try doing the Delicate Arch hike but that was 3 miles roundtrip. I'm glad we decided just to do the Delicate Arch viewpoint instead. We weren't able to get super close to the arch but we were able to see it off in the distance. Next time Claire won't be too young to do the 3 mile hike.

The next hike we did was the longest hike and the arch was probably least favorite. It is called Landscape Arch. The picture of it is in the top right corner of the next collage. By the time we did this hike my kids were so tired and hot so it was an extra long hike for everyone. For most of the way back from the arch I was holding Claire. Holy cow, I was hot after that! I don't have any pictures of the kids in front of Landscape Arch because they were sitting in the shade and didn't want a picture so I didn't force it.

We all had a great time going on this little vacation. It makes me look forward to all the things we will be able to do when they get a little older. Until then I will enjoy seeing moments like this:

I have the cutest kids!