Little Bud's 1/2 Birthday and the 1st Day of School!

This past weekend we celebrated Little Bud's 1/2 Birthday!  I can't even believe he's 4 1/2!!  I think I'm going to shed a few tears on his 5th birthday.  Big Sister has always enjoyed celebrating her half birthday, but Little Bud was a bit confused about what it was all about.  He still had a fun day swimming and enjoyed a yummy meal and homemade ice cream cake :)

Today was our first day back at Classical Conversations.  Big Sister has missed her friends so much, and she was so excited for a new school year to begin.  It was a great first day!  We are so blessed to be part of such a loving community of friends.

First Day of CC!

Pagosa Springs...again!

After we left Northern Arizona, we had a few days before we needed to start our trek back home.  We decided to spend our last few days in Southern Colorado, and enjoy the cooler temperatures, because the heat and humidity are going to welcome us home to Alabama! 

We had a great time at Pagosa Springs when we drove through early in the trip, so we camped there to spend a few days exploring the area and enjoying the hot springs.  On Sunday we decided to check out Elmwood Pass,  which is a "road" that settlers traveled along and over the Continental Divide when they headed west in their covered wagons.  The road is somewhat maintained by the National Forest system, but it was still slow going (even in the 4 wheel drive Jeep).  I can't even imagine what a long and difficult journey it was for the original settlers.  The Pass is about 19 miles long, and it took us about 2 1/2 hours to drive. It took the settlers about 3 weeks to travel those same 19 miles!  They must have had such incredible determination!!

Both kids had fun riding bikes and playing in the Animas River, which flowed right behind the campground. 

We visited the springs all 3 days we were in town!  The kids both told us that was one of their favorite parts of our trip, so we decided to soak in the warm, relaxing mineral water as much as possible before heading home :)  Although, Big Sister spent almost as much time playing in the mud in the river as she did enjoying the hot springs!  She would go into the river to "cool off" and would get distracted making mud pies!  She and John even had a few mud fights!!

I'm so very thankful for the special moments we have shared together over the last month.  Overall I think we stay too busy and get caught up in all the little details of life, so it was so great to be able to unplug from all of the demands of life and be able to spend time together exploring our beautiful country.  I've always treasures the memories our family made together when my parents traveled with us when we were growing up (thanks Dad and Mom!), and I'm hopeful that our kids will feel the same way.  I'm also hoping to re prioritize our schedules when we get home, so we focus more day to day on the things that really matter in life. 

 

 

Ready to journey HOME!

Grand Canyon, Vermillion Cliffs, Marble Canyon and Glenn Canyon

Little Bud was quite insistent on his desire to see the Grand Canyon (about a week into the trip he told us that was his favorite place we had visited on the trip - even though we hadn't been there yet!), so we decided to visit the North Rim when we left Zion earlier this week.  My parents took us to the North Rim a few times when we were kids, but I had forgotten how vastly different it is compared to the South Rim.  It's about 2,000 feet higher, so instead of a desert like terrain, the area around the canyon is a forest.  

Since the kids are so little and most of the canyon rim is natural (no rails or walls to protect you from falling over the edge), we decided to stick with look out points - hiking was out of the question (although hiking down into the canyon to see Havasupi Falls is on my bucket list).  The views were amazing!  Both kids had fun, and we're able to complete their Junior Ranger assignments before we left the park.  

We started our long journey back east by driving through the Vermillion Cliffs and Marble Canyon.  We decided to stop and camp in Glenn Canyon for the night.  The cliffs and the Colorado River were beautiful!

After exploring a bit the next morning, we headed to Page, Arizona to see the Glenn Canyon Dam.  The kids completed 2 more Junior Ranger assignments (Glenn Canyon and Rainbow Bridge), before we made our way back to Pagosa Springs.  

 

 

 

 

 

Vermillion Cliffs and the Colorado River

 

Navajo Bridge over the Colorado

Meteor Shower

When we heard about the meteor shower that was peaking last week, we decided it was something we had to see.  So, we put the kids to bed around 8:00 on Thursday night, and then woke them up around 10:30 to drive into Zion to get a good view of the night sky.  We didn't see as many meteors as we'd hoped, but we did each see 4 or 5, and the kids thought it was a great adventure!  We definitely all felt tired the next day, but I think it was worth it ;)

Zion

Zion is one of my all time favorite National Parks (Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Arches and Yosemite are my other favorites).  On our way in yesterday, we drove through a crazy storm, and when we got closer to the campground (which is just outside of the park), we saw the aftermath of a flash flood (mud was everywhere!). The river behind the campground was raging!  When we were here 6 years ago we tubed the river, and it was mostly a calm, lazy river experience. It was hard to believe it was the same river!  Later when we drove into the park, they told us that the road that goes through the park (it is a beautiful drive and has a mile long tunnel we were excited to drive through with the kids), was closed because a boulder fell into the road during the flash flood!!  We almost drove that road yesterday, but decided to go around (we would have had to get an oversized vehicle permit to drive the motorhome through).  We are so glad we did!

When we drove back into the park this morning, we were amazed by how much the water receded overnight. We were able to hike everywhere we had planned without any difficulties. We started off on the River Walk trail and continued on in the river up into the Narrows.  When we got to the Weeping Rock hike, there was a ranger leading a program for kids, which helped Big Sister and Little Bud (and me!) understand more about the process of the water seeping out of the sandstone and about the hanging garden areas in the park.  The Weeping Rock was so cool!!  We ended the day with a hike up to all 3 Emerald Pools.  Little Bud was a trooper and hiked 4 of the 5 miles on his own 2 feet!  He's slowly becoming more of an adventurer.  Big Sister constantly  amazed me; she hiked over 5 miles today and never complained!!

 

Raging river!

 

 

 

 

For every nice picture the kids take, they make us take a "funny face" picture!  This might be their craziest one yet!!

 

Between the Middle and Upoer Emerald Pools

Navajo Lake and Bryce

When Big Sister was a baby, my parents invited us (and my sister and nephew) along on their annual motorcycle trip.  We flew out to meet them, and then rented a van to follow along on their adventure.  We saw so many great places in 2 weeks, and on that trip is when we started thinking about how fun it would be to have an RV to travel around in.  One of the quick stops we made on the road between Zion and Bryce (Utah 14 and Utah 12 both have amazing, ever changing scenery) was at Navajo Lake.  It is the most picturesque mountain lake, and when we stopped to check it out, we decided that if we ever did have an RV someday, we would definitely come back to camp.  

When we were planning out our trip this summer, we decided to include it on our list of stops.  A lot of places we've camped this summer have been crowded, and we have opted to stay mostly in commercial campgrounds with pools and good places to ride bikes, to keep the kids happy, so this was a welcome change of pace!  There were no hook ups and absolutely no cell service, but the view of the lake from our campsite was spectacular, and the kids could ride their bikes and splash in the lake, while I watched from my chair. And at over 8,000 feet, the cool mountain air was so refreshing after so many days in the desert!  The kids and John went fishing in the lake a few times and caught some rainbow trout (the kids were so proud and excited!).  It was everything that camping should be!  

There's a lava flow in the area that we went to check out (when we have cell service again we plan to research it - Big Sister had lots of questions - Where is the volcano?  When did it erupt?  How big it the lava flow (we couldn't see the end of it)?).  Little Bud fell down in between some of the pieces of lava and bumped his head, but the next day after he was feeling better, he decided it was pretty cool to fall into the lava - just like Annikan Skywalker.  He's thinking he might turn into Darth Vader any time now ;)  

Yesterday we drove over to Bryce Canyon Natuonal Park; it's such a cool place!  After checking out the overlook areas, Big Sister begged to hike the Navajo Loop Trail (it's basically .6 miles down into the canyon, .1 miles across the canyon, and then .6 miles back up the canyon).  It was a beautiful and interesting hike, but Little Bud had a bit of a bathroom emergency on the way back up, so that combined with the trek up with 2 littles and no guardrails blocking the edge of the trail, made the experience a little stressful.  We all survived though :)

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

A small part of the lava flow

 

Bryce Canyon NP

 

 

 

 

SLC

On Friday we headed to the Salt Lake area to spend a few days with friends.  We were able to meet up with them 3 years ago on our last trip west, and I was so happy that our trips coordinated again this year.  They are from Utah, but live in England, so being able to detour only a few hours from our itinerary to catch up with them is definitely much easier than planning a visit across the pond (our last visit to see them there was before Little Bud joined our family)!

It was so fun to watch the kids play together and to meet the new little guy in their family.  Our lives are separated by many time zones and a lot of miles, but I truly treasure the easy friendship that our families share - we are always able to pick up where we left off and enjoy catching up on the details of life. 

 

Little Cottonwood Canyon

 

 

 

 

Capital Reef

This morning we drove over to Capital Reef National Park.  We stopped off at the visitor's center to get the kid's junior ranger packets, let them stamp their passports and to get some recommendations about what we should see and do.  Just as we were finishing up, a ranger was hosting a geology talk, so we decided to check it out.  It answered a lot of questions we had about the different rock layers in the park.  

We then took the "Scenic Drive" through the park before heading out on the Capital Goege Trail.  At the end of the trail you can climb up to see some waterpockets that are filled with tadpoles and all sorts of water bugs.  We also saw a red dragon fly, which the kids were super excited about! It was interesting to see pools of water in the middle of the desert.

On our way out of the park, we stopped off at the Ripple Creek Nature Center for a night sky talk (the view of the night sky is supposed to be amazing in the park...but it's rained both nights we've been here!).  After the kids turned in their completed packets and got their junior ranger badges (Big Sister's so proud that they've collected 6 so far on our trip - she even bought a banner to display them on at the nature center!) we headed back to the motorhome where the kids rode their bikes and I washed some clothes (yay!).

 

This isn't the best picture, but on the hike we found a little "cave" and John helped the kids climb inside. Little Bud did not want to get down to finish the hike!

 

Junior Ranger Pledge

Fun at the campground! 

Dinosaur Museum and Utah 12

On Tuesday we left Moab and headed back south to Blanding to visit the Dinosaur Museum there.  Friends told us how much their son enjoyed his visit, so we added it onto our itinerary. Both kids really enjoyed it, and we learned some new dinosaur facts, so it was a win, win!  

After the museum, we headed west to Torrey, Utah, which is just on the other side of Capital Reef N.P.  There are so many great national landmarks and state parks in the area, so yesterday we decided to head south on Utah 12 (in the jeep) to explore.  First we stopped by Anasazi State Park, where we were able to learn more about the Ancient Puebloans, see some ruins and also check out a recreation of a house.  From there we went down to Escalante National Monument and also to the Petrified Forest State Park, where we went on a hike and were able to see quite a few petrified trees.  On our way back to the motorhome we decided to check out the road known as "Hell's Backbone".  I'm still unsure of why it's named that, I guess I'll have to google it :)  We noticed on the map that there was a lake a bit off the beaten path from the main road, and we decided to check it out. It was such a neat area!  There were lots of aspen trees and a beautiful mountain stream that flowed out of the lake.  McGath Lake was beautiful and secluded (we were the only people there).  If we had our tent and some extra food with us, we would have camped out for the night.  On the way back to the main road, we saw so many deer!  Big Sister has quite an eye for spying wildlife in the woods!  

We were famished after our long day, so we stopped in Boulder to eat at Burr Trail Grill, which is a great local restaurant that sources local, organic ingredients for the meals they serve. It was so good!  Definitely the best meal we've eaten on the trip!!

We are headed out to explore Capital Reef today!

 

 

 

 

 

petrified wood

An entire petrified tree!

 

McGath Lake

 

 

Moab, Utah - Canyonlands and Arches

Yesterday we headed north to Moab, Utah.  The drive up was beautiful!  This part of Utah is so unique and amazing!!  After we checked in at the campground and got settled again, we drove over to Canyonlands.  None of us had been there before, so it was fun  to explore a new place together.  The temperature was almost unbearably hot, so we only went on one short hike to Mesa Arch.  Thankfully there were a lot of pull offs where you could see different parts of the canyon without having to hike.  After the kids completed their Junior Ranger program, we decided to take Dead Horse Trail (not sure who was in charge of naming the trail??) out of the park back into Moab.  It sounded like a great idea until I realized we had to drive down a mountain to get into the canyon!  And there were no guard rails!  The view was absolutely stunning, but I had to close my eyes more than a few times!!  

Today we headed out bright and early to Arches NP, to try to beat the heat.  We drove through the park and went on a few hikes to see some of the arches. There are several 4 wheel drive roads in the park, and we decided to check one of them out.  It was a little more intense than we expected (lots and lots of big rocks and super deep sand), and it took us longer than we expected, but we were able to see the Eye of the Whale Arch, which can only be viewed from the "road" we were on.  We were all pretty happy to see the paved road again!!

 

Canyonlands

 

That road though!!

 

Dead Horse Point

 

 

 

 

 

Sand Dune Arch