Fall Break in Moab

For fall break this year, we went to Moab with our friends the Harlan's. The Harlan's used to live in our neighborhood. We both moved in about the same time, had kids about the same ages, and became fast friends. We went camping together lots of times, and have many great memories of time spent together. It's been way too long since we've done anything with them, and our younger kids don't really know each other.

Thursday, we drove to Moab, had lunch, checked into our hotel, and let the kids swim for a while. Then we decided to go into Arches National Park and hike to Delicate Arch. By this time it was about 5:30, and the sun was starting to set. I am a slow hiker any time, but I was just getting over the flu, and was having a hard time breathing. So.... we made it to Delicate Arch, and I thought I was going to die. I was out of breath, coughing, and pretty much out of water. This is how dark it was when we got there. Beautiful sunset, but too late to be out hiking.


Ammon, Jordyn, Hailey, Chloe and Emma at Delicate Arch.


As soon as I caught my breath, we needed to head back down because it was getting dark. Everyone else was kind of hurrying to get down, but I was still plodding along. Michael was great and stayed right with me the whole time. Dennis was carrying Jordyn, and trying to bridge the gap, keeping and eye on those in front, yet not losing sight of Michael and me. At one point, we lost the trail, and it was so dark, we couldn't see anything. It was a little scary for a minute. We got back on the trail, and Dennis came back to walk with us. We finally made it to the car. What a relief!!



The next day, Friday, we decided it would be fun to try something different. We rented a jeep so we could go off-roading. It had a convertible top, and in the rental agreement it said there was a $40 charge if they had to put the top back on. Well, now we know why! That bugger was impossible!! The boys spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how to get it off, and finally gave up and left it on.

The jeep only sat 5, so Dennis took Michael, Ammon, Hailey and Chloe out for the 1st turn while Dave, Katrina and I took Matthew, Jordyn and Emma to Canyonlands National Park. None of us had ever been there before and we wanted to see it. It was beautiful, but very different from Arches. The park is huge, and has 3 very distinct areas, we only saw a tiny bit.

Emma and Matthew got along great, and the girls all really took to Jordyn. Especially Emma, she really just took care of her, and Jordyn loved it!




After that, we went back to the hotel and switched. The kids wanted to swim, so the adults and Matthew went out in the jeep. We were on a pretty tame road, but it was still a little nerve wracking for me. I guess if you did it all the time and were comfortable in knowing what you and your vehicle could do it would be different, but we were pretty cautious.



It was a fun trip, but it was pretty weird to go on vacation without the whole family. Jennifer had school, and Jayme couldn't get off work. I guess that's the way it is when your family gets older and kids move out, but it was still weird. We did manage to have a good time without them though!