Utah's National Parks

I've discovered that blogging is just as guilt evoking as journal keeping--once you get behind the guilt begins to build and it eventually snowballs or in my case turns into an avalanche. There is so much to catch up on that I keep putting it off and in turn keep adding guilt to more guilt. It is just a vicious cycle. There's never a better time than the present to put to rights the past wrongs. So here we go!

For the last several months we had planned on going to Utah for Thanksgiving. However, as the time drew closer and with our baby still being so small and with the swine flu raging we began to rethink our plans. On top of that Dryden has pretty severe reflux, and I was still trying to figure out how to adjust my diet in order to make him feel better. Packing up and going to Utah just seemed like a bad idea. We were too concerned that someone would get sick. We have done so well so far at avoiding germs! We contemplated going to Arkansas, Big Bend and to Florida. At the very last minute--just a few days before Brent's scheduled time off--we decided to take the leap and drive to Utah. I am so very glad that we did because it was one of the best family vacations we have ever had. Friday morning bright and early we piled into our van--or maybe more appropriately we squeezed into our van. Every seat is taken and one of the girls has to sit inbetween two car seats in the very back--not too comfortable. Anyway, our destination was to the fine city of Gallup, New Mexico. Now, our children love vacations as long as it involves a hotel with a swimming pool. In fact, they can tell you about every hotel swimming pool we have been to. They can tell you about the one that was on the second floor of the hotel; the one that had two hot tubs; the heated one that was outside and they weren't allowed to use. They cannot, however, tell you where these swimming pools were located or why we were there in the first place. They could probably tell you about the breakfast that is served as well... Hence the reason that keeping an accurate record is so important for our family. Otherwise, they will look back and never remember any of the cool places that we have visited!

Anyway, back to the story. Allison's favorite thing to do on any vacation is to go souvenir shopping. Just for her we stopped at the Continental Divide in New Mexico so that she could do a little shopping--and what fine shopping it was too (irony intended here). The scenery was gorgeous!

The next day-Saturday Nov. 21st we drove another four hours to Moab. The first thing we had to do was stop and check out the hotel of course. The second most important stop was at the gift shop at the entrance of Arches National Park where we planned to spend the rest of our day. We went on several hikes and saw all kinds of cool arches. The temperature was about 45 which was a little chilly, but not too terrible. I can't even imagine how busy the place must be during the summer because it certainly wasn't empty while we were there! Brent and I prefer hiking out in the middle of nowhere by ourselves--this isn't the place for that. It was perfect for the kids. It wasn't too challenging and the hikes were relatively short and easy. It was pretty perfect for me as well since my hip still hadn't quite healed from its long and agonizing dislocation.

Sunday morning we were off to Canyonlands National Park. It was just North of Moab. That is the great thing about Utah. There are National Parks everywhere! We thought that Arches was the pinnacle of UT parks since it is so widely known. We weren't expecting Canyonlands to compare to Arches. We were so very wrong. Canyonlands blew Arches out of the water. Its grandeur and beauty far surpassed Arches. I could have spent several days in Canyonlands exploring all that there was to see there. The pictures provide just a glimpse into the amazing geographical formations that can be seen there. We loved every freezing cold second that we spent there.The highlight of the day must have been towards the end. We were driving around looking at the campgrounds--not with the intention of staying of course--when Camden declared that he needed to go poop--necessary to distinguish because if you don't you will just end up on the side of the road most of the time! So Brent pulls over at the restroom and everyone falls out. The rest of the kids run off to play. Well, Camden is confused as to where the bathroom is at and ends up following the kids. The next thing I know is Brent is outside the bathroom looking for Camden, and Camden is on the other side of the van with his pants around his ankles wondering where are both Dad and the bathroom. The look of confusion was pretty entertaining.

We saw very few other visitors while we were there. The peacefulness was only marred by our own children, but they were free to run unhindered. The only thing we had to be careful of were the steep drop offs on a couple of the hikes. We truly were walking on the edge of vast canyon lands.