Arches National Park

Over Labor Day weekend we took the family and met my mom and dad in Moab. Moab is a hopping place on long weekends and we had a hard time finding rooms at a semi-reasonable rate. We contemplated staying an hour away in Green River until I found that campgrounds also had fun little cabins. The campground we stayed at actually had a 2 bedroom apartment for rent above their office and the kids stayed in this little cabin that was named the Saloon. (I was just glad we weren't assigned to the cabin called the Brothel. I should have taken a picture just to show that it really was named that.) We had a lot more room for less than the cost of a motel.

Our first stop was Dead Horse Point. We are so lucky to live in Utah where we have such great scenery. I think I'm so used to it that I don't appreciate how magnificent it really is.
We hiked over to Delicate Arch. This was a long hike, but my mom and dad made it! It's so interesting to see how this arch sits on the edge of a big bowl of rock. It really is one of a kind.
The family under Delicate Arch.

I guess this is why it's called Delicate. Tons of rock (literally) balance on that relatively little joint on the side of the arch.

This area is called the Windows. We will definitely need to come back some day and explore more. We were running out of daylight when we saw it.

Beautiful Landscape Arch. See it before it's gone. A huge chunk fell off a few years ago and more could go any day. Tourist are no longer allowed underneath the arch.

Balancing Rock. The most prominent of the many balancing rocks in the park.

Southern Utah is one of the prettiest places on Earth!

A Hiking We Will Go...

Our last hurrah of the summer was to go backpacking in Naturalist Basin in the Uintahs. Krysta had to stay home and work, but the rest of us put on a pack and hiked 5 miles into our camp by a little lake called Gatman. We had a great secluded campsite off the trail and back in the trees by a meadow.

Of course, every time we saw a meadow, like the one in the background, someone had to recall the sad tale of Bambi. "There's hunters in the forest!...Run, Bambi! Run!" Way to ruin a bunch of beautiful meadows. We only saw Bambi once however.

The next day we hiked another 5 miles and visited a bunch of lakes. Here we are at Everman Lake.

Beautiful blue Jordan Lake.

Looking down at some unnamed pond. I don't think it's possible to visit all the many ponds and lakes in the Uintas.

This water flows out of Blue Lake,

which is at the top of this steep hill. I am looking down at one of the Mordt Lakes. This mountain is much steeper than it looks in the picture, and I am not a happy camper. Have I ever mentioned I hate heights and crumbly rocks that move? Here we have both.
But Curt held my hand (quite literally) and we all made it up to Blue Lake where we celebrated by throwing rocks into the water!

This is what you do after a long day of hiking.

Kevin packed this piece of equipment in. Yes, we were packbacking and not car camping. It doesn't make much difference to Kevin.

I have to admit, it was nice to sit in a real chair! Kevin wanted to balance it out by taking our blow up rowboat on the other side of his pack. He had some type of foot pump he was going to use to blow it up. However, it would have taken quite a while just to get the boat pumped up. Curt and I vetoed the idea. I wouldn't have cared it he brought it, but there was no way I was letting him row out on a lake without a lifejacket and bringing along 2-3 lifejackets for him and the girls along with the boat and a pump seemed a bit much. We would have looked all kinds of ridiculous going up the trail with lifejackets hanging off our packs. (Remember the deer cart on King's Peak? If you haven't heard that one kids, ask your parents.)

We did let Rachel bring her horse. Possibly the only stuffed horse to ever go backpacking. When we got to the trailhead, Rachel asked what she should do with her horse. I told her to leave it in the vehicle and it would be there when we got back. Her face crumpled and she started to cry. "I always sleep with a horse!" she wailed. It was then I realized she wanted to take it with her! If I had known that a few hours earlier, I would have helped her choose a smaller horse. Sherpa Kevin stuffed it in his pack and all was well.
Here we say good by to our temporary home. We did about 15 miles in all. Camille carried her own real pack and Rachel walked the whole distance.
Now you may think we backpack because we like the outdoors (we do) or we like to see things that not many people get to see (also true) or that it makes our kids appreciate their home much more (very true), but the real reason is...by the time we get around to planning a camping trip there are no reservations to be had anywhere! We don't need reservations to backpack. So there you have it, procrastination is our real motivation!

July Highlights

Since Angie and Ashley did such a good job of telling about the 24th of July weekend, I won't go into detail. Here is a quick rundown of our July events.

We went to Idaho for a family reunion with my grandma and cousins...

celebrated Erin's 14th Birthday (her actual birthday being the first day of girl's camp)...
saw the float preview for the Day's of 47 parade along with Nicole...

played with our cute kitty...

walked like a pioneer and climbed Big Mountain...

almost got left behind on the trail...

(These two stinkers wanted to stay in front of their teenage brothers the entire time and got so tired from the effort that they decided to quit and lay down in the trail 100 feet from the end. They refused to go any further until Shawn, in a no nonsense voice, told them to get up and start walking. Here they look over the valley and are glad they really aren't pioneer children.)

played with the cousins at Brian's cabin...
watched Nicole in the parade...
and watched fireworks at Kim's. Yeah for July and the 24th!

On a Serious Note

As I was preparing to give a talk on Sunday, I came across this article from the Newsroom site on lds.org. It is a transcript of a talk given by Elder Lance B. Wickman, a member of the Seventy, at J. Reuben Clark Law Society on 11 February 2010. It is a little long, but is very enlightening in outlining a growing anti-religious bias in government. He specifically talks about Proposition 8. This article had nothing to do with my talk subject, but it was a worthwhile digression. Click here to read.

Oh, Baby Cakes!

I am going to put these baby pictures of my kids on the wall going downstairs. If you've been to my house and seen the five black frames that have been hung on the wall for about a year, all with a picture of the same stranger inside, you'll know where I mean.

These babies are just so cute! I miss them. I've often thought how fun it would be to have them be one year-old babies together to see how they would react with each other. Then one of them (usually one of the teens) manages to act like a one year-old, the rest respond accordingly, and I get my wish! It's not so cute without the one year-old baby body to go with it.

See if you can tell who is who. Answers are at the bottom. They range in age in these pictures from 3 months to 13 months. I just chose the baby picture I liked that best fit the personality of the child.

Did you get them all? We have Rachel, Camille, Erin, Krysta, Kevin, and just to trick you, Erin again. I'm going to print both picts. of her and decide on the one I like best.

Universal Studios

The last two days of our California vacation were spent at Universal Studios and at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The first thing we did was go on the Universal Studios Tour. Seeing all of the movie sets was really fun. At the end, in the subway set, I got drenched. If it's a warm day and you want to get wet, sit in the 4th car on the right side. Unfortunately, it wasn't that warm. When the water hit, I jumped out of my seat and sat on the child next to me. I was just "sheltering" the child from the water. The fact that Rachel also got drenched (and squished) should just be ignored.

While the rest of the family went on the Revenge of the Mummy roller coaster, Rachel made a few new friends.

Before driving home the next day, we went to Mann's Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was fun to see the handprints and footprints of really famous old-time stars like Bing Crosby...
...and Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe.
It was also fun to meet famous (wax) actressess and actors like Lucille Ball (my favorite!!) and...
...Shrek (apparently Kevin's inspiration). Next time we will have to make time to go into the actual wax museum.
Seeing all the people gathered around Michael Jackson's star and all the tributes and flowers was interesting.
Ah, Hollywood, a nice, expensive, place to visit; sure glad we don't live there!