Three Men and a Little Lady: November 2015

We went down to Moab for four days over Fall Break this year. The trip happened to land on my birthday again this year. There's nothing I'd rather do on my birthday than get up at 4:00 am--that's what I always say! But, I guess when you're headed for Utah's red rocks, it's worth getting up bright and early.

We went straight to our first hike, Corona Arch. We found this hike during our last trip to Moab when the federal government was shutdown. Since the government was shut down, that also meant the national parks were shut down too, so we had to branch out a little from our normal routine. We found this hike in the process, and it quickly became one of our favorites. While we were on our hike, Dan caught a little lizard and showed it to Landon. He loved it, as you can probably tell...

So did everyone else...

We also stopped to build a few cairns. A cairn is a little stack of rocks that marks the trail in areas where it might not be obvious. Apparently, a lot of hikers felt this part of the trail needed to be clearly marked because there are hundreds of cairns here...

The kiddos found a little cave to take a break...

And finally the arch came into view, but there was still a little hike to reach it...

At part of the hike, you have to hold on to chains to get up a steep part. This hike has several little areas like this that keep it interesting and challenging...

As you approach Corona Arch, you get a glimpse of another arch. This one is called Bowtie Arch, but our boys have lovingly named it "Toilet Bowl Arch" because they think it looks just like one...

The final stretch to Corona Arch...

All the cute kiddos resting in the shade of the arch...

Cousin love...

Our family...

Cheeeeeese...

The four Storrs...

Daddy and daughter...

The hike back down...

That afternoon, we checked into our condo. The guys (including Connor) went mountain biking. They had a good time, and it sounds like Connor really enjoyed riding and did pretty good...

While the guys were biking, the gals took the rest of the kids swimming. This was the only day that was warm enough for swimming. The rest of the days were pleasant, but a little too cool to be swimming. So, we were glad we got one day to play in the water...

That night, we went to The Blu Pig for my birthday dinner. It's a really yummy barbecue place that we discovered a couple years ago. Then it was back to the condo for cupcakes...

And a Mike back rub. He was rubbing both mine and Kristin's shoulders at the same time...

The next day, we went off roading in this Unimog...

It was really fun! Mike's Uncle Dave took us on some of the jeep trails several years back and we had a great time, so we were excited to try it again, this time in a vehicle big enough for all of us--a unimog! John Marshall, the owner of Coyote Land Tours, took us and we had a great time...

Aiden was ready for the ride. John gave him the title of "Navigator". It was Aiden's job to tell him which way to go (with a little coaching and a few vetoes too)...

On the way to the trails...

We didn't do anything too scary this time. When we were with Uncle Dave, we did several things that I thought would end my life. This ride was nothing like that, but we did get to do some fun things--like look for dinosaur tracks. John took us to where some known dinosaur tracks are located so we could take a look...

He used a spray bottle to help them show up a little better...

My girlie and I back in the unimog...

Some of the scenery we saw while on our ride...

Poppy, Dan, and the kids took a little hike up on one of the rocks...

My monkeys (look at them--they're hanging all over the vehicle), our driver John, and his dog, Hasbro (who ran alongside the unimog most the way)...

Going up, anyone?

Connor and I at a lookout over the Green River...

John told the kids that he knew a spot where there were lots of arrowheads made by Native Americans hundreds of years ago. He drove all of us to the spot, then slipped several arrowheads into the the adults hands, and told us to hide them somewhere where the kids could find them. Sneaky, sneaky! The kiddos loved finding so many arrowheads. They thought they had won the lottery...

Viv decided that 4 wheeling was boring, and decided to take a nap. Ummm, who takes a nap while 4 wheeling?!?

She eventually woke up when John drove the unimog down this fun little area and decided to park there. Yep, he parked right there...

Then we all got out and John serenaded us with his harmonica. We were all very impressed...

After that, John got us back to civilization safely. It was a really fun experience. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but it was still fun--and we got to see lots of things we would have never known existed otherwise. We took one last family picture before the ride ended...

Then we went and ate at a cute little hamburger joint for lunch...

The guys and Connor went mountain biking again that afternoon. Then, that night, we went to dinner at Pasta Jay's, and then came back to the condo to work on the puzzle for awhile. My parents started bring puzzles on these type of vacations where we stay in a condo. We usually just lay it out on the kitchen table and work on it when we have down time. It's a fun little activity that keeps everyone entertained when there's nothing going on...

The next day was Poppy's birthday. We did a lot of fun things to celebrate. We started out by driving south of Moab to a place called "Hole 'N The Rock." It's a house that was actually built in a cave at the base of a large sandstone rock back in the early 1900s. There is a petting zoo and some other tourist attractions there now, so we went to feed some of the animals. The kids loved it...

So did the adults...

We were the first ones there in the morning, so the animals were really hungry...

The employee told us that if we held a carrot in our mouth, the camel would come get it and, in effect, kiss you in the process. Mike was the brave one to try it first. It was hilarious...

Vivvie didn't want to kiss the camel, but she did get up the courage to feed it with her hands...

But, she really preferred to just feed the animals through some of the tubes provided...

Aiden became fast friends with a cute baby goat. He sat there feeding it cheerios for a good 5-10 minutes...

These ostriches were pretty aggressive. They would stick their heads through the fence and dive bomb into your bucket of grains...

Connor finally got up the courage to kiss the camel...

Then Cohen decided that if his brother could do it, he could too...

It was really fun to feed all the animals. Most of the animals were very friendly and sweet with kids.

After feeding the animals, we walked around the grounds at Hole N' The Rock. There were lots of fun little things to see...

Mater was even there...

Doesn't that old jail cell look fun?

Later that day, we went out to Gemini Bridges. It's a place where the guys go mountain biking quite often, but the rest of us had never been there before. We took a short hike to the bridges. When you first get there, you can't really see the bridges. You'd never know you were walking right on top of it...

But this is the view from the other side...

Ummmmm, scary! We were all standing on that little tiny sliver of rock hundreds of feet above the ground. Once we got back to a part of the rock that was thicker than just a few inches, we took a family selfie...

And stopped to smell the flowers (or leaves) too...

Don't worry. That's not a real snake Aiden is holding. It's one of Landon's stuffed animals...

Next, we headed over to Dead Horse Point State Park. The view is spectacular! It rivals the Grand Canyon...

While there, we had fun exploring all over the place and climbing on all the rocks...

Taking in the view...

Then, once we were finished there, Poppy came with us into Canyonlands National Park while Kristin, Dan, and Nana took Landon to a dinosaur park. Our kids had never been to Canyonlands before, so I wanted them to experience it. Our first stop was Shafer Canyon Overlook, where Poppy and the boys climbed up on this huge rock. I'm sure they were yelling "I'm the king of the world!" or something like that...

Cohen found a nice little place to rest...

Family picture at Shafer Canyon Overlook...

Next we went to the Green River Overlook. It's amazing what a little water can do...

Then we made the short hike to Mesa Arch. It was such an amazing view through the arch...

And, finally we finished at Grand View Point. I'm sure you can guess how it got its name...

That night, we hit up our favorite Mexican restaurant in town to celebrate Poppy's birthday. They gave him this awesome sombrero to wear, sang to him, and even fed him a bite of his birthday treat. It was classic...

Then it was back to the condo to finish up the puzzle...

All done...

We finished the night with Poppy opening his presents...

And blowing out his birthday candles...

The next day was our final day. We headed into Arches National Park and did a hike in the Devil's Garden area. We had been up to this part of the park before to see Landscape Arch...

But, we had never gone past that point. The map said that the trail was "primitive", but we decided to try it anyway. Nana was a little worried about the steepness of the trail, so she headed back to the car to wait while the rest of us hiked on. There were lots of amazing views along the trail...

There were definitely some squirrely parts, but overall, it was an awesome hike. Eventually, we found Double O Arch. The top arch is easy to see, but the bottom one isn't. It's directly below the upper arch and is partially covered by a small tree in this picture...

After that, we hiked on to Dark Angel, which is this rock that sticks straight out of the ground...

At that point, we decided to turn around and head back. Here's Double O Arch from the backside. You can actually see the lower arch much better from this angle...

On the way back, Vivvie fell asleep on Mike's shoulders. Yep, she was out like a light just like this. How does this girl sleep in such bizarre places? That can not be comfy...

Because she was asleep, Mike took her and the younger boys back to the car, but Connor, Kristin, Dan, Landon and I all decided to take a couple of side trails to see some other arches along the way back. First was Navajo Arch. It wasn't all that impressive...

But Partition Arch was! Look at that view through the arch. You can see most of Arches National Park right there...

It was a great hike, but ended up being very long. All in all, we hiked about 5-5 1/2 miles round trip, but it's definitely a hike I'd love to do again sometime. In fact, I'd love to do the entire Devil's Garden Loop sometime when the kids are a little older.

After our long hike, we decided to do one last hike before heading home. This time we did a short hike (about 1/2 mile round trip) to one of our favorite arches--Sand Dune Arch. The kids and big kids (the guys) love to climb on top of this arch. The park has made it harder to do, but they were still able to figure out a way up...

I don't know what it is about boys and wanting to climb up huge rocks, but they always seem to have this need to make it to the top. Here's Cohen at the top of one of them near Sand Dune Arch...