Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Spring Break 2011


For Spring Break this year our family decided to go on a road trip to Southern Utah. I don't particularly like long drives. So I planned our trip so that we wouldn't have any. Our plan was to drive for 3 1/2 hours to Goblin Valley where we would hike and explore for a few hours and then drive another 3 1/2 hours to Monument Valley where we would stay for a couple days. That's the kind of driving trip I like to take...short drives with long breaks.


Well, it didn't turn out quite like that. We left at about 8 am and were making good time. We stopped in Spanish Fork to get some gas and treats for the drive then headed through the canyon. After driving for 1 hr 20 min we decided to stop again for a restroom break. By this time we were in Price. It was at this point we realized that James' wallet was nowhere to be found. We searched everywhere and couldn't find it. We called back to the gas station we had stopped at earlier and found out that they had the wallet. So we had to turn around and drive the 1 hr 20 minutes back to get the wallet and then drive another 1 hr 20 min again to get back to Price. So rather than getting to Goblin Valley at 11:30 am like I planned, it was 2:30 pm...Bummer! (But I am super glad we found his wallet and that nothing was missing.)



Goblin Valley was awesome though! We had so much fun there. It was a first for all of us so we all had a great time exploring and climbing on all the rock goblins. I got to use my birthday present from James, which was a small flexible tripod that was perfect for the uneven surfaces there. Here are some of my favorite pics from Goblin.
This first picture is so funny if you look closely at all the kids faces. I laugh every time I look at it!






We loved Goblin Valley and are definitely going to schedule another trip there sometime. We left around 4 pm and headed to Monument Valley. We were hoping to get there by 7:30 pm, but the road the GPS wanted us to take didn't really exist, so we ended up taking a much longer route than necessary. We didn't get there until about 9 pm. I was sad about that because I really wanted to see the sunset over Monument Valley, and the sky was beautiful that night. But I was just so relieved to have the drive finished. What was supposed to be a 7 hour drive ended up being closer to 11 hours! When we realized the GPS had steered us astray James said, "Well, if you don't suffer a little you won't remember it!"...classic Dad quote.

Monument Valley was beautiful. Several years ago I painted a picture from Monument Valley and ever since then I have wanted to go there in person. It is Navajo property so it is very different than a National Park. We drove the 17 mile loop around the monuments and had a lot of fun. We ran along the road for part of the time and took lots of pictures. It was fun. Here are some of the pics we took.







After spending two days at Monument Valley we drove to Zion National Park and spent another two days there. We had a great time going on lots of hikes together. Here we are crossing the bridge at the start of the hike to Emerald Pools.We stayed at Zion Ponderosa Resort which is several miles outside the East Entrance to the park. It was a really cool place. Here we are outside our cabin. I think we should have a family reunion there sometime.


This pictures of Darcy was taken at the end of the Riverside Walk at the trailhead to the Narrows. We couldn't go any farther up the trail because the water levels were too high. There were hundreds of these cairns that people had made. It looked pretty cool.


I was so proud of my kids for looking at the camera, not at me as I ran to get in my spot. They must be growing up. I enjoy each phase of their lives, but it sure seems to be getting more fun as they get older. I love this family!

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Funny Quotes

  • Darcy came up to me the other day with a permanent marker and said, "Mom, is it okay if I use this pregnant marker to draw a picture?" January 2012
  • Darcy was in a bubble bath the other day having a great time. She made a beard out of bubbles and put bubbles on her head to make herself look like Santa. When it was time to clean off the bubbles I parted the bubbles to get down to the clear water and she said, "Oh, I didn't know there was water down there!" December 2011
  • Darcy calls hangnails or snags on her nails "Pinchies". She says "Mom, can you get this pinchie off my toe?"
  • Whenever we do something fun Darcy always says, "Lets to dat adain." I love her little voice when she says it.
  • Every morning Cody comes into my room while I'm still in bed and tells me, "Mom, it's light outside. It's time to get up." To which I reply, "Okay, let me get dressed." So now when Cody is getting dressed and I call to him his response is, "I'm getting my dressed on!" I love it. No more getting dressed at our house...its now know as "getting our dressed on".
  • I like to make fruit smoothies for breakfast sometimes. Cody calls them Smoot Moolies, so that has become the name for them at our house. The other day when I was making a smoot moolie Cody asked if he could help me make it. I said he could so he jumped up on the counter and picked up a banana. He proceed to peel it and then handed me the peel and said,"Here's the armpit mom." I wasn't sure if I heard him right so I asked him what it was called. He said, "The armpit...you know the thing that the banana is in." November 2009
  • This afternoon when we were driving to the store I had a funny conversation with Cody. “Does Matt have a house?” Cody asked. “Well, Matt is here to buy a new house.” I replied. “Ooooo, that sounds fun!”Cody said. About a minute passes and then he says “How is he going to carry it?” I’m trying my hardest not to laugh. “I think he needs a big rope.” Cody said, happy that he figured out a good solution to the problem. I just love Cody…he keeps me laughing all the time. January 21, 2010
  • I was really tired one afternoon so I flopped down on the couch and said, "I'm pooped out!" Cody came over and snuggled up to me on the couch and said, "I'm having poop time too!" July 2009
  • When I told the kids that James was going to be going to California, Cody sat up straight and excitedly said, "Like Lightening McQueen! He went to California!" October 2009
  • The other day James said to Cody, "How's my buddy?" Cody got a very serious look on his face and said, "Name's Tody!" (He still can't pronounce C's very well.) The only things he will let us call him, other than his name, is big boy or funny kid.
  • When we were first potty training Cody he said he needed to go to the bathroom during sacrament meeting at church. So I took him to the bathroom and sure enough he did his business in the toilet. This was one of the first times he ever did poops in the toilet so he was really excited. When we walked back into sacrament meeting (we were sitting near the front of the chapel) he loudly proclamed "Daddy, I did giant poops in the toilet!" December 2008
  • Cody comes up with cute names for things. Mostly because he has troubles prononcing some of his letters. Some of my favorite names are "Daddy's Toke-Toke" for Coke, "Dr. Seuse" for Dr. Pepper, the "lurnal" for urinal, and "peanutbutter jam" for peanutbutter mixed with honey in a bowl.
  • Shelby had a hard time saying her G's when she was little. So we were working with her on how to say Grandma. She could make a growling sound pretty well, so we we had her growl then say grandma, so she used her best growling voice to say "GRRRR AMA"
  • The sun was shining in Cody's eyes the other day and he pointed at it and said, "Mommy, that circle is burnin' my eyes!" January 2009
  • Heres a list of funny words our kids have come up with for things: Fwaps (Cody's word for patting Darcy's back), bednight snacks, square noodles (ramen noodles), peeps, giant poops, dishwasher (Cody says this is where we wash clothes), low-low (lawn mower), regular grandma (Shelby's way of describing the difference between Great Grandma and her (regular) Grandma, oopadaisy (Shelby)
  • When we were building our house Shelby and Dallin spent a lot of time here with me working on it. One day when I was putting up the finish trim I couldn't find the hammer. I was looking all over for it and just didn't have any luck finding it. Shelby (2 yrs old) made two fists with her little hands and said, "It's okay Mommy, you can use my bammers!" November 2005
  • When Dallin was 1 yr old, he used to love making car noises. His favorite noise to make was the sound of tires screeching and then a crash. So EVERY time we would apply the brakes in the car we would hear his little voice from the back seat..."errrr kshhhh"
  • When Dallin was about 3 years old, he always liked to sit between James and I on the couch. But his way of saying it was cute. He would say "Can I sit in the tween of you?"
  • When Dallin was about 4 years old, I let him and Shelby skip naps because we needed to go somewhere. As we were driving on the road Dallin said, "Wow, look at all these people who are skipping naps too!" I guess he thought everyone had naps during the afternoon! Summer 2005