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!