Road Trip--Part 2 (Arches, Cows, Answered Prayers)

Day 2--Arches


We woke up in our luxurious accomodations and ate breakfast.  (Free continental breakfast!)  J. surprised us by actually eating (a very itsy, teeny, weeny) part of an apple.  Unsolicited.  Scurvy avoided for one more day.

We packed up, checked out and headed the 50 miles to Arches.  I gave J. his very own camera (a one-time use camera) to use for the trip.  It held 27 pictures, so we talked about how to conserve your pictures and not to take pictures of everything (like your nose).  He was a little confused as to why he couldn't see the picture right away, but pretty soon he caught on.  I could almost hear Wade's eyeballs hit the top of his head as he rolled his eyes, but even he'll admit that this was probably the best idea I had all trip.  Certainly much better than the treat buckets in the backseat.

Once at Arches, Wade and I debated for a little bit about what hike to do first.  My vote was Delicate Arch because it's the one we HAVE to see and if J. decides that he can only hike one hike, it should probably be this one.  Wade wanted to try something else--the details are murky--but I won.

It was like 80 degrees, but to our northern skin, it was closer to 400 degrees.  Undeterred we set off.

A. was having a pretty good time sitting in her pack.  This lasted about 3/4 of the way up the trail.

I'll admit. I was a little skeptical of J.'s hiking ability.  But, I was proven wrong.  He was such a trooper.  He made it all the way up the trail to the top with minimal complaining.  Even when it looked like this:

Look at them go.  (Note: I dropped back to  take the picture.  I was not lagging behind.  I run marathons for crying out loud.)

Once at the top, we decided--unwisely--to let A. out of her pack.  The quest then turned from gazing at Mother Nature's beauty to keeping A. from running off the cliff.

The view, of course, was awesome.

This is as close as we dared to get with the kids in tow.  Especially our little fearless one.  Besides the German Tourist League was out in full force, practically pushing us all over in their excitement to stand under the arch. We were content just sitting and gazing for a bit, and J. took a picture of us:

Everyone looks good from the ground looking up, don't they?  It is kind of interesting to see what we look like to a five year old though.  It was at about this time that A. flipped around in my arms and sent a water bottle careening off that rock behind us.  We--along with the German Tourist League--and a few other people watched as it bounced down into a bowl of rock located smack dab in the center of the area.

Wade set off to retrieve it and we waited.

and waited.  Finally I spotted him:

He was able to retrieve the bottle, now completely useless.  But at least we didn't leave it behind to be carted off by birds and accidently killing their babies.

We hiked back down and let A. out of her pack a little ways before the parking lot.  

I don't have time for this people! 

Such a diva!  A. spent about 20 minutes running up and down the bridge, squealing at all the other tourists, and basically having a ball.  J. just sat and watched.

Next, we went to lunch at the picnic area.  

 

I was lounging against the rocks because the wind would travel through, chilling me, and the rocks were warm.  Wade had other ideas:

And A. took it upon herself to move the rocks--one by one--from here:

to here:

We decided to try one more hike.  Skyline Arch, about .20 miles.  Nothing too strenuous.  We even let A. walk what she could:

She was determined to be leader of the pack.

Skyline arch was pretty, but it became apparent that the kids were done.  

So  we headed to our next stop in Moab (ahhhh....Days Inn.  We're living the high life here.)  A. pretty much summed up how we were all feeling:

She took a little snooze and then we went swimming.  I brought out the boat that I had gotten J. for the trip.  He was really excited until I blew it up:

I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of it is.  You obviously can't float on it.  It's much too small and the picture on the package did not show it as being this dinky.  He still loved it though.

After swimming we headed into town for dinner.  I was a little disappointed in what I got, we were all tired, and J. was lucky he was still alive, given his antics between swimming and dinner.  (Rules of the Road #8--we may actually have a warrant out for our arrest--stemmed from an incident involving J. and Wade and a stranger.  To protect the innocent, I'm not going to relay the story.  Just suffice it to say that dinner was delayed an hour because of it.)  Not to mention, it was Wade's birthday.  So, we stopped to get Frosty's, but since J. was such a brat before and during dinner, he just got to watch us eat ours.  Later, we both commented that we didn't really want Frosty's but, out of principle, we had to eat them.  Boy, did we show J.!

Best of all, the kids fell alseep right away and we got to watch a little tv that wasn't cartoons.

Day 3--Arches (again).

We all woke up feeling a little better, headed to our free continental breakfast, packed up, checked out and went back to Arches for a few hours.  

Tuesday night, for J.'s bedtime story, I showed him pictures of where we were going.  He became fixated on Balancing Rock.  That was our first stop today.  He took his time with his camera, trying to get the best shot.  We hiked up to it and around:

A. was insistent on doing it herself, so she clambered around like she was in charge. 

But little feet get tired, so she needed a breather:

 

It was really windy, and for whatever reason, I didn't get a picture of balancing rock other than in this picture.  But, I know J. did.  And, look, I came on the trip too:

Our last stop in Arches was the Park Avenue hike.  Neither one of us had ever done this one.  It's a one-mile hike through a series of formations that look a little like Park Avenue in New York.  We were going to let A. hike as much as she wanted and she ended up doing about 3/4ths of it.  Not bad for someone that just learned to walk 2 months ago.

She needed a little help from daddy to climb over the bigger rocks.  And it's harder when you insist on carrying your sippy cup too.

The idea is to have  someone pick you up at the end.  However, since we were both hiking, one of us had to go back for the car. I chose to be the martyr because it gave me 20 minutes of alone time.  

We packed into the car and headed off to our next destination: Ouray, CO.  

Part 3 tomorrow really will include cows and answered prayers.  And 12 Corvettes.  

Road Trip--Part 1 (of some indeterminate number)

A few months ago, we decided to take a road trip.

Then we tossed around a few ideas and settled on Northern California.  However, looking at the age of our car occupants, we tamed our ideas down and last Sunday, decided to take a road trip to Ouray, Colorado via Moab.

Yes, last Sunday.

So we made the reservations (or did we?) and Wednesday was our target date to leave.  The plan was to drive to Green River on Wednesday night and then head to Arches on Thursday.  Spend the night in Moab Thursday night, play around some more in Arches on Friday, and then head on over to Ouray for Friday and Saturday night.

Wow.  There was a lot to get done in such a short amount of time.  So Wednesday rolls around, and Wade showed up at home about an hour and a half earlier than I expected.  Oops.  No one was packed.  The house was slightly chaotic.  But we left about the time I thought we would, 7 pm.  I figured A. and J. would sleep  once we got out of Provo and all would be good.  And look I was right:

Too bad it didn't last.  It was at this point--about Spanish Fork--where I came to realize Rules of the Road #2.  I had inadvertently only packed one binkie for A.  And it wasn't tethered to anything.  So her favorite game became Throw the Binkie and Then Squeal Until Mom Contorts Herself Into a Pretzel to Find It On the Back Seat Floor in the Dark.  Repeat.

Meanwhile, I had a fleeting thought that I should call the hotel (the illustrious Super 8 in Green River) to inform them that we were going to be late.  I called and they informed me there was no reservation under my name.  Looking over my carefully printed confirmation papers, I realized that in my haste on Sunday to make reservations online, I did not actually hit "Reserve Now" on this particular hotel.  I then had to call the 1-800 number and get a reservation.  So, I was trying to set up a reservation, I had squealing banshee girl in the back competing with what is possibly the LOUDEST tires on the planet and trying to interpret this guy from India.  

After everything was sorted, I could relax.  We were driving through my old college stomping grounds and the drive from Price to Green River brought back a lot of memories.  It's been a while since we've been down that way and a lot has changed.  We were on an adventure, and for the first (of many times throughout the 4 days we were gone) I thought "why didn't Wade and I do things like this more when it was just the two of us?"

We made it to Green River around 10ish relatively unscathed and checked in.  I got my Wyndham Reward Points.  Wade got his ice bucket.  The kids got cable tv.  We were all happy and excited to be on vacation.

Part 2 Tomorrow--Arches, Cows, Answered Prayers and where 90% of the Rules of the Road were conceived.

Rules of the Road

1.  You should never pass up the gas station at Hole in the Rock.

2.  No matter how many you pack, you will never have enough binkies.

3.  Family road trips might deserve a reality show of it's own.

4.  There is a point in time, maybe at two children, that you will feel out of place when you go out to eat in a tourist town.

5.  There are, in fact, no other families with small children traveling at this time.

6.  You can overbuy road trip treats.

7.  Cabin fever will make you do crazy things.  Like agree to run another half marathon in 10 days.

8.  We may actually have a warrant out for our arrest.

9.  I see now why a lot of our "family vacations" growing up centered around Provo and Ogden.

10.  While spray-on sunblock was the best invention ever, it should not be used by idiots.  Namely me.

11.  A. is a GIRL!  A GIRL!!!  Who puts their boy in hot pink shorts?

12.  The human family unit was never meant to spend so much time together in such small, tight spaces.

13.  Making memories is hard work.

14.  Whatever line we're in will invariably be the slowest.  If, for some reason, we do pick the "right" lane, we will then pull up directly behind the RV going 20 mph.

15.  There is a certain elapsed time between when you buy your RV and you stop realizing that you are holding up a bazillion cars.  We are close to pinpointing exactly how long you have until you sink into that oblivion.

16.  One has to wonder what happened when they went from following 12 Corvettes to being charged by 700 cows.

17.  Seriously?  How can 12 corvettes and 700 cows even be on the same road trip?

18.  There are a lot of German tourists.

19.  Panicking will not put gas in the vehicle, make the baby stop making herself throw up, or find an open ice cream store.  However, fervent prayer will accomplish at least one of those things.

20.  There are pictures and stories galore that should entertain the masses.  Tune in next week to find out the rest of the story.

Ogden in Pictures

Saturday, I ran the Ogden Half Marathon.  It was a gorgeous run, made even better by the camera I had rigged up. 

At the beginning of the year, I had this great idea to start carrying a camera with me on my races.  I spend all this time training for something and then I run it and then I try to (inadequately) put in to words what I was experiencing.  So, why not actually show you what I'm experiencing?

It's taken me this long to actually take the time to rig up a camera bag to carry with me.  But, I finally did it.  And lo and behold, here is what we have:

(This is for the benefit of those who don't follow me on Facebook (aka: my entire family).  So if you do follow me, you've seen the pictures.  However, since this is my blog, I can use a lot more words to describe the pictures.  So you could just look at them again and read more of the story that doesn't have to fit into a word number constraint.)

We spent the night at H.'s sister's house in Kaysville.  This got us a lot closer to Ogden then if we would've driven there the day of the race.  Which was good, considering we had to be on the bus at 5 am. 

If I looked even half as good as these girls do at 5 am, I would be in the picture too.  But alas...5 am is not my best time of the day.  That's M. on the left and H. on the right.  M. doesn't typically run with us (something about us being crazy for running at 5 in the morning in the winter), but C. didn't sign up for the race and M. did.  So she became an honorary member of our squad.  I did an 11 miler with her on my birthday and a 10 miler with her the following Wednesday.  Just for kicks.  And because I needed the extra training.  And because M. is so cool who wouldn't want to run 10 and 11 milers with her?

This is us at the top, waiting to start.  It's about 5:45 in the morning and the race doesn't start until 7 am.  And it was a tad bit chilly.  Hence the jackets and the hats.  (And the gloves and long pants you don't see.)  There were a plethera of people who thought we were running in Florida or something because they showed up in practically their underwear (note to self: need to practice getting secret shots of people so they don't suspect you're taking a picture of them).  Luckily, there were fires built up to keep us a little warm.

Still cold, but we had to strip down so they could take our clothing down to the finish line. (Ha.  Made you look!)  They ferried our coats and long pants down to the bottom.  We're saying goodbye to H. who was taking her place in the faster quadrant of the race.  M. and I were headed further towards the back.  I'm just finally seeing that I may have the biggest head EVER.  Seriously, like 2 of H.'s heads could equal one of mine.  How come I've never noticed this before?

This was taken after the bell or the gun or the cannon went off.  I didn't hear anything but everyone started migrating towards the start.  Turns out, it took M and me two minutes to reach the starting line.

This is the last picture of M. and me before starting.  I'm so glad my parents paid a fortune to straighten my teeth.

This is the sea of people running.  I love that there are people wearing everything from tank tops to jackets.  Surprisingly, the crowd really never thinned out much.  You were always running with a group.  It wasn't stifling or anything.  Just kind of weird that there were this many crazy folk out on one Saturday morning.

This is my first self portrait.  I'm trying to take them picture while maintaining a sub-9 minute pace.  Turned out pretty well, didn't it?  It's sometime during the second mile and I'm listening to Kelly Clarkston's My Life Would Suck Without You (and it would!).  Why do I remember this?  Who knows.

I've ditched the hat and the gloves by now and then I had a really weird experience just before this juncture (about mile 4).  I was having a hard time catching my breath.  My legs felt fine.  My head felt fine.  But my chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it.  I've never experienced that on a run that was primarily downhill and I wasn't going top speed.  I slowed down to a walk and M. caught up with me.  So I ran with her for a few minutes and was finally able to bounce back.  Hence the smile.

As we were crossing the dam at the edge of Pineview Reservior to start running down Ogden Canyon, I turned and caught this awesome shot.  Seriously, this is why I run.  Where else would you see this except at 7:45 in the morning while running with 3000 other people?

This is M. passing me by at about mile 6.  I was having some technical issues concerning my hair (see next picture).  I kept M. in my sights for close to a mile, but then I lost her. 

This looks like a grimmace because it is a grimmace.  I'm at 6.55 miles--exactly half way--and I want to shave my head bald.  I have hair ALL OVER the place.  Layers are so overrated.  Because I was carrying the camera, I couldn't fix it on the fly either.  I had to stop, unwrap my camera bag from my hand, and readjust my hair so that (a) it wasn't flying into my sweaty, sticky face and (b) wasn't draping across my neck.  I then had to refasten the camera bag to my hand.  Good thing my hair was drenched with sweat because that helped glue it down for the remaining 6.55 miles.  Oh and all black was a BAD idea.  I was SO hot.  And not in a good way.

I took a picture here because I was so happy I made it this far.  At mile 9, I was really struggling and I think if I would've had enough moisture in my body, I probably would've cried.  10 miles meant that there was only a 5k left and I've run a ton of those.  I could finish 3 miles.

This is the next picture I took.  I was running, jogging, walking, lumbering along and thinking "I should take a picture" but of what?  Certainly not me.  I was in no shape to smile for the camera.  And then the mere effort of taking the camera out of the bag was too much to comprehend, so I would just keep going.  Mile 12 meant I only had one more mile to endure.

I might be slightly tired, because from here on out, the pictures are slightly lopsided.  This was taken as you came out of the parkway and met up with Grant Ave.  The finish line was on Grant Ave. and 25th, so about 4 blocks away.  There were some horse statues to the side, but naturally, I didn't get a picture of those.  Just a lopsided picture of people who look like they are walking but are still moving faster than me.

Inside my head, I was thinking "okay, you're on the homestretch.  Smile big for the camera."  And I really thought I was giving the camera my best smile.  This, however, more accurately displays my true feelings at this point.  It's true--the camera doesn't lie.

See.  A little tired.  My official time was 2:16:42.  So not bad.  Not great. And definitely not what I was hoping for.  But I had a few miles in there (particularly 9-11) where I got to dwell on my missed goals and by the time I hit the finish, I was just happy it was over.

Crossing the finish line.  Woot!  Woot!

Spiritual Thought Sunday--It's a Wonderful Life

Ah. Mother's Day.

And it was good.  Very good.  I got breakfast in bed and started the Sunday crossword puzzle in peace.

Last week's puzzle that I've been waiting to do until I had some time to just sit down and do it uninterrupted.

Started it, because it wasn't truly uninterrupted.

But it was a nice few minutes lounging in bed.  Pretending that I was childless.  Which would then negate the whole Mother's Day premise.

Church was good.  By which I mean, we survived another week and only have 2 weeks until Aunika goes into nursery.  Which may save (a) our sanity and (b) our eternal souls. However, I got fed up with Aunika's devil screeches and left to put her down for a nap roughly about 5 minutes before the primary stood up to sing their little tribute to their moms, leaving my little bug up there singing to everyone else's mom.

Yes!  Mother of the Year right here folks!

(Sidenote: Is it bad to go on a family vacation solely for the purpose of not having to battle Aunika in church for 3 hours for one less week?  I didn't think so.)

We went and spent the evening with Wade's parents.  Wade turned on the sprinklers for the season and I was reminded that we've slowly become our parents.  I remember going with my parents to my grandparents house and doing weird things like turning on sprinklers.  We did get free dinner out of it this go round and I don't remember getting dinner when I was a kid at my grandparents.  But, naturally, that's probably not something I would've remembered anyway.

I tracked my parents down to a hotel in Washington D.C., where they're on a bus tour of all the historic sites. I'm mildly (read: incredibly) jealous, except for the part where they said they were the third or fourth YOUNGEST people on the bus.  But, looking over the agenda, they're hitting some really cool parts.  I HAVE to go there someday.  Maybe when I write my bestseller and Wade retires so he can play house while I'm touring the country for book signings, I can go see the sites.

So, all in all, It's a Wonderful Life.

Hello

Hi.

I'm still here.

It's just that there was A LOT going on last week, what with the party of the century and my birthday and nearing the end of another half marathon training, that I decided (sorta) to just take it easy.

Meaning you weren't the only thing neglected this last week.  In fact, you may have been low on the priority list of things that I neglected.

Not that I watched an entire season of America's Next Top Model (11 episodes) and a few movies or anything.

(I folded laundry while doing this so I was being "productive").

I do have a new recipe.  I'll post that.  Soon, probably.  I also have a lot of thoughts I'm freaking out about that I'm going to post here.  Soon, probably.

And I'm running the Ogden Half Marathon next Saturday, so you'll have another installment of pictures from the course.  I'm hoping to finally rig up my camera to carry it, so I can have a few pictures from my vantage point.

And in SIX WEEKS,  I start training for the ST GEORGE MARATHON.

(I know.  It was during mile 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 of the last one that I swore (literally) that I would never do another one.  But something happened in mile 26 that changed the previous 15! miles.  Maybe it was the throngs of people still cheering at 5 1/2 hours.   Maybe it was that I finished in 5 1/2 hours, so far from my goal.  Maybe I forgot how much I swore (literally) that I would never do another one.  Whatever the reason, as of yesterday, I'm officially signed up for the race on October 2.)

And St. George hosted an Ironman event last weekend that I have a few thoughts on.

See.  It's not that I haven't been thinking about you.  It's just that I haven't been thinking about you.

Spiritual Thought Sunday: 29 Things I've Learned in the Last 29 Years

Whoa.  I'm officially in the last year of my 20's.  Which is really starting to freak me out since I still feel like I'm 21.  What did I do for my birthday you might ask?  Well, for starters, some awesome friends took me to breakfast.  My parents came out to watch Josh's soccer game and then took us to lunch afterwards.  Then we picked up Wade's birthday present and rushed home so I could run 11 miles (as punishment for missing last week's 10 mile run) with a friend.  After that, we had to head into town to get Wade's present set up and not feeling well from the run, agreed to Crazy Bread from Little Caesar's Pizza for my birthday dinner.  We ate and another friend dropped off a birthday cake she  had baked for me.  Which was good, since that detail was overlooked.  Then we sat down to watch the movie Wade had brought home especially for my birthday--Sherlock Holmes.  After trying desperately to figure out what was going on, I gave up about 10 minutes in and fell asleep.


I know.  I'm pretty wild.  I try to keep it hidden most of the time though.

1.  29 isn't as old as it once was.
2.  Even the people you really love probably gossip about you.
3.  LMF's are the bomb.
4.  Some kids have been dealt some really crappy parents.
5.  Some parents have been dealt some really crappy kids.
6.  I have neither crappy parents or crappy kids.
7.  The hour and 15 minutes before the alarm goes off, when I wake up to see how much longer I have to sleep, is not the same amount of minutes as the hour and 15 minutes that Sacrament Meeting lasts.
8.  The snooze button is the devil.
9.  Having kids is the second hardest thing I've ever done
10. Raising those kids is the first.
11. Public criticism is hard to take.  Especially if it's overly critical.  
12.  There is a great need for a sarcasm font
13.  If you want it, you have to get it yourself.
14.  The house doesn't clean itself.  Even on your birthday.
15.  I will never be a morning person.
16.  Married couples who say they've never had a fight are lying.  Or one person is always giving in.  Whatever the case, it's never ends well in the long run.
17.  What you mistake as us fighting is what I like to call passion.
18.  Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you are wrong.
19.  Chocolate is the best healer.
20.  I'm glad my parents never encouraged my dream to become a model.
21.  History is pretty cool.  Wish I would've  realized that about 15 years ago.
22.  School was fun until you had to start jumping through all those hoops to graduate.
23.  Having a math degree makes me sound smarter than I really am.  I like that.  What degree do YOU have that make people raise their eyebrows and whistle under their breaths?
24.  It never gets old telling people how much my twin brother and I weighed at birth.
25.  A full year after starting running again, with 2 half marathons and a host of other races under my belt, I'm actually starting to ENJOY running.
26.  You don't have to enjoy something fully to be committed to it.
27.  I'm a wee bit competitive.
28.  Sometimes, I think God is watching and thinking "no, no, no.  You have it all wrong."
29.  There are a hundred thousand things I want to do in this lifetime and yet my days are full of variations of the same three things: eat, clean, sleep.