Baseball Buddies

It's so much fun to play ball with your friends! Even if Mommy is sitting on the sidelines under a blanket freezing her butt off! 

The Long Drive home

We've made a big circle across the west. It's always hard to sit in the car for long days. Last night we stayed in Salt Lake City at a holiday inn that had an indoor water park. We let the kids stay up late. Finn spent the entire evening riding the water slide! This morning we headed out early. We stopped to see the Bonneville salt flats and let the kids explore. It's an 11 hour day home (yikes!).....but we're all ready to be in our own beds. Wish us luck! 

Arches Day 2

This morning we woke up to snow! We planned for cooler weather.....but we did not bring snow gear! We were so happy to have our camper and that our heater worked. It was nice and toasty. We headed out for breakfast and to say goodbye to the Ouimettes. The kids have had so much spending the week with their cousins. Emme talks non stop about Julia which sounds kind of like "Dooia" 

After breakfast we headed back into the park and walked "Park Avenue". This hike is named for its resemblance to NYCs skyscrapers. There are rock formations on either side you and a long narrow walkway. It was beautiful, even in the rain. Apparently Moab only sees 7inches of precipitation a year...and we saw 2 of them:) This trip has been such an adventure for us. I feel like we only got a taste of the mighty 5. We will definitely have to come back and explore again. 

Arches National Park day 1

We ended our week at Arches. We spent our day taking short hikes to see "The Windows" and "Balanced Rock". Then we went to check out the campground. This was by far the coolest campground we've stayed in. The campsites are built in between the rocks. While we set up camp, the kids spent the afternoon climbing and exploring. 

We ended our day with a hummer ride up slick rock canyon. The kids loved this, it was like a roller coaster ride in slow motion with cliffs on either side of us. All you heard were squeals and laughter coming from the back. We made stops along the way to take in the scenery and get a view of the Colorado river. It truly was one of the coolest/scariest things we've done with our kids. 

Capitol Reef

We decided to cut our trip to Bryce short....we are Cali wimps and it was just too cold for us! Since we had extra time, we spent the day driving scenic route 12. This was a gorgeous drive with so many vistas to take in. The kids spent most of it watching a movie. "More rocks" is what Kenzie would say. Emme refused to get out of the car, except for our lunch stop. She screamed "it's cold" everytime we opened the door! 

 On our way we took a quick drive through Capitol reef. We made a couple cold but fun stops, to see the panoramic cliffs and historic petroglyphs carved by the native Americans. 

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon is at 8300 feet. When we got there it was windy and cold. They closed down the main road due to high winds and down trees, but we were able to get to a couple of vista points. The hoodoos were amazing to look at. We spent the rest of the night hanging at the Ouimette's hotel and swimming in the indoor pool. Overnight it dropped down to 19 degrees and there was snow on the car, when we woke up. Luckily we all had hats and lots of layers and a little heater in the pop up to keep us warm. 

Zion National Park

If your going to camp, this is the place to do it. This was our first stop on the mighty 5 tour. The campground is at the bottom of the canyon surrounded by red cliffs and the virgin river running through it. At night the sky is so clear you can see stars for miles. We started off our tour with a horse  ride that followed the river. Then we spent the afternoon taking short hikes and relaxing at zion lodge. We ended our trip with a drive through the eastern side of the park. The kids had fun doing a little rock climbing and playing in the sand. 

Vegas Baby!

Today we had an afternoon in Vegas on our way to Utah. We took the kids to see the Shark Encounter at Mandalay Bay and then headed up the strip to watch the fountains at the Bellagio. The kids had their first taxi ride....much to Kenzie's dismay! We ended our night with a trip to the M & M store. The kids loved seeing all the different themed hotels along the way. We even spotted hello kitty, a few minions and Elvis. Oh how Vegas has changed for us...but I wouldn't change it for the world:)