Utah Trip

 We haven't been to Utah since we moved back from Canada because I've been waiting for it to cool off a bit. We finally decided to go visit our Utah family and see the National Parks near Moab. We spent the first few nights with Austin's cousin's family in Salt Lake. The kids had fun playing with their younger kids and especially loved playing in their pool. 

 The whole family spent one night at my dad's house (although two of the boys had to stay other nights to help with Torben who stayed with my dad for three nights). We really enjoyed going on a hike with him which is something that he does daily with his dog.

I didn't get any photos, but I also got to visit my grandmas twice, which was a big reason for the trip. We had a birthday party for my sister one evening and on another evening, she took the three older kids to Lagoon (their first time at an amusement park) while the two little ones went to the park with me then watched a movie and had spaghetti with grandpa. 

After a few days, we headed down to Moab where we met my mom and stepdad. They brought their trailer and we brought a tent. We stopped for a picnic along the way in Spanish Fork Canyon and only had time to settle in for the night once we got there. 

 

We got up early the next morning to go to Arches National Park where we hiked to Delicate Arch and explored the other rock formations. 

Asher was a good sport and hiked with my mom the whole way while the others ran up in front. She was having some trouble with balance and such, but Asher helped her the whole way.

The kids said this was their favorite part of the day- they loved sitting quietly (for several minutes) before jumping all over and exploring the rocks. I took plenty of pictures of all the kids doing this, but they are so small that you can't really tell its them, so I didn't post them.

The next morning, we went to Canyonlands National Park. The kids became Junior Rangers at both parks by completing workbooks and doing several activities at each park. Heidi was also excited to add a little round metal badge from each park to her collection. She already has 4 or 5 from different sites in Canada and was glad to add two new ones.

We had s'mores that night back at camp. We also went back up to Arches National Park on two evenings after sunset to do some stargazing. That was my favorite part of the trip, but obviously there are no pictures because it was completely dark except for the billions of stars!

 

We drove back home though the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and it was beautiful with the fall colors! Here is a picture of Torben at one of the rest stops.