Spring Break

We had a fun Spring Break this year!  It was the first week of April and we started out with the boys and I meeting cousins at Boondocks for arcade games and go-carts.  It was a fun afternoon and fun to see cousins.

The next day we drove down to Southeast Utah for a couple of days of hiking and exploring.  We picked up both of the girls from BYU on the way and it was fun to have a vacation with everyone together again!

We started at Dead Horse Point and did a fun hike around the point.  I am absolutely terrified of heights, so I told my kids that if they didn't want me to be a crazy mom this whole trip, they had to not do anything stupid.  I'm happy to report that we all came home alive, so they must have not done anything too stupid.

Please zoom in to see my family standing way too close to that edge of death.  I did have to yell at them to back up at this point, so crazy mom came out a little bit here.

Our next stop was Newspaper Rock.  We made it just before dark!  It was a quick stop and then we drove to the hotel (very slowly) through hundreds of deer on the sides of the road, and occasionally in the middle of the road!

We stopped for a late dinner that night at a Thai Restaurant in Monticello.

Avery has interesting joints.

Our hotel was in Blanding, and the next morning we started out early for a day of hiking.  We stopped at Butler Wash and did a quick hike to some ruins.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and the ruins and the yellow rocks were very cool.

My family is up above that arch area, if you look closely.  I'm staying back to take pictures...

Then we drove on to Natural Bridges National Monument.  There were three main arch hikes in the park and we crammed them all in!  The first arch was the favorite of some of us.  There were stairs and ladders and chains to hold on to and it was a bit of an adventure.

The second arch also had some stairs and railings.

The third arch was a much quicker hike and it was pretty tame, but still beautiful!

We hurried back that evening in time to make an appointment at the Monticello Temple for baptisms for the dead, and that was lovely.

For dinner, we met up with my cousin, Andrea, who lives in Monticello.  That was fun!

The next morning we got up and drove to a cool hike called House on Fire.  Because this Native American house looks like it is on fire.  Pretty cool.

We stopped at a rest area and saw a Keva.

Then we found another quick hike called Tower Cliff.  It was so windy on this day!

Here's the tower on the cliff.

We went back to the rest area and ate our lunch that we brought and then drove on towards Monument Valley.

We went by the way of the Moki Dugway.  It is a road that has been cut into the mountain with steep grades and cliff edges.  I knew what it was going into it, but it was much more terrifying than I thought it would be!

It's hard to tell, but there is a road cut right into that cliff face.  But, we made it down!  Yuck.  I don't think we'll do that again.

  The view of Monument Valley was a little obscured by blowing dust.

But, luckily when we got into the valley, the dust was mostly behind the pretty rock formations.

What happened to all my little kids??

After a long day of hiking and driving, we stopped for dinner in Blanding and then headed back home and arrived late that night.  It was a whirlwind of a few days, but it was so fun!