Utah Trip, Part 1

I had to put some space between our Utah trip and writing this blog post so I did not come off as too sappy, too emotional, and too nostalgic.  The grass is always greener, and while the Utah grass grows in desert conditions, it is still green.

I love Utah.  I moved to Utah as a college student expecting to be too cold, surrounded by "Utah Mormons," and caged in by mountains and--dare I say it--family.  Utah is cold, Utah is full of faithful, family and community-centered people, and Utah is an outdoor playground of majestic mountains and parks.  But I love our family in Utah more than any of those things.

We arrived off the red eye to Mom and Dad's cheery faces.  My kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa, and ran to give them hugs and kisses.  Grandma produced coats she went and purchased for them on the way to the airport, and Kate happily bundled up in her fluffy pink coat for the rest of the trip.  We made it back to Heber and slept before heading over to Angela's house.  The boys left to watch more conference and out to eat, while the girls and kiddos chatted away the night.  (Unfortunately, the camera did not come out for us until Monday.)

Sunday was General Conference, and we all crowded into Angela's living room, where I got more out of conference than I have in 6 years.  My kids are a lot easier with other kids around!

Sunday afternoon, we went to Scott and Natalie's to visit.  They have a backyard playground, too, with a beautiful green belt.  The kids loved jumping on the trampoline, searching for Toby (their dog), and eating Natalie's orange rolls.

We then set out for Riverton to visit with the Nufer cousins.  Emily hosted a family dinner, and all the Utah valley family was there (except Eric!).  Kevin and Kristen, Scott and Maycee, and Mindy all made it.  It shocks me how fast the numbers have grown on my side of the family!  There were 10 kids at that gathering alone.  We met Ella, Scott's baby, for the first time.  So sweet.

Monday morning, we did some shopping at the outlets and had a few extra minutes, so we toured Adobe where Cory works.  Impressive facility--possibly, possibly a little more posh than Brady's trailer office.  The kids loved the art displays and treats.

Monday afternoon, we met up with Erin, Zachary's birth mother.  We planned an outing to the zoo with Erin and her daughters.  The kids were busting with excitement about this outing, and had their faces glued to each exhibit.

The new polar bear exhibit at Hogle Zoo:

 Each time we visit with Erin, I'm struck by how fortunate we are to be in this situation with her.  We adore her, and she adores Zachary.  There is no awkwardness between us.  We are lucky to be good friends with her, and Zac is lucky to have her in his life.

She and Zac had a little water fight.  Afterwards, Zac said, "Mom, I really like Erin.  She loves me, huh?"

Right after the zoo, we headed over to Tsunami.  In planning this trip to Utah, Tsunami made onto my "Top 5 Things I'm Most Excited About" list.  This sushi outing did not disappoint, especially because we were joined by Cory and Kristen's family and Mom and Dad.

Tuesday, we headed to Provo to visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Richards and Aunt JaNae.  We mentioned at the end of the visit that we were heading to BYU Campus to check things out, and Grandpa mentioned we should go on a tour.  I thought that sounded fun, so we booked the next tour, brought Grandma along with us, and drove around in a golf cart next to next to hundreds of students (and yes, it was as corny as it sounds).  Oh, I miss the student days.  Plus, driving around in the crisp, October air reminded me of walks to the library, runs around campus, and football games.  It was homecoming weekend, and the campus with alive with school spirit.  Go Cougars!

Tuesday afternoon, we ran over to the Trampoline house in Provo.  Zac remembered a place like this from our last visit to Utah, and we felt guilty that we were leaving the kids for a few days, so we went for it.  Our kids died over this place.  Kate tends to be fairly cautious, but she was charging around on the tramps, and even hung off a swinging bar over a foam pit.  Zac is not cautious and simply tore it up.

Tuesday night, we left Kristen with our kids, and headed down to Moab.  

Kristen even made us dinner first, which I still feel guilty about (we did nothing to help), but it was so delicious.  The 4-hour drive flew by, and we realized we had quite a bit to catch up on after Brady's trip to DC and the chaos of prepping for "Utah, Plan B."  I originally dreaded all the driving we planned to do in Utah, but it surprised me and ended up being one of the very best parts of the trip.  (It's also possible that I'm overly excited about driving faster than 50 mph.)

Brady used to tell me about his mountain biking adventures in Moab, and I remember thinking it sounded cool, but probably wasn't for me.  For the first five years of our marriage, I did not even enjoy running on trails, much less biking them.  The best biking trails were paved, in my opinion.  Any obstacle that slowed down a workout was not as fun.  I liked speed.  Now, I'm slow and speed is not nearly as important to me as beauty, so I love running trails and could care less if I'm running them a min/mile slower.  I figured I would really enjoy mountain biking, but Brady was not so sure.

He took me first to Klondike Bluffs--a 10-mile introduction to slick rock.  This was my first legitimate time mountain biking, so I was nervous, but Brady gave me some pointers and off we went.

Yes, my seat is too low--we fixed that at the halfway point.  

There is a quick trail into Arches.  We may or may not have crossed the boundary, just to feel better about our squashed National Park plans.  (Insert negative comment about the GOP that Brady later deletes.)

I also realize it is possible this does not look as breathtaking in pictures as it was in person, but I promise it was beautiful.

Karen next to cairns.  I didn't know they were called that until this trip.

I loved Klondike Bluffs, but I was also nervous because while I was able to handle it fine, I did not know how much more advanced I could really get in a day.  My technical skills were a long way behind my endurance, and in planning our Moab trip, it was super important to me that we did the famous Slickrock Trail in Moab.  Slickrock is considered an advanced trail, and we were not sure if my skills would improve enough to do it the next day.  After Klondike, we headed up to Slickrock and did the practice loop.  We figured if I could handle it, I could probably handle the trail itself.

These are Cory and Kristen's bikes.

The first time around the practice loop, I did a solid amount of walking, but by the second time, I gained a lot of confidence and peddled a lot more.  So fun.  It was at this point on the trip that I realized mountain biking is as fun as hiking.  Yes, I just wrote that, and I even meant it!

We had a tiny bit of daylight left, so we ran the 3-mile loop trail to Corona Arch.  Corona is the site of the famous Corona Arch Rope Swing Videos on YouTube.  Check them out if you've never seen them.  Largest rope swing in the world (also the site of a very recent rope swing death).

It looks small in these pictures, but it is huge: 140X105 foot opening.

It was getting dark, so we had this place to ourselves.  On the way out, we had to use headlamps to navigate, and I remembered all the signs we read about Cougars.  Then, I saw two eyes with my headlamp and nearly jumped out of my skin.  It was too small to be a Cougar, but wow, I was so nervous until we made it back into the car!

That night, we went to Main Street for Moab's fine dining.  We ate breakfast-for-dinner at the Moab Diner, served by a lady with a long french braid and big bangs, and seated next to a table full of men with long mustaches and cowboy hats.  Love it.  The server said at the end, "Oh, did I mention we can't take credit cards tonight?  Or out-of-state checks?"  Uh-oh.  Good thing there was a Well's Fargo nearby, although she basically told us we could leave without paying.  Small towns.

The whole evening, I was so excited and nervous about the possibility of doing Slickrock trail.  However, we knew there was a strong possibility of rain, so we spent hours reading up on other trails we could do.  (By this point on our trip, we were masters of the Plan B.)  In the morning, we were crushed to see it poring rain outside.  Not a little soaking, but hours and hours of downpour.  We leisurely ate our breakfast, packed up the car, gloomily shopped around for a poncho to hike in (well, I was gloomy and Brady was his regular, optimistic self).

We were a mile or two into a hike in a beautiful canyon when suddenly, we saw a break in the clouds.  It was well past noon, and we knew we had to leave for St. George no later than 5, and Slickrock sometimes takes 5 hours for people to complete.  We also knew there was a 70% chance of continued rain, so a good possibility that even if we started Slickrock, we'd have to turn around.  We took our chances and booked it over there.

Best decision of the trip.  The rocks were still quite sticky, so not nearly as scary to ride on as we anticipated.  

We hardly have any pictures of the first 2/3rds of the trail.  There were some gorgeous views, but it was threatening hard rain (it did rain hard for about 15 minutes), and I was terrified that Brady would make me turn around.  

I wish we had one more day there, so we could ride the trail again.  The first half, I was so much more cautious than the second half.  The second half, I rode more confidently, I made it up more boulders, I took the downhills faster, and I was able to complete a bunch of the abrupt valleys (down, up transitions).  Brady was an all-star, making it most of the trail without walking, but of course there were plenty of places I had to run my bike.  It was fabulous.

With two miles to go, I was so disappointed the adventure was ending so soon.  It exceeded my expectations.  Then, I made it up a ton of the last hills, and realized I was out of gas and glad the finish line was close.  We've got to make it here again.

We finished in about 3 hours, and immediately headed to St. George, a 5 hour drive in dumping rain.

With our Kalalau trip and our Moab adventure so close together, it probably seems like we are more than willing to dump our children and play.  The last part of this post is to show that 1) We have the greatest family, and 2) Whether or not the first sentence is true, you don't need to feel bad for our kids.  They played and played.

Dress up at Cory and Kristen's:

Pumpkin Cookies:

Drawing:

Oh, and pony rides (seriously, pony rides?!?):

Cousin Walker, who is a day younger than Kate (but 5 times braver):

Went to a museum:

Rode a moped (a moped?!?):

And were doted on the entire time:

Wednesday night, Cory and Kristen drove all the kids down to St. George to meet up with Mom and Dad and Angela's family.  They went to the park in the morning, and loved playing with cousins.

 Sweet Ritchie boys getting in on the Kate-doting action.

 Zac regularly mentions Ellie and Logan in his list of friends.

 Another area Utah is a bit greener: the parks are definitely better.

Thank-you, thank-you for making it such a good time for my children.