Moab

Last weekend we took our third-annual, second-to-Moab camping trip with my sister and her family. It was tons of fun. I am a born-in-Oregon, give-me-trees-and-water kind of girl, but I have to say that Moab is growing on me. It could be that the weather both times we've been there has been PERFECT. Sun, but enough of a breeze to keep you from wanting to crawl under a rock and die. Not too hot and downright gorgeous. Absolutely wonderful weather.

We got to our KOA campsite about 10:30 Friday night because that's what we do. We have yet to pitch a tent by anything other than lantern/flashlight. If there were places closer to Utah valley that were as much fun to visit, we might stand a better chance of getting there while the sun is still up, but I don't see that happening. Also, as a follow-up to the business with Kaia, on the way down Matthew and I were talking and Kaes said, "Mama, if Daddy annoys you, roll your eyes at him." I am now getting communication pointers from my six-year-old. I'm so looking forward to her teenage years.

Saturday we went to Arches. Last visit we got going much earlier and spent the whole day going from arch to arch and hiking around. Kaes was most anxious to do this again. In fact, instead of "Are we there yet?" the undying refrain in the car was, "When are we going to climb rocks." Remember, the last time we were there she was only four years old. What the crap was I thinking? In any case, we really only stopped at three places this time (well, three and a half. There was a potty break where Kaes and I went off on an explore by ourselves and wound up in this gorgeous little canyon. I could hear the silence--behind Kaes' constant chatter and movement. It was amazing.)

The first place was one we had visited before, and we probably wouldn't have stopped this time if Kaes hadn't been making me crazy wanting to get out and climb rocks. So we stopped and climbed rocks for half an hour or so. That gave us just enough leeway to make it to the end of the road (I didn't even know there was an end of the road, but it loops back on itself and heads you back out again). That one was a bit of a hike, but by then it was late-ish afternoon and the sun wasn't right overhead so it was very enjoyable. Then we headed back and stopped at the sandbox to end all sandboxes.

The sandbox arch is a very short walk from the road and it's a very small arch. I was right in front of it before I realized it was there. Most paths take you to some kind of viewpoint, or even right under the arch, but this one, the arch was kind of off to the side. The fact that it's so small and the cliff behind it is so much larger helps to disguise the fact that there is an arch right in front of (well, beside) you. But the sand. That was the fun part. They don't call it sanbox arch for nothing. We dug holes, we buried kids, kids crawled through it, rolled down it, made angels in it (including my 'kid' sister). I swear the sandbox as a whole dropped a foot with all the sand we took home with us in our clothes and hair and shoes... But it was crazy fun. Even though we got there while the sun was still up, it was full dark by the time we made it back to the cars. And I was paid a most wonderful compliment. Duncan and Tessa were digging holes in the sand together. I went off a little bit away from them and started digging my own hole (I didn't want to interfere). Then I heard Duncan say, "My mom is playing in the sand." Tessa said, "I didn't know moms play in the sand." And Duncan said, "My mom does." It warmed the cockles of my heart. Of course, this is also the child who was stunned to find out last year that I can skip, so I'm beginning to wonder exactly what kind of alien these kids think parents (or at least moms) are.

Sunday (Mother's Day) was somehow even better than the day before, at least for me. Kaes remembered all on her own that it was Mother's Day and was the first to wish me happiness and give me a hug for the occasion. We had breakfast and packed up and then spent most of the day in town at some parks CarrieAnne had found online. The first park was utterly amazing, with a whole group of xylophones and drums and other such percussiony instruments right there in the park. Non of them were broken and they actually made music (at least when people who know how to make music played with them. I was particularly impressed that my very own Jonathon was playing songs on them). The kids had a wonderful time playing with those and could have stayed and done that for hours, except I heard a father with his young son wading in the stream that ran through the park and the father pointing out crayfish (or crawdads, what we called them) to his son. I ran and called my kids (and Matthew) over to the stream, took off my shoes and socks and went in to catch a crawdad. This was something from my childhood (though I admit that as a child if I was told a stream had crawdads in it, I would forever after stay out of the stream) that I wanted to share with my kids. It wasn't quite as easy as I thought it would be, but I persevered, and in the end was able to show my kids a real live crawdad (and then set it free, of course). It was an absurdly satisfying thing to do on Mother's Day and made me a little misty-eyed, I admit. As their mother, I am responsible for their education, and I taught them a little something they are not going to get on their own, growing up in Utah valley. It was pretty dang cool.

The next park we went to had a duck pond, though it was fenced off, so we had to throw the bread over the fence. Whatever. However, I also spotted a bullfrog about the size of a salad plate and was able to point that out to my kids too (hey, I got the animals, and that's all I've got. Matthew has EVERYTHING ELSE when it comes to "who knows the most about..."(a game my kids love to play) so I've got to do what I can when I can. The animal kingdom itself may be fairly large, but it's only ONE THING. Everything else they go to Matthew.)

Then we went letterboxing. Again, last trip we did several, this time only one, but it was pretty dang cool. It was a four mile hike round trip, but it was mostly level ground (nothing for Kaes to fall off of to her death--what were we thinking last time?!?) and it turned out to be totally worth it, though I must admit I was nervous for a bit there. The letterbox was hidden next to some dinosaur tracks, and when we saw our first 'dinosaur tracks' I was most unhappy. They could have been anything and I realized way too late in the game that maybe I shouldn't have taken at face value the clue: "at the first dinosaur track." Maybe there were supposed to be "quotes" around the "dinosaur track." I was quite miffed. But as we went a little farther, we found dinosaur tracks that were actually dinosaur tracks, and that was incredibly cool. Super cool. Then I was very happy that the only letterbox we did was the one with the dinosaur tracks.

That was pretty much our trip. We got back home at 2:00 Monday morning and I spent all of Monday and Tuesday in bed. No, wait, that's not true. I went on Duncan's fieldtrip with him to This Is the Place state park on Monday, which is why nothing got done all day and I still spent Tuesday in bed. Anyway, I really wanted to post a blog when I got back and this is the first chance I've had to do it. Sorry it's such a long blog, but if I didn't do it now, it wouldn't get done at all. I love Moab, and I love going on vacations with CarrieAnne and her family. And I had a great Mother's Day.