Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Definitely Beats the Rest

We went to Moab on Saturday. Yes, again. I must say, of the three times we've gone to Moab, this has by far been the best. Probably because we didn't bring our kids. And because we did exactly whatever we wanted.

This time, our travel companions were Paul and Leah from our ward. After a very late arrival at the hotel, we all crashed and slept for a few hours at least. The boys got up early and headed out to ride Slickrock--turned out to be a bit tougher than they anticipated, so rather than riding the entire trail, they rode the practice loop and came back to hang with us. Swimming! Hello, hot tub.

It was in preparation for swimming that we discovered Chris's ropes course battle scar:


At one point, he had roughly 250 pounds on that one shoulder. I don't know that I've personally ever before seen a bruise in the shape of a shoe tread. I'm sure it really hurt, but man, it was cool-looking. Ropes course blog post coming soon, or you can read some on my other blog.

For lunch, we drove out to Windows in Arches. We had talked about making sandwiches then eating at the Windows, but we were too hungry to wait that long. Parking lots work just as well.


Turns out, Double Arch is right next to Windows and we actually thought it was a lot more fun and interesting than Windows. Not that Windows is bad. Double Arch is just better.


Chris and Paul had all kinds of fun clambering around on the rocks. Only a little blood was spilt.





Official rock climbing had been planned, gear and all, but in the interest of timing, we opted for a bike ride instead. I was really glad when Chris came up with the idea of he and I getting a ride on our own while Paul and Leah visited the sand hill. Sweet. It was probably the most fun I've ever had on a bike, and it was really great to do something like that just with Chris. We are so cool.


Ice cream, shopping, and BBQ to fill the afternoon. Then the return of the Titan.

We hiked to Delicate Arch again! And I made it again!


I was actually surprised at how hard it was. I figured the effort would be miniscule on my own, compared to carrying TWO kids. Not so much. I was really sore from Ropes Course the day before, and I was tired from not sleeping much the past two nights and from already hiking and biking earlier that day. And it's a hard hike.

But so worth it.

It was great to do it again, and I especially enjoyed actually going with Chris this time. I was also really, really proud of Leah--5 months pregnant and she made it! Hooray! You're amazing, too.


Yay for all of us!



4 comments:

Liz, Karl, Madison, Brooklyn, Aubrey and Zachary said...

Sounds like so much fun. I would love a weekend getaway with my hubby.

Tannie Datwyler said...

It has been YEARS since I've been there. I remember all those arches you talked about though - Rich and I pretty much saw all of them (this was Sans kids). I loved it.

I tried to post a comment on your other blog... but for whatever bizarre reason I couldn't.

So - you KNOW I read it. :)

I also wanted to say that I enjoyed reading about what you learned from the ropes course. This last summer on our family reunion with Richard's family to Heber Valley Camp we did a ropes course. I'm moderately afraid of heights (though not of roller coaster heights... I'm weird like that). So I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do it. But somehow I zoned out everything around me and did it. It was pretty amazing, but all a bit of a blur.

So, what I liked about your experience is that you thought through different issues AS you did the course. VERY neat. Much more meaningful that my blurry jump off the zip line.

Brenda said...

So I didn't even know you had another blog, but don't worry I know now. Hmm...I hope some day I can be like you. We will have to chat when I get back from Oregon.

Alyssa Harper said...

Oh, that sounds like a glorious day! It's fun to see all your adventures. Congratulations on making it to delicate arch twice!