Moab and More Dirt

I’m on top of things, which is why I am just now blogging about some vacations we took back in May.  Sorry, but catching up on past episodes of Property Brothers and House Hunters takes precedence over journaling the important events and people in my life. Ha!  But here goes our two desert vacations we took in May:

Moab:
I was looking forward to this trip more than anything this summer.  We were meeting up in Moab with our most favorite families in the world that we hadn’t seen since Devin had graduated from school a year ago.  The Johansen’s drove up from New Mexico and the Bolicks came all the way from Oregon.  These people kept us sane while Dev was going to school and while we were so far from home and are truly some of the best friends we could have gained on our adventures in Oregon. It was an awesome time but waaaaaayyy too short. 
We spent the day hiking in Arches:

These boys are only two months apart.  Fun friends! After the trip was over, Nate and Cam kept asking to go back to Austin’s house (which was actually the condo that we stayed at.  They thought it was Austin’s house)

Eating lunch

Hiking to Sand Dune Arch

Nate and Cam lovin the big sand box.


Some crazy guy (**cough**Randy)up on top of the arch:


There are so many great things about the picture below that Cameron took, but what I’d like to focus on are those two stinking cute babies…I’ll let you decide which babies I’m talking about. HA!
The group of us:

Handsome Boys:

My amazing friends that I miss oh so very much!

The guys had a “Mustache Moab” competition where they grew out their mustaches for two weeks before our meeting in Moab. And yes, Devin does have a mustache. I promise.

It was sad to see them go, and we never did get to go lizard looping, so I’m thinking we need this trip to happen again.

The weekend after we got back from Moab we went to Goblin Valley with my family.  I’d just like to point out that this was our third trip in three weekends (San Diego, then Moab, and now Goblin Valley). We will never do this to ourselves or our children again.  Although, I do have to say that Nate and Cam have become remarkably awesome travelers.  We were lucky enough to get to stay in my parents trailer with them. 
On our drive in, this is the amazing (not quite captured in this picture) moon that was shining over the desert:

We got there pretty late at night, so of course the first thing Devin the kids had to do was climb the cliffs near our camp site:


Nate was so ticked at me in this next picture.  He wanted to climb all by himself and I was not about to let my first born discover for himself the dangers of climbing on a cliff.
My children are somewhere down in that hole:

While this area was a playground of discovery for the kids, I was terrified, worried, and on high alert every time we went out hiking.
My mom brought up the swimming pool for the kids so they could get cooled off from the heat:

Me and the Mr

Marshmallow faces:

Nate with a shiner he picked up after planting his face on a rock…and he’s in the middle of saying “cheeeeeese”:

I’m an awesome marshmallow roaster:

The next day we went hiking to the Valley of the Goblins:



This may be one of the most flattering pictures I have of myself in the wilderness:

Cameron doing some canyon swinging:

Exploring a cave:

I guess I can see why he would be wearing sunglasses in a cave….er…

my brother and niece

Resting for a much needed snack and hydration break:


And I found a random picture on my camera from around this same time.  We had gone to Walmart to pick up some “big boy” underwear for the boys and they wanted to hold the packages on the way home.  When we got home, I turned around to find that Cam had opened his package and figured how to correctly use his newly purchased item:

This is why I carry a camera with me.