Spring Break - Parks A Plenty

Spring break this year was in Southeast Utah 

visiting beautiful and unique parks a plenty!

We hiked, biked or explored each day 

and played games or talked around the campfire at night. 

It was 10 days of heaven with 10 awesome people and a terrific dog.

Goblin Valley State Park

Natural Bridges National Monument

House on Fire Ruins

Goosenecks State Park

Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum

Hovenweep National Monument

Needles District Canyonlands National Park

Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument

Dead Horse State Park

Island in the Sky District Canyonlands National Park

What a wonderful world!

So many! So many!

Have you heard of Studio C? 

It's a quirky little TV show that the twigs think is pretty funny. 

The title of this blog post comes from the "Google Translate" episode 

because there is "so many" to share today
from the past few months. 

Things like chalk art, 

a concert 

and 

picture scavenger hunts around Temple Square,

sweet treats from an even sweeter friend,

braces were removed,

and braces were reapplied 

(the bottoms first and the tops this week to make room

 for an implant to replace a congenitally missing tooth),

Mia laid an egg,

Zac, Ashley, Joey, and Lexi 

hiked Little Wildhorse Canyon 

and Goblin Valley,

lots of fun family and friends have visited 

(love you all - sorry we didn't get pictures of everyone!),

got to attend the Annual Utah Dental Convention,

this awesome girl got her mission call 

(and a sweet note from her mail carrier, Suzette  =),

and last but not least

we got to feel the excitement of the saints in Cedar City 

for their new temple. 

So many, so many!!!!!

xoxo

Hide & Seek

Ah...still remembering the blast of a "Hide & Seek" game we had over spring break. Such fun!!

We agreed upon the boundaries, chose the first person to be the seeker (1,2,3 not it), then took off running and diving behind the most overhanging of large hoodoos we could find whilst listening to the count down: 50, 49,48...

The branches prefer to find a really great spot and stay put. The twigs prefer to migrate from place to place the whole round.

They both work. 

The boundaries changed as the afternoon wore on, getting smaller in dimension. Those who were found were recruited to join in seeking for the last person eluding detection.

At one point I could see out of the corner of my eye three men walking past me in the distance. I was face down, in a little dusty ditch, huddling as closely as possible to the near wall of the ditch in an attempt to be invisible to the "seekers" when I heard the men talking. One said, "Do you think she's okay?" to which another responded, "I think she's trying to get a good camera angle or something." I lifted a hand out of the dirt to wave them a friendly "Hello - now just keep moving along so you don't give me away."

Even more delightful to me was when I saw the same three men coming back from their wander out yonder. The Mr. was at that time laying in that same said ditch and they were all three looking at him.

It's a family thing...

(The view from the ditch.)

Sinbad's Eyes

Spring Break was short with 3 different school schedules so we played hard in the time we had. A new hike for us was "Sinbad's Eyes" on the San Rafael Reef. 

The Mr. liked that he got to hike on slickrock. He loves that stuff!

The twigs liked that there was trail mix, though with this hike at the end of a very long day of hiking, they were less than excited. When it came down to it they decided to hang with the "can't get enough" parents. The littlest twig even raced Dad for the top - and won.

The hike ended at two caves that looked like eyes.

The north "eye/cave" had a window in the top of it. 

I liked the pictographs in the cave. Thinking of those who had lived there, in that shelter, gave me immense gratitude for running water and warm fluffy blankets.

The sun was setting as we headed down to the car. What a beautiful place - we love Southern Utah!