We're back kids!

It's been nice to take a little break from writing this past little while. Not that things haven't been exciting, in fact it's been very much the opposite. One of the best parts of the month was getting to spend a week with Val and Bill and all the babies. One of which we had never met and the other spitfire we had only met as just a little baby.

They rushed into our house puking up a storm, isn't that the rule on vacation? Oh and Kinsley was scared to death of us. To death. Of course after Chad offered up some ice cream we had pretty much won her over. While the ice cream my have md us all BFF's it did lead to a puke fest later that night all over poor Penny. Hiding behind toilet wasn't her best move to avoid the vomit. After all of Penny's peeing and puking and general ruining of things though that cat deserved every bit of puke she got. High five Kins!

Everyone in the house managed to make it though the sickness, I was the only lucky one who escaped, work happened to come in handy this vacation :)

Our plans were slowed down quite  bit and although we couldn't fit in everything that we had planned on doing we did quite a dang bit. Our favorite being rock climbing, duh. My personal favorite being Cade rock climbing. That little guy was a freaking champ. He climbed to the top of two different pitches and did so awesome! Bill got in on the action as well even after smashing his finger working on their car, and Val was the climbing superstar surprise of the visit. She kicked serious butt up on those mountains!

We had an absolute blast eating too much Café Rio, staying up way to late every night, visiting Zion's, climbing the narrows at pioneer Park, splashing around at the splash park and Children's museum and eating way too much goodies in general. In was perfect and we wish we didn't have to let them go home.

P.S. Pain pills are real kids, so please excuse any ridiculous spelling errors or grammatical fumblings. So basically just the normal....

Mukuntuweap

This place never, ever, gets old.

Aaaadventure Time!

It really was a weekend full of awesome.

We started it out with cheap Mexican food. Nothing like tacos and burritos to get you ready to rock climb! Shocking, I know, that we took them rock climbing. We were all super successful too! Chad clearly rocked them all, one in the dark. I made it to the top of the first one, Ash was about a step away from the top of the first, and Patrick sped up the second climb. As a side note, I ran into a tarantula while climbing when I was nearly at the top. He just sort of moseyed back into the large crack that he was looking out of.

Oh the crazy eyes

The moon that night was a little out of control, SO big. The pictures really do it justice, ha, no.

Chad made us some rockin' spaghetti after all the climbing and then hiking back in the dark. Things to do before climbing next: 1. get a first aid kit together and 2. put the headlamps in our backpacks! I feel like I'm forgetting a number 3. We have 5 headlamps sitting at home. They don't do you much good unless you actually have them. Luckily the moon was almost as bright as the freakin' sun, so it wasn't as dark as it should have been.

We finished up the night in the most glorious and beautiful way possible

We cut each one into 4 pieces and devoured them.

The next morning we were off again! Lucky for us Zion's was open and Angel's Landing was up next on our list! We have been talking about taking them on this hike forever. They both seemed slightly hesitant but ready to go.

We made it to all the way up to where it starts to get tricky before there was some second guessing. Patrick made it up the first set of chains when he realized how high up he was. He headed back down to safety while the three of us powered on. I didn't make it the first time either, so no biggie. Ash was a super star and cruised through the whole hike like it was no big deal.

Along the way we ran into my cousins, Misty, Brett and Forest. Funny meeting you here.... on the top of a mountain!

We did another short hike to the Emerald Pools, watched the boys throw rocks in the river, and then headed back to the car to get some much needed food. We never planned on spending the whole day there, but we just couldn't help ourselves :)

We have finally figured out the best way to finish up any trip to Zion's. Right around the halfway point between there and home is a fantastic Chinese food Buffet. It's pretty cheap (for a buffet), we don't have to drive all the way home to eat (and of course then be starving and willing to eat anything, shakes and French fries anyone?), and hello? it's a buffet. That's exactly what I'm wanting after a long day of hiking and snacking on a granola bar. Heaven. I discovered their almond cookies this time and made it out of there with 6 in my pocket. Why are those so good?!

We just relaxed after that, ate more junk food, watched Adventure Time and The Big Bang Thoery, and shared all of our pictures. It was a fast but awesome weekend! Thanks for coming down guys!

We're the girls from Beverly Hills, shopping is our greatest thrill!

Friday morning we packed up all our camping gear, food, clothes, and camera gear. We then all stood outside our tiny little ford focus, with our dog, and contemplated how it was all going to fit in there. I was fairly confident that Nikki and Matt didn't want to drive for 5 hours with a giant dog on their laps. Did I mention the A/C in our car bit the dust for real? Yeah.... good times.

It was a loooooong, HOT drive.

Once we got to the Visitor's Center we had to go over the rules for back country camping. My favorites?

• Do not walk on/disturb the dirt. Set your tent up on the large rocks.
• No pets allowed
• Bury your human waste at least 4 inches deep. Better yet?! Carry it out with you!

Chad cheerfully agreed, "Oh yes, of course!". When the lady mentioned carrying out our waste he replied with "Sure, we've brought bags for that". We love sleeping on rocks and carrying around our own poo! If you think I was going to carry my poo out in a plastic grocery bag you've lost you mind. There weren't any garbages in the whole park except the visitors center, so we would have had to drive a half hour with that stuff. Nope. Not going to happen. In fact, let's just be real here, there wasn't going to be any poo-ing outside for any of us. We happily drove to the pit toilets every morning. Too much potty talk? Yeah, I agree.

Friday night we hiked up to Delicate Arch to take some night shots. Not researching anything before hand, we're super prepared like that, we thought it would be more of a walk. Not a strenuous hike up mountains and along mountain ledges with our puppy in the middle of the night. We made it though and were "pooped" (ha) by the time we finished.

Trying to find our tent in the middle of the night was super fun. There was no moon so that was also super helpful. There were however, lots of cactuses. Cacti? Whatever they are technically called there were lots. We basically had to tiptoe through a field of cactuses to make it to our tent. We had little to no faith in Rukia's ability to avoid the cactuses, so I ended up carrying her the last stretch. Overprotective much?

So we were supposed to sleep on the rock. We all know that didn't happen. Rock or sand? What would you choose? Add in to that decision making process the fact that we forgot pillows. Pretty much the easiest choice of our lives.

One of us ::cough::Matt::cough::  might have been afraid that they were going to get eaten in the night. The visitor's center had all kids of pelts and skulls of animals from the area. That didn't really help the situation. Chad might have pointed out animal tracks on the way to our camping area as well. Again, not super helpful. He may or may not have thought that Rukia's breathing was a wild animal waiting outside their tent to eat his face. Once he survived the first night the paranoia seemed to fade a bit. Just a bit.

That morning we were t-i-r-e-d from our midnight hike, so we thought we would do the other most strenuous hike in the park! Woot. It was blazing hot! 4 hours later we had walked 6 miles and seen a handful of arches. The views were amazing!

We weren't about to eat peanut butter and jelly after that afternoon so we went into town and ate pizza until we couldn't eat anymore. We also stopped at a general store to pick up "pillows". Our cheap selves weren't about to buy new pillows so Matt, Chad and I bought packs of napkins to use. Nikki already had her pack of toilet paper, which explained why she slept like a baby compared to the rest of us the night before :)  FYI jeans don't make a good pillow no matter how they're folded.

Sunday morning was chilly! It also looked like it was going to rain, so we packed up fast and took some pictures by "our" arch on the hike out. This was the arch that we camped by. If you look really close you can see Matt and Chad on top of the arch on the right.

We decided to take the scenic route home and hit up Bryce Canyon and Zion's National Park. All we had to do was take one road south. That was it. Just follow the road south. Done. Easy Peasy. After a gas stop we managed to somehow start heading west instead. BAH! We figured this out after driving for 45 minutes. Bryce Canyon was all of a sudden over an hour east. We reluctantly let that dream die and just enjoyed Dixie National Forest. We also were able to stop at Cedar Breaks National Monument.

After a terrifying drive down a horrific mountain we were back on an interstate and back on track. Our car is now in desperate need of new breaks. We decided to save Zion's for another day and instead high tailed it home so we could eat ridiculous amounts of Mexican food. Mmmmm. Cafe Rio, no better way to end a camping trip.

We couldn't quite get the timing down. I've now decided that jumping photos are mandatory. They are fantastic! Even more fantastic when they fail!