Monday, November 9, 2015

Sedona and Capital Reef National Park

In July we had another chance to go camping with our family.  With Abe heading off to San Antonio for a chunk of the summer we decided to make it into a little bit longer vacation and hit Sedona on our way north.  As usual we had a great time exploring new places and being together.

Our only full day in Sedona we spent hiking Devil's Bridge and it was gorgeous.  We had such an amazing day with our tough hikers.



The hike ends with a very cool natural bridge. And by very cool, I mean terrifyingly high.  There is a reason that I was the one taking the picture.  It was an amazing view.


This is one of my favorite pictures.  Such a great day being together as a family!
Our tired hikers at the top of the hike.
After a day in Sedona we took a long drive through Arizona and Utah to get to Capital Reef National Park.  It was a lot of miles of nothingness to get to a beautiful place.  The drive felt like quite an adventure as we were never quite sure when we would find civilization again.  At one point it seemed like we hadn't seen another car in forever.  In the distance we could see some big mountains coming and it was hard to see what direction the road was going to turn to take us around the very steep mountains.  As we got closer we started seeing warning signs about gravel road ahead, don't continue if you are towing something, if you want to live turn back now (okay not really), but we quickly realized that the "road" was taking us over the mountain.  The 2-lane road quickly became 1 1/2 lanes of dirt winding up the mountain.  I think I held my breath the whole time, hoping that we didn't have to pass another car.  Thankfully no one us was crazy enough to take that route and for future trips we will take a closer look at where the GPS is sending us.



The camping spot was in an orchard so it the kids loved picking fruit and watching the animals that came to eat there too.
The kids had a great time taking hikes through the area.




Probably the most time was spent playing in this little water area behind the campsites.  The kids played there together for hours.  We are so lucky to have cousins close enough for fun camping trips.
Nothing like hiking through a muddy pass for some fun.
These two made the cutest playmates.  Brooklyn and Brighton stayed together all the time.  Mainly pretending to be animals and feeding each other old apples.  Brooklyn's huge smile tells how much fun she was having.



After our time in Capital Reef we headed through St. George and stopped at Zion National Park.  We didn't get to really check out Zion's but we can't wait to go back.
I love these troopers who are always up for an adventure.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

My family is so patient with me.

 I absolutely love abusing my family by making them take pictures.  Abe and I are bad about pulling out the camera and capturing moments on anything but our cellphones so sometimes its necessary to have some pictures to remind me of how little they once were.  And bribed with enough candy the kids are pretty willing to play along.  Abe, on the other hand, is not so easily persuaded.  Maybe if I force enough pictures these kids will eventually learn how to smile and look at the camera.  Its my favorite when they can even look like they like each other while we do it. I love these beautiful kiddos of mine.