One last Hoorah!

With school in full swing, never ending soccer games, piano challenges and mountains of homework things were getting a bit hectic around here. Homework, piano, scouts, soccer, dance, reading and the normal chaos and messes of five children were beginning to weigh on me. There is such a stark difference between the carefree relaxing days of summer to the mile-a-minute, no-time-to-pee days of school it can be bit hard to take all at once. I need to kind of ease in to it. But that is not really possible. So I decided we need a break, a little vacation. Luckily so did the school. So Rick took the day off and we heeded out to Capitol Reef.

We left Thursday evening. It is about a 3 hour drive - we pulled in to our hotel about 9:15. Just in time to hit the pool before bed. We were a bit leery of the hotel - we had never stayed there before. Although when I booked it I was thinking it was the same hotel we got last year. Which was definitely a hole in the wall - although I understand their claim to fame is that they serve the world's best pickle pie. We didn't try it. I had tried to find a room in several other places but everywhere I checked was full so I decided to settle for the pickle pie motel again. I figured there would be rooms available since it is the kind of place that fills up very last. Staying at that dump of a motel would give us something to talk about so I gave them a call - they of course had vacancies. I even splurged and reserved us their best room, a room with 2 King sized beds, a fridge and a microwave. It wasn't till right before we left when I logged on to get their exact address that I realized this was not the pickle pie motel at all. Since the pictures and the prices were pretty similar I was a bit nervous we would end up in a crappy motel that didn't even serve pickle pie. But we were very pleasantly surprised.

The room was nice. Dallin even commented that this was the nicest motel we had ever stayed in. Which is definitely not true - but it was very clean and big. The pool was nice and for the most part we had it to ourselves. We all had plenty of room to sleep in the 2 huge King sized beds. (I made Rachel sleep in her pack and play so we would have extra room- it was a tight squeeze for her but it had been so long since she slept in a crib that I think she enjoyed the novelty of it) So we went swimming then came back and watched Caddyshack. I'd never seen it before. Rick loves it and has often talked about how hilarious it is. I just didn't see that -maybe I was tired but I found it a bit on the boring and stupid side.

The next day we got up and heeded into capitol reef. We stopped off at the visitors center to stamp our passport books, pick up a family back pack with fun activities to do with the kids and grab some maps. I pulled out the hiking map and started searching for a good hike. Rick said - I think we should start with the mot difficult one they have. I just stared at him pointed to the back and reminded him we had brought the kids. Some of our kids love to hike and are real good at it scampering up the mountain like mountain goats with huge smiles on their faces. Some of our kids constantly remind us how is a waste of a perfectly good day to have to spend it walking up some mountain. While the hike we settled on wasn't the longest it did have the second most vertical feet.

The hike was a little over 2 miles each way. We listened to complaining from our non hiker for about 3 miles and spent the other mile looking for him when he fell behind and got lost and then went ahead and got lost. It wasn't exactly pleasant in that regard. But other than that it was awesome. It was absolutely beautiful, the weather was a bit on the warm side but not unbearable. We talked and laughed and took turns thinking of songs and artists that start with every letter in the alphabet. We sang songs and Ryan wiggled his tooth. He wiggled and wiggled it until it came out. Right on top of the mountain it feel out into his hand. He was ecstatic. He lost his first tooth. I was surprised because it wasn't all that loose the day before. It seems so strange to see my little boy with a whole in his mouth. I am pretty used to seeing Anna and Dallin with missing teeth but not Ryan. He is too young.

Well we all made it down in relatively good shape. Dallin did get hit in the eye with a few pieces of flying rock. The kids loved to throw the rocks and see them shatter. We told them not too and Dallin found out why.

We then went to the picnic area and had lunch. We pulled out the family back pack the park ranger gave us and did some activities. There were fishing nets and microscope things in there to look at the water bugs. That and the binoculars were the kids favorites. We also checked out the trees and later that night we tried to go star gazing but they weren't too into that.

After lunch we went to the river and orchard area. We hiked a bit more and picked some apples and pears. They were delicious. The kids had a lot of fun picking them. Especially Taylor - the problem with that is that he doesn't eat fruit. So picking it jut to pick it and throw it on the ground is pretty wasteful. We warned him he better not pick it unless he either eats it or talks someone else into eating if for him. Rachel helped him out at first but got full before Taylor was tired of picking. He had to eat the last apple he picked. You would think we had asked him to pull out all his teeth himself. He threw such a fit. He ended up eating one bite but that was such a major ordeal I wasn't' sure he would even live through it.

A herd (or flock-as some of my children say) of deer joined us in the orchard. They are tame enough you can walk about 10 feet away from them before they run away. Rachel wanted to pet them but was never successful (luckily). She did get to pet the horses which was a highlight for her. We then headed back to our hotel for dinner and more swimming.

Saturday we got up and headed for Goblin Valley. This was probably our favorite part of the trip. For anyone who has not been I wouldn't miss it if you have the opportunity. It is really pretty spectacular. It is not the kind of thing you go and do all weekend, a couple hours is all you need. It is beautiful, amazing and a bit eerie when you stop to think about it. It is a valley out in the middle of the desert. There are no trees, no water and no civilization. The "goblins" are huge red rock formations that are scattered across the valley. It looks like a scene from mars or something. We ran around and climbed on the "goblins" for a while.

Taylor and Dallin immediately climbed up the biggest one they could find. I tried not to be an overprotective neurotic mom and kept my fears of them falling to myself. I gritted my teeth looked up and took a picture of them perched up on the top of a rock. It was great until they tried to get down and couldn't. Dallin finally managed it but it took some doing for Rick to climb up after Taylor and coax him down. We then played tag and hide and seek for a while. It was really fun to run around and hide throughout the different formations. We had lunch and played a bit more then headed for home. We pulled in about 8:00. Rick went and picked us up some dinner then we cleaned out the car, showered, started some laundry and fell into bed. It was a great weekend. We had a blast enjoying the miraculous beauties of Utah, enjoying the warmth of summer and laughing and playing together. It was just what I needed to get me through another month of chaos.