What are all the Poor People Doing?

My Grandma used to say "What are all the Poor people doing?". It was her way of saying life was wonderful. This past weekend we used a gift that my Parents gave us for Christmas. They took Greyson and Tobey (the dog) while we escaped to Colorado for a 2 night stay at a hot springs resort.

Thursday April 17th, 2008
One of the places on our list of places to go this year was Arches in Moab. What an incredible place. There are over 200 arches in this park alone. We started by visiting Delicate Arch. You can't describe the beauty, it is balanced right on the edge of a cliff.

Ben's in the middle, he just wore a color that kind of blends in.

For those of you that know Ben and I, you know that we can't just stay on the trail. After Delicate Arch we saw arches across another canyon so we left the trail and took off for 'Snails and Adventure' (def: finding your own fun and adventure off the beaten path). We found this arch and enjoyed some time looking through the window.

Here I was nagging Ben to be careful. He had to jump across a ravine to get to where he is and between these mounds there are huge canyons. I was not happy about this, but I love that he is fearless.

After Delicate Arch area we drove to the end of the park. The area was called Devil's Garden. We went on a path that took us by many, many arches, below are a few.

Wall Arch

Double O Arch (on the right) Look for Ben in the botton arch and the man on top. I can't remember the name of the arch on the left.

After Double O we decided the canyons were calling to us. You can see in the picture below how much fun and adventure was waiting. So once again we kept leaving the path and finding new canyons and adventures. The way this part of the rock is we kept getting cliffed out and had to retrace our steps many times, too much fun!

And Finally We went through and arch and there was a canyon below. It was getting late and we thought maybe it would be a good shortcut back to the car. We walked through the arch and started making our way down the canyon. It was so funny because people at the arch looked at us like we were crazy. We made our way down the canyon, got to the bottom and realized we were under landscape arch which is the only arch that you're not allowed to go near or under. There was a great rockfall there in 1990 (60 tons) and they don't think it's stable. So we quickly dove under the fence and pretended all was well.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday April 18th-20th, 2008

We spent the next day making our way over to Pagosa Springs. We played in Cortez and Durango and then got to the Springs just in time for check in. The next few days were spent lounging in hot springs pools ranging from 87 degrees to 111 degrees. The challenge of the trip was to jump into the river which borders the hot springs. We both did it twice, the first time up to our chest, the second time all the way under! It was 34 degrees!

Lowery Ruins on the Way to Pagosa

This was a wild animal rescue that was in Pagosa. This Cougar was laying down and then in 2 seconds had bounded up to the fence and was staring me down. My heart stopped. Then I played chase back and forth with him and Ben was many steps behind yelling at me to stop. We found out later that this cat loves to play.

There are 18 different pools at the Springs ranging from big enough for 2 to 20. We spared our readers any pictures in bathing suits.

That says the River is 34 degrees. We were crazy!

The River 1st attempt.

Camping Fun

What joy between freinds. Thanks to Heidi and Heather who enjoyed the journey.


Who sleeps in a tent?




Corn from the Anasazi

Lunch Break
Thanks to Ben and Rick who watched kids so we could play.

Oh the Sun ! ! ! !

EASTER WEEKEND 2008

Boulder, UT

**Ben and I are the winners of the annual treasure hunt, yes we're proud.

Enjoying Sun and Slickrock; a perfect combination. Look at that blue, not a cloud in the sky.

Greyson and Ben building sand mountains. Greyson was in Heaven. Then of course Ben convinced all of the kids that they need to let him bury them. I'm sure their mom's were thrilled with all that sand.

Greyson and I went hiking and he chose the way. It was so cute to watch him navigate the slickrock.

Getting ready for the town Easter Egg hunt.

One Down Many More To Go

Last weekend we went to the Golden Spike National Monument. While the monument wasn't exactly exciting it was still amazing to think of what a transcontinental railroad accomplished. A trip that normally took 6 month now only took a week. Thanks to all the men that worked to make our country wonderful! (and thanks to Collin and Michon who joined us on our little journey)



The Spiral Jetty . . . Art in the water

Ok, so you might have me convinced to do this blogging thing. It might be the best way to keep in contact with everyone.

Greyson is on the sled. He loved being carried around the cabins. (Ben has snowshoes on)

Life is starting to settle in here in Utah. We have had 516" of snow since November in the canyon just above our home. Luckily some neighbors have taken pity on me and they use their snowblowers or 4-wheelers to clear my driveway (2 cars wide and about 4 cars deep). A few weeks ago Ben, Greyson, and I went to our family cabin in Payson canyon. Given the record snow year we wanted to see what it was like. We had to park and walk up the canyon to even access it. The snow was up to my upper thigh but even deeper in other places. What a workout! Tobey didn't move for the rest of the day after we got back. Poor guy.

I just got back from girl's camp with the Young Women of our ward. It was great we went to a cabin just above Sundance resort and snowshoed during the day. It's my favorte new winter sport.

We started a new tradition this year and we wrote down all of the places that we want to visit before next year. They have to be affordable and within distance to make them a weekend getaway. That's the 'Adventure Awaits' list on the blog; so stay tuned for pictures.

Greyson is growing like a weed. 18 month pants and 24 month shirts so I think his legs have a little bit of growing still to go. He loves to read and Ben and I have many, many books memorized because he wants us to read them over and over again. We are working on learning the letters A through I. He's actually doing pretty good with them. He jabbers non-stop but is only starting to gain a vocabulary. I think it will be awhile before I start hearing sentences. He has such a strong little personality (I'm sure that's from Ben) but when we get in a group setting he hides behind our legs. I think he'll be shy.

Ben is loving his jobs. He comes home everyday with a smile on his face. He is working at Altaview concrete as their CFO and he also does consulting for a small business on the side. He actually gets up and goes to the gym every morning. I'm not sure what has come over him. Perhaps our list of places to go has given him motivation.