Moab....Again

We decided that Moab is probably the place we've been the most as a family.  I have no idea how many times we've gone, but it's a lot.  And yet we all still love it and find plenty to do while we're there.

This was a pretty great Moab trip.  Greg and Tracy were nice to pay for a hotel room for every family.  Good thing, or I'm sure we would have found things to keep us busy at home.  This was our first Moab trip with the jeep all set up to wheel.  Very exciting.  I had no idea what jeeping (yes it's a verb) really entails.  Lots of work in the garage, lots of upgrades, lots of tools.  I mean, Jake has it all set up to wheel now, but if you ask him he'll say he's definitely not done with it.  Good thing we all had a lot of fun jeeping, or we might have a problem.

The first thing we did was hit the mountain bike trails.  Jake, Zack, and I went on a 26 mile mountain bike ride called Mag 7.  This is the first time I actually went on a big ride like this.  Usually I send Jake and Zack off on their own.  Jake and Zack thought the trail was fun, but no big deal for how hard it was.  I, however, am grateful I didn't die and really proud of myself for doing it.  There were lots of big rocks to ride up, and lots of big drops to come down.  We happened to be down there during a big heat wave, so it was also 100 degrees.  The last hour of the ride about did me in with the heat.  But I survived, and even managed to have fun!

We jumped in the pool when we got back and then took off in the Jeep.  We did the trail Finns and Things.  Hard core jeepers say it's a good starter trail.  I thought it was plenty difficult.  I got to try spotting, which I'm super good at (don't ask Jake), and I admit to being a little nervous a few times, even though Jake's a really good driver.  Zack drove for about 5 minutes, but none of us trust his 4-wheeling skills so that didn't last long.  All in all a fun drive.

The next morning we went mountain biking as a family to the Bar M trails.  We all had a great time.  Sage and I started on the loop a second time knowing that Jake and Zack were trying to lap us.  Sage did NOT want that to happen.  She looked behind her, saw them coming, and took off.  I had no idea she could go that fast!  It made me smile.

From there we hiked to Millcreek Falls.  A super short hike that ends in water, which was excellent since it was still 100 degrees.  We played in the water and then everyone took a turn jumping off the water falls.  I was impressed that everyone jumped.  It was good fun.  After that we went on a more scenic jeep ride up Onion Creek.  That was pretty and I even did some driving.

That night we went on a night hike to Corona Arch.  I love doing night hikes!  This one was especially pretty because the moon was full.  The scenery in the moonlight was pretty amazing.  A good time was had by all.

And then it was time to go home.  I think we fit in about as much as you can in two days.  Moab never disappoints!

Ready to play!  This is the first time we trailered the jeep and it was kind of awesome.

Riding Mag 7

Sage was living the life by the pool

Our jeep in it's natural habitat

Cooling off at Millcreek

Onion Creek

Playing hard gives you big appetites!

Corona Arch

May Happenings

Now that June is halfway over, I'm finally getting around to posting about May.  I'm writing this in the middle of the night while I'm at work, so hopefully it makes sense.

May actually had quite a bit of fun in it.  I already posted about St George, but there were other notable things.  First and foremost, we finally got a trampoline!  I'm calling it the pandemic trampoline.  We've tried to talk Jake into getting a trampoline for years, but no luck.  He was sure it would blow away, and someone would get hurt, and where would we put it on our acre?  But one day, when the pandemic was crushing us, and Sage was barely hanging on, he caved.  Sage asked him, looked at him with her puppy dog eyes (she's really good at those.  I'm immune.  Jake is not).  And he said yes.  There was much rejoicing.  Sage asked every day if it was going to come.  Zack had it put together in no time, and Jake even helped a little.  He even jumped for a second, but I don't think he's touched it since.  So now we can't say nothing good came from covid-19.  Trampoline!

School ended.  It kind of sputtered and slowly died this year.  There wasn't really a set end date.  Zack was done with new assignments, but then took the full extra week they gave him to finish up his work.  Because why would you get your work done before it was actually due?  Kate was finished with everything like a week before Zack and Sage.  Sage was mostly done but kept having random zoom meetings to finish up.  This was her last year of elementary school, and her spanish teacher is going back to Spain this summer.  So when he started crying during their last zoom meeting I may or may not have gotten a little teary.  I hate how school ended for everyone this year.  And I don't even want to think about what school will look like next year.  For Sage's final 5th grade event we got to drive through the front of the school and wave to all of the teachers.  They put pictures in the lawn of all of the 5th graders, and she got to talk to her teachers for the last time.  They also said her name over the loud speaker and rang the bell for her.  I brought Kate with us for the sole purpose of taking pictures and video since I would be driving.  She got some pictures, but somehow missed getting a video of the bell ringing.  Why did I even bring her??

Zack started working immediately after school was done.  He's very excited to be earning large sums of money.  I'm also excited.  He's not much for pictures, so he managed to escape the last day of school pics.  I decided the day that everything was officially over we would all go to Red Ledges and eat dinner and swim to celebrate.  Well, Jake ended up going on a long bike ride.  He only joined us for the last 20 minutes.  And Zack was so hot and tired from work that he refused to come.  So my great idea for a family celebration turned into the girls and I celebrating on our own.  But we still had fun!

The other big news of May is that we finally got the pond up and running again.  It only took 3 years to complete this project.  And it'll probably break again.  Would I fill the pond in if I could?  Yes.  Maybe with time I'll enjoy it more, but right now the pain is too fresh.

Proof that Jake once jumped on the trampoline

And that he even helped put it together

One of Mel's friends (Ellen) and Sage have become pen pals.  She made Sage this super cute bag.  Sage loves having a pen pal!

My Mother's Day present.  I love it all, but mostly that I didn't have to build this (I mean help build it.  Let's be real)

Our first get-together since covid!  They love our chickens!

Jake made delicious food for Mother's Day.  He's a really good cook when he has time.  He's good at everything.

Bike tune-up night

Flag out for our high school seniors

On top of Covid our mountain bike trails burned down.  Luckily they didn't ruin the trails putting the fire out and they were back open a week later.  A strange kind of pretty.

We got the garden planted.  Kate has become our garden expert

5th grade graduation

Sage wearing all of her different school shirts.  Too bad she didn't get to do much of anything for these shirts.  Stupid covid.  This is her Wrangler shirt

She got to be a junior coach for a month and help all of the kids at recess.

She was supposed to do Girls On The Run.  I think they had one practice.

Some of Kate's art projects

No more school!

Sage and her friend Kami

Sure love Red Ledges

Beautiful morning run

This happened.  I put it off as long as possible. 

Luckily it's in the barn, not the house.  Chester is scared to death of it and now refuses to go in the barn.  Now I wish I'd put the elk in the house.

Sage kept hitting her head while we were working on the pond.  She took matters into her own hands.  Can't say she isn't resourceful.

It's done!  Well, we need lots of plants.  But the main part is done!