Coyote Gulch - A Little Bit of Paradise

Rob's family has been backpacking this canyon for years, and I finally convinced him to take a couple of days of and take me!!  Jenna was wonderful enough to take a couple of days off work to watch the girls, so we headed for Coyote Gulch with our friends Devin and Marissa and Rob's uncle Brian.

We got to the trail head about 1 am, so we threw up the tents and tried to get a little sleep before we headed out bright and early!!  These crickets were everywhere on our way in and nowhere to be found in the heat as we came out!

This picture in no way does the canyon justice!!  This is the view from the cliffs above.

We had to lower our packs down the side of the cliff because it would have been really awkward trying to get them down the "crack in the rock" to the bottom of the wall!!  The trail head where we started is called "crack in the wall."

Here's Brian making his way down the crack.

Pic from the bottom.

Just about to descend the sand hill....that inevitably we would have to come up!!

We got to the bottom of the canyon fairly quickly and then it was time to enjoy the water!  About 2" of water runs through the whole canyon, making it a nice cool walk.  Perfect for a hot day.

Brian found some shade.

Beautiful waterfalls...

Natural Springs...

Had to get one of the kid-less couple!

I love the desert with the green!

Here's our first meal in the canyon.  About a month before we went, I was online looking for cheap backpacking meals...well...they don't exist!  I did find a blog that had some recipes that you could do on your home if you have a dehydrator.  Well, I'm lucky because Rob's mom had one, and so for weeks I worked on different recipes and dehydrated them myself!  This is chicken and rice, which actually turned out to be my least favorite meal...maybe it's just because we hadn't been hiking all that long!

Jacob Hamblin Arch

It's amazing what water can do!

Rob filling up in a spring!

I couldn't get my sandles adjusted correctly and it was a long walk back to camp that night!

Dinner...lasagna!!  By far the group favorite!

Brian, Devin, and Marissa ran us through the whole canyon on day one, so day two we headed out!!  Next time I want to take it a little slower and enjoy the scenery!

Last chance to fill up before the sand hill!

Almost up it!!

Up the hill to the cliff...too bad it's still a couple miles out after the cliff!!

Up, up, and away!!

MMMmmmmm  Chili!!  

All in all...an amazing trip that I really can't wait to do again!!  A beautify little oasis in the middle of the desert!

My Little Princess Turns 3!!

Taylor turned 3 years old on the 6th!! Man, does time fly or what?!?!?! She definitely milked it all day long and Rob told me to quit playing into it!! Here she is wearing the crown that came with her card from Grandma Jo.

Taylor was so excited for her party!! She was even excited to eat her dinner...
She ordered french fries and cheetos!! We added the hamburgers to give a little more nutrition to the meal! :)
Then came her favorite part of the day...PRESENTS!! (and she didn't even have to wait for anyone else to open theirs!!)
Utter excitement...
Excited again....
Wow....could it get any better?!?!

Oh wait...there's more!!!!

Loving every moment!
Of course when asked what kind of cake she wanted, my little princess said "I want a princess cake!!!"
Oh...and Jordie was loving having all the family there too!
Posing for Grandpa for pictures!
I wish...
Jordie enjoyed Tay's cake a little more than she did her own birthday cake. She cried when we gave her cake on her 1st bday!! ( I just realized I didn't blog on her bday!! oops)

Taylor actually used her fork!! That is a rare thing.
Here is a pic of the girls on Easter. This is the best picture that we could get. Jordan wasn't really cooperating!! Aunt Jenna did her best to help!

Sunny Saturday in Arches National Park

Ok...so there are a ton on pictures in this post!! I even picked and chose from the ones that we took!! Rob got the itch to head south and enjoy some sunny Moab weather on a quick day day trip. We headed out about 8 am with our friends Angie and Spencer and got to Arches National Park about 11...

So of course the first thing that we did was eat our lunches in Devil's Garden. I was busy getting lunch stuff shuffled from the car to the table when I saw this. Poor Jordan wanted to be up on that rock with Dad and Tay soooooooooooooooo badly!!

Tay and Jord ate very little!! We kept finding Jordan with sandy piences of her PB&J. There was too much to look at and explore!

After lunch, we headed for the Landscape Arch trail head. We had to get a family picture, because this is the first summer where Taylor is actually doing the hiking on her own!! She was so excited to not be in the backpack!!

She headed out with lots of smiles and energy!

Well, her energy ran out fairly quickly!! She rode on Mom's shoulders for a couple minutes and then would walk!! She walked more than she rode which was nice for Mom!

Here we are at Lanscape Arch...1 mile in!! We decided to keep going on to a lesser known arch which was about another .5 mile in.

While at Landscape, Jordie did a little face plant!! No tears, but a pretty good mark that we had to document!

Taylor and Jordan loved the sand and had to be prodded to keep going on the trail!! In the end, I think the sand slowed us more than Tay's little legs!

A little more of Tay hiking...Here she is scrambling down a little rock!!

Daddy and Jord!

Here we are at the second arch...we can't remember what it is called!

Jordan crashed on the way out!! (Which lead to her not sleeping a wink the WHOLE way home!)

Daddy and his hikers!!

We decided to end our day at Sand Dune Arch! The sand was nice and cool after a warm afternoon of hiking. You can tell that Jordan liked it!!

Again, Tay was in heaven making castles in the sand with Angie!

Jord got used to the sand and Dad decided to bury her!!

Tay wouldn't let Jordie be the only one to get buried!

And Spencer had to 1 up them! :)

Jordan loves her Daddy!

This was taken 2 minutes after we got in the car to head home!! A few chips and she was out!! My favorite line from the whole day was Taylor while at Sand Dune Arch..."Mom...Dad...This is a fun day!!" And it was!

Jumping Gym and St. Patrick's Day

Our ward has a playgroup that meets a couple of times a week that the girls love to go to. Recently, we decided to go to a "jump house" with the group and the kids loved it!! Here are a few pictures of the fun that was had...

Oh...and here is Rob's St. Patrick's day breakfast!! He is such a good Dad! Too bad the color was a little too much for the girls. Neither of them would touch it!! :)