Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

We are home from our somewhat spontaneous camping trip to Goblin Valley. I am a little bit sad that Sterling and I didn't have a chance to build up our hiking stamina--I wanted to fit in so much more!!!!!! We felt a little sheepish puffing up a 750ft incline after 6.5 miles of hiking and my mom was sauntering along ahead of us. Her words were "I am more in shape than I thought I was!" ya mom, ya. I, however, am more out of shape than I thought I was. In my defense I am almost 5 months pregnant and I was carrying a 1yr old the entire time. It was grand times had by all though.

The first night we got there it snowed. Not just for a minute. For quite some time. It was miserable and horrible and my kids were not impressed. I was not impressed. I took shelter in my sister Megan's trailer and talked to Sterling about how there ALWAYS seems to be some reason that camping with a trailer is better (remember the horrible gnats at dinner time at Yellowstone?!?!) and how much I want to get a trailer someday. Luckily, we had known it was supposed to be chilly in the evenings and I had thrown in a full-body winter suit for Will. I wanted one for me. Haha. 

Jack

Jack rode on that little motorcycle pretty much non-stop when we were home in the evenings, often with Devaney behind him. It was hilarious! He would go about a foot, stop, go a foot, stop. It was very slow going. But they seemed to enjoy themselves!

The amazing cooks braving the snow on the first night.

Our own little snowman. It was so incredibly cold.

 Luckily, Sterling and I purchased new sleeping bags last fall (ours died over the summer) that zip together. Sterling was worried the first night about Will freezing in the play pen so all four of us snuggled into the massive sleeping bag. It worked perfectly. I was super impressed with the kids, they laid down, Ruth put her arm around Will, closed their eyes, and went right to sleep. It made the night warm and cozy for us and we ended up sleeping that way every night except for the last. I have to say, it was pretty cute to see my little ones snuggle in together and fall asleep!

The next morning we want as a big group (twenty of us?) to hike Little Wild Horse Canyon, a slot canyon right outside of Goblin Valley. It was awesome. Chilly, but awesome.

Sterling and Ruth at the entrance. 

For some reason these loaded funny, this was taken from outside our tent on the first morning. It was gorgeous.

This was that first night in the snow.

And…back to the entrance of the slot canyon.

Troopers: Anders, Hailey, Megan, Natalie, and Kiersten

Stopping for a morning snack.

Wyatt and Ethan of course couldn't just snack at the bottom of the mountain. 

Natalie and Ruthie and Danica. 

Kiersten, Lynnaea, Cassidy, Hailey, Anders, Ethan, Ruthie, Kourtney, me, Devaney, Sterling, Natalie, and Myles in front. 

Ruth was hilarious. She ran like this the entire way. Seriously, that girl cannot handle just walking. Its always a jump/run/skip sort of thing. 

Look at the teeny, tiny people at the base of that mountain!  

Lindsay Ann 

Mom

And that is Wyatt and Jack way down below Sterling.

That same day we went into Goblin Valley and played around. It was awesome. Except that my camera died, and I was sad. Sterling won husband of the year award though and drove all the way back to Price that night (about 100 miles) to get me a new camera charger. I hadn't brought mine because I knew my camera would last, but then had accidentally left it on all night. Ruff. Then Megan's trailer broke and we had no power, so Wyatt and Lindsay Ann saved the day by have a car converter than we could plug our new charger into in our van. Sigh. It was quite the feat but I was so happy to have my camera the rest of the trip, especially because mom's also died!

Ruthie just crawled into the crevice in front of where Megan is standing.

Myles, Anders, Ethan, Wyatt and some other hooligans.

AHAAHAAAHAAA! 

Sterling and Ruthie waving at me!

This sliding put a hole in her pants. Oh well. She loved it!

Natalie, Lindsay Ann, Ruthie, Megan 

 Will also loved the dirt. Natalie and him teamed up and she put dirt on the big rock and he wiped it off, for quite some time. It was great!

And here's some pictures I stole from my sister. See all those kids on the four wheeler with Danica? Ruthie had been there FOREVER. Every time Danica came back to camp (about every five to ten minutes) some kids would get off or on. But not Ruthie. She stayed on and on. She loved it. Danica became her instant new best friend, haha.

And a cute picture of Ruth, Natalie, Jack, and Devaney. 

All in all, it was a GREAT first day! We went back to our windy camp (the wind was so miserable) and the kids played with three shovels and a bucket I had decided to bring along. They routinely got sand in each other's faces and had a marvelous time, haha.