Our Adventures in Arches

We have lived in Utah for a quite awhile now, and thought it was about time we went to see some of it's beauty in Arches National Park.  It's about a 4 hour drive, and we planned on just making it a day trip.  Yes, we'd be exhausted, but we wouldn't have to spend the night in a tent or hotel room with Allie, who has never slept anywhere but her bed.  But then we found out that 3 families we know were going there together for the week, and they convinced us to spend the night and have some fun with them. 
So we were really excited; it's been a really long time since we actually had a vacation besides visiting family. 
So we set off with our minivan packed to the gills.  We were sick of driving when we got there, but our friends were headed off to hike, so we had to drive a little longer to get to the trail. 

The view was breathtaking.

There was super fine, soft sand that the kids loved.  Tyler got a cup of it to take home.  Now that I think of it, I haven't seen it since.  It's probably all over the floor of the van.

We brought a backpack to carry Allie.  It was really heavy with her in it, so we encouraged her to walk.  She did for about 7 minutes.  She loved going for a ride in the "packack."

After the hike we set up camp and had fun with our friends.  We ate dinner, made smores and banana boats, which are bananas cut lengthwise with chocolate and marshmallows put in the gap, wrapped in tin foil and roasted in the fire.  Delicious!

It was a very long, cold night.  The boys slept like logs.  Allie did good; she woke up several times and cried, but just for a few seconds until I reassured her, then she went back to sleep.  I didn't sleep at all, which is the biggest reason I hate camping.

The next day we went to Delicate Arch, which is the highlight of the park, the most famous arch in the world. 

Since our friends had little kids, and Jared and I were taking turns carrying Allie, we were taking it slow and easy.  Tyler and Jason wanted to go faster, so they went on ahead.  As I struggled up the trail in my out of shape state, Allie on my back, I said to Jared "This arch . . . (pant, pant) . . . better be . . . (huff, puff) . . . absolutely AMAZING!" 

 We stopped for a rest halfway up.

 In the pictures the arch looks huge, but it's actually not that impressive.  See?

 Just kidding

It really was absolutely amazing.   Pictures do not do it justice.  It's really a stunning piece of natural beauty, there's nothing else like it.

Jared, Joey and Jason went right up to it.  I was too tired, and needed to sit and rest for a while. 

This is right about the time I looked around and said "Where's Tyler??"

He was not there.  He was there when we got up, and we were all together for awhile, but now he was gone.  Jason said "He told me that he saw the arch, and was done.  He went back down."  Well we were pretty mad/scared/angry, as you can imagine.  We were going to hang out at the top and eat lunch and spend time with friends, then all go down and spend the rest of the day together.  But we couldn't leave Tyler alone, so we had to leave our friends and go find him.  He was fine, waiting at the bottom of the trail.  He wasn't so fine after the stern talking-to.  But we all got over it, and saw some other amazing sights.  We didn't see our friends again, since we would have had to wait a long time for them, and we had to go home that evening. 

 Everywhere you go you see something unexpected.  Like Sand Dune Arch:  You go through this narrow way, and it opens to this huge natural sandbox.  The sand is so soft and fine and clean.  We spent a long time here because it was just fun to sit and play in it.

 
We all love how Allie says "fingers."  She says it "fingerns" and so this picture is titled "Where Fingerns Go?"And this one is "There They Are!"

 

 

We saw a couple more arches, but at this point we were exhausted and ready to call it a day.  We headed home sunburned and happy, and vowed to go back again, because there is so much more that we didn't see.  It was a great experience!