Adventures West

Hi! I'm alive, in case you were wondering. I took a little unintended blog break because life was just too busy. Good busy. We just returned from a fabulous family adventure that had us tromping all over the West, from Colorado to the Pacific coast. Here's the postcards I forgot to send you:

We started out with a trip to Moab. We had never been there before, but can not wait to go back. Arches National Park is just about five minutes from Moab so it makes a great base camp. (If you don't want to actually camp.) Since we figured out earlier in the summer that Thing One has about a one mile hiking limit, we chose very short "hikes" on this trip. Also, it was 100º almost every single day we were gone, so not great for hiking in the desert even if you a not a little person. We walked to Double Arch...

...and around Balanced Rock. It was all so cool, and amazing! Next we headed about 45 minutes away to Canyonlands National Park. Here there were awesome rock formations to look up to, and breath-taking canyons to look down on. 

So cool and beautiful. It made it worth it even in the extreme heat.

Our third stop was in Zion National Park. When we arrived late in the afternoon it was raining, and the mist hung in the air the whole time we were there. We hiked to Weeping Rock, and along the river some, but the Narrows were closed due to sudden flash flooding! All three of the national parks we visited were so beautiful and so different from one another. We made short stops in each and it was honestly only enough to stamp our National Parks Passport, and whet our appetite for more. We can't wait to return and explore more of these beautiful landmarks.

The drive from Colorado to California is such a beautiful one. I love it. We are so blessed to live in a county with so much variety in the landscape and so much beauty. When we left CO the Yosemite fire was raging, but since we were headed to Southern California we didn't think fires would play into out trip. How surprised we were when the hillside across from our room caught on fire and we suddenly saw flames and lots of smoke! Then this happened for the next five hours. 

Hooray for water hazards! The boys loved getting to see the helicopters fly back and forth over our heads so close and so frequently. And thankfully their efforts were effective in getting the fire out by night fall. I was a little nervous. 

Finally we made it all the way to the coast and enjoyed a day at the beach picking up shells, playing in sand and waves and discovering tide pools and tons of crabs. This is one of the beaches in La Jolla. 

Last but not least we explored NYC... and all the other tiny cities at Legoland. The model cities are pretty impressive, and my husband of course loved the homage to Star Wars. The park was perfect for our boys at their young ages and we were so happy we got to take them. 

So that's why I've been MIA. So good to get away, so much to come back to, so thankful for all of it. 

We have a super busy September ahead, but I'm hoping to be here more. I hope you are well! I'll see you again soon for some fun toddler activities Thing Two has been enjoying. Thanks for reading!

-Haley