Moab Memories (June 2012)

Hot, hot, hot! We're talking over 100* each day.

  

KOA Kampsite was nice, but not very shady - and very sandy, especially when the wind picked up like it did the first night and didn't stop until we left. We also learned that a rain fly is not to just keep out the rain. It can keep out blowing sand too. We found that out a day late.

Sand Dune Arch was so fun and a great hike for most of us (Isaac's legs were just a tad too little to get through all the sand.)

Landscape Arch was pretty cool too, but not in the heat of the day and with wind and sand exfoliating your bare skin every few minutes or so. It was nice to have our friend Nillie Tillie around to encourage us along the trail.

 Swimming in the campground pool is the best way to spend a very hot afternoon.

Wally's dreams came true when he got to bike the whole Slickrock Trail. It only took him 3 hours and most of his energy for the rest of the day. He also ate anything he could get his hands on, including some good old Moab shake'n'bake (thanks to the wind).

Aunt Kenna is awesome! She made so many fun things happen for us! 

She truly is the camping queen.

Rowing down the Colorado River was great, until we were rowing against the wind where we went absolutely no where. 

Brandon and Caleb loved the river. Kelsie and Isaac did not.

Ronni walked 2 miles up the road in intense heat to get the car after we docked a couple miles early in our river fun. She did have an offer for a ride, but declined since it was only 100 more yards to the car.

The Moab Diner has awesome ice cream. Especially when we were all tuckered out from rowing and being in the sun. It was the best thing to do after the river.

We made glow stick pictures and told ghost stories around the "campfire", which was a simple lantern.

The Moab Rock Shop was really cool and everyone came away with some new rocks to add to their ever growing collections which usually end up out in the yard anyway.

Aunt Kenna made us some really great chicken tacos. Have her make it for you some time and ask her what she calls it.

Highlight of the trip? The hummer ride to Hell's Revenge. The roller coaster part was everyone's favorite, even Isaac's. The views over the Colorado river were stunning and everyone had a great time.

Caleb had a huge smile on his face the entire trip. Nothing was going to get him down. Searching for lizards every time he went to the bathroom was the highlight of his days. The hummer ride was another favorite, followed closely by the river. Especially when Aunt Kenna let him get in the water with her!

Kelsie told a great story around the "campfire", but my favorite was the story she told about the girl who went camping with her family and hated every minute of it. She let us know that they have a lot in common. Being the drama queen that she is, she let us all know that she was going to die on the Hummer ride, but in the end loved every second of it. And, admittedly, her favorite part of our trip was going down the river. Go figure.

Isaac was the most happy when he was roaming free looking for rocks, lizards, and rabbits. He especially loved the smores that we cooked and drove his dad a little mad when it came to holding the roasting stick out of the coals (as in none of his marshmallows were edible). He was not a fan of the river and sat quietly in the boat with a scowl on his face until he could get out. We just covered his face with a hat. He loved the hummer ride as well, and somehow managed to fall asleep in the middle of it. He must have been really tired.

Brandon was totally in his element being outside. He brought his pocketknife and carved on any stick he could find. He was so excited to go down the river, but his excitement drained a little when he realized how hard he was going to have to paddle nonstop. The hummer was his favorite adventure and he let us know how he could to this again. Like now. Right now.

As for the parents, camping is a lot of work. Hard work. Especially in the heat of Moab. We had a great time (minus the wind and sand) and would highly recommend a trip, especially if you have never been. Just not in the middle of summer. Or in the windy season.

Or  at least book a cabin instead of a tent.

San Francisco

Wally and I had the rare opportunity a few weeks ago to leave the kids behind, with Grandma, and spend a week together in San Francisco. It was so fun and we had such a great time. Wally had to work a couple of days, so I spent some quality time with my sister. We were able to go and do all things San Francisco and have some very much needed relaxation!



My favorite part of the trip was when we went on a little hike near Pleasanton. We had so much time to talk and walk off  the high calorie meals we had been eating. Wally's favorite? The night we went dancing with my sister and her husband at the DNA Lounge for the Bootie mash-up party. I haven't seen him so excited in a long time! It was so nice to spend time together sans kids, but we were happy to come home when it was all over.

Western Expedition 2011

I started out thinking, "I must be crazy!". Driving myself and four kids out to California, Utah and back by myself seemed a bit unrealistic. Especially since Wally wouldn't be joining us until the last leg of our trip. But like most things I do, I didn't let the craziness stop me. I packed up the car, loaded the kids, gave Wally a big kiss and then headed out into the unknown. Well, as unknown as I-40 can be to a girl whose never driven on it past Flagstaff, AZ.  

The reason for my sudden fit of insanity? Adventure? Yes. To make memories? Yes. To prove to myself (and those who thought I was completely out of my mind) I could do it? Yes. But the real reason we went was first to visit my parents, whose home we haven't been able to visit for a few years, and second to let my kids swim in their pool to their hearts content for a week and a half. Was it worth it? YES!

We had a great trip and oh, the stories to tell!  I have a lot to share about swimming, the beach, driving, reunions, and even brakes (or lack thereof!). I am glad to be home after being gone for nearly three weeks. The biggest thing I have learned about this jaunt across the Western U.S. is that I can do anything. Even with four kids in tow.

Oh wait. I already knew that.

Indiana Dunes

Back in July, when we visited Mount Rushmore (which I still haven't blogged about, don't judge), we promised the park ranger who swore our kids in as junior rangers that we would check out the national park closest to our home.  We had to do a little research (a.k.a. ask the ranger) to find out which one it was and how close.  That's where we found the Indiana Dunes--not to be confused with Indiana Jones.  We decided it would make a great end of summer celebration and headed down there on Labor Day. 

West Beach was our first destination where we hiked the Succession Trail.  It didn't take long for us to realize that walking around in tennis shoes wasn't the easiest way to get around.  It was a lot easier walking around the sand in bare feet.  We had such a fun time hiking up and down the dunes and seeing the landscape.  I loved climbing up the big stair cases to the top and seeing the beautiful view of Lake Michigan.  We could even see the Chicago skyline in the distant (look really close in the top right corner).  

Even little Isaac had a good time.  There's nothing like being strapped to Dad enjoying the great outdoors, even if his hat makes his ears stick out.  

We climbed to the top of some very steep dunes (my calves still won't let me forget) and the kids discovered the thrill of jumping (or flipping) down the dunes. 

But I couldn't let the kids have all the fun! 

Our hike ended at the beach where the kids found the best skipping rocks I think they've ever found.  This was Brandon's face every time he successfully skipped a rock (nice bed-head, huh?):

Picking out just the right rock is not to be taken lightly though.

After spending some time on the beach, we decided to drive around to see what else there was to see.  It was a pretty popular place to be though (it was Labor Day, remember?) so finding a parking space became an issue for us.  We struck out a couple of times before we finally found some spaces at the less popular bogs.  Isaac needed to eat at this point and Caleb had fallen asleep, so Wally and the older kids went out to explore.  I figured it was a successful exploration when Brandon came back looking like this:

Boys + Sticks = Rifles?

We had a really great time exploring the Indiana Dunes and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in going.  We love finding new things to do as a family and I'm so glad the dunes were close!  We still made it back in time to have a barbeque with some friends at the end of the day.  All in all, it was a really great Labor Day.

Road Trip 2010

4, 012.1 miles later, we made it back home after being gone for 15 days.  We had so much fun visiting family and friends and driving through 11 states of the country (try to imagine that with four kids 2 months old – 10 years!)!  Stay tuned for our report…

A little teaser

{Door County}

{July 2009}

MIA

Whew!  These last few weeks have gone by so fast here that I have barely had enough time to catch my breath, let alone blog.  Here’s a quick report of what has been going on here in our little corner of the world.

We officially have a “tween” living with us now.  We celebrated Kelsie’s birthday with a small family party this year.  And it rained most of the day.  Bummer.  She loves being another year older and got (almost) everything she wanted.

Wally spent a week away from us in Europe and had a fabulous time.  He enjoyed the time he had to play tourist in Amsterdam and Maastricht, but in the end decided that there really is no place like home.

The day after Wally got home from Europe, his brother and his family came for a visit from Iowa.  We had so much fun hanging out and playing with them.  It’s always fun to have cousins around and Caleb couldn’t get enough of his new favorite cousin, Caroline.  I also just have to mention how much more fun Chicago is in the summertime.  So.much.fun.

Since strawberry picking is on our list of things to do this summer, and since it is such a short season, we decided to drive up to Wisconsin just before the 4th of July and picked 12 quarts of strawberries.  Caleb ate the berries faster than we could pick them and everyone ended up with juice stains all over their shorts, but we had a great time and had lots of fun together.  We were even excited to get a $0.49 ice cream cone at McDonald’s before we headed home.

 

Then came the 4th of July.  It is one of my most favorite holidays, so we went to just about everything we could.  The parade was fun, even in the rain, and the fireworks on the beach were great (it stopped raining by then).  The kids had fun with sparklers, glow sticks, friends, and fireworks at the end of the day. 

 

A few days later, Wally’s parents came out to visit and watch our kids while we went down into Chicago for a couple of nights to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.  We had a great time together, without any kids and they had tons of fun without the parents.  They were able to eat as much chocolate, donuts, and chips as they wanted and play as much video and computer games to their hearts content.  Just the way it should be when Grandma and Grandpa are in charge!  I have tons of pictures from our little jaunt into the city—I’ll have to post those later.

In between all of this we have also been doing a little bit of:

reading:

crafting:

taking care of bumps, bruises, and boils:

and getting as much play time in as we can!

Home-cation

I consider our family pretty adventurous. We like to do and try new things any chance we can. So, when I read a magazine article about a 'Stay At Home Vacation', I thought this was a great idea! We found a weekend that would work for us and planned a fun home-cation!

When the kids came home from school last Friday, we told them to pack an overnight bag because we were going on a home-cation. They both got really excited about the idea and ran off packing pj's and toys. We went to try and find a geocache close by, but it ended up being a little too muddy so we went to the park instead. It was so nice to be able to spend some time outside in the fresh air and play together. After awhile, when our noses and fingers were cold, we drove over to the library to get some new books because you always need a good book on a home-cation. We then stopped by the redbox for some entertainment later that night on our way to dinner at the kids choice restaurant, Wendy's.

After finishing desert (jr. frosty's and a strawberry shake) we drove to the Hotel Paxtonia in a beautiful part of the city, close to the lake. Kelsie made sure that we all "turned on our imaginations" and then secured the suite for us upon arrival and was even more excited when she said it was going to be free! We turned our basement into a hotel room, pulled out the hide-a-bed for Wally and I, put up the tent for Kelsie and Brandon, and the pack'n'play for Caleb. We had a great time watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Kelsie's movie night pick) and then it was lights out. Then the giggles began. It felt like a slumber party from my pre-teen years! We laughed and laughed at nothing in particular until we fell asleep. It was a lot of fun.

Our home-cation continued the next morning when we took the train down into the city to watch all the festivities going on for St. Patrick's Day and then came home for pizza night. It turned out to be so much more fun than we had anticipated and can't wait to do it again!