Summer Vacation 2011 Part 2

 Thursday, July 14, started out quiet, as we planned a day to do laundry, watch movies and rest.  I took the kids to the park for a picnic lunch where we met my sister-in-law, Jessica and 5 or her 6 kids.  The cousins enjoyed playing together so much that some of them went over to their house to play for a few extra hours before coming back to Grandma's house. Stuart helped Justin at USA Emergency supply, which is now located in a warehouse in Orem, Ut instead of our garage. That evening there was a beautiful full moon over Utah lake which we enjoyed standing out on Grandma's back porch.

Cascade Springs

Greg, Adin and Chad, Best Buds!

       The next day was Friday- 1 week since we left AZ.  We had another traveling day, this time we did the Alpine loop.  We stopped and hiked around Cascade Springs, it was so beautiful there.  The best part of the whole trip (in my opinion) was seeing Gregory and Chad getting along (so rare) as they made a 2-man carry for Elijah and Adin.
 
We then drove over to Sundance and Grandma and Grandpa took the 2 youngest boys and the dog home while the rest of us ventured up the trail to Stewart Falls.  I had never hiked up there before and it was so fun.  We were so hot on the hike, but once we got to the base of the falls, there was snow on the ground because it was so cold!  God's creations never cease to amaze me, and this one took my breath away.   We ate at Subway for lunch on the back and went to Heather's home for dinner and a movie (Nacho Libre with 7 layer Mexican dip- yummy!)

Stewart Falls

I picked up Diane, Jacob and Megan at 7 am on Saturday.  They were tired, but happy and we were so glad to have the family back together again.  We spent the day doing laundry, grocery shopping and packing for the last half our our camping trip.  That evening we made hamburgers and celebrated Jim Butler's birthday.  The cousins really enjoyed being together again.
On Sunday we attended church with Heather and Jim's family.  Then we had  spaghetti and meatballs for dinner over at Heather's house.  Saying goodbye to them that evening was hard, we sure love being with them.  When we got back to the Robert's home, Ellise, BJ, Phillip, Bree and Kevin Roberts were waiting for us. Their parents were out of town and Julia was with friends, but we also enjoyed their visit, not believing how much they have grown in the 2 years since we last were together.

Our big group with both campers in the background!

Arches National Park

On Monday morning, we packed up the campers and the cars and headed south once again. Our first stop was the town of Moab where we found a little out-of-the-way campground called Pack Creek Campground.  After setting up camp, we headed off to check out Arches National Park.  As we arrived at the visitor's center, it began to rain just enough to cool everything down. We did a quick drive through the park that evening, and watched the sky put on a lightening show for us as we walked around Balanced Rock, Delicate Arch and other famous structures.  It was beautiful, there was even a rainbow.  Had dinner at Wendy's that night.

Diane caught a lightening bolt on film!

The next morning we returned to Arches to visit some parts of the park that we hadn't seen the night before, then we got lunch and rested during the heat of the day, then drove over to Canyonlands National Park, which is where we lost our camera.  After that we had to use Diane's and Carina's camera.  Thank goodness we had downloaded all our pictures to our laptop before we left for the park.  Canyonlands was pretty cool, but we were tired out, so we didn't stay long.  We had dinner at the campground and listened to the rain and wind as we fell asleep.