Family Reunion at Arches

I can't believe I've never been to Arches before now... never have I enjoyed looking at a bunch of rocks so much! I had a few heart attacks watching kids on the edges of cliffs, but luckily we all made it through alive. I sure wish kids had more fear... ;)

There were a few funny things that we'll always remember about this trip... one was our attempt to find the Double O Arch. First we took the wrong path... then we took the wrong path again... and again... you get the picture. We had a couple from Italy following us trying to find it too. At least they have some good "crazy Americans" stories to tell. We only wished that Adam could have been there to tell us what they were really saying about us. ;) Anyway, we FINALLY made it to the Double O Arch, or so we thought. We were rather disappointed... all that hiking for this?? We attempted to take some decent pictures of a not very exciting arch... until some hikers pointed BEHIND us and asked us if that's what we were looking for. Ummm... yeah. That would be the arch:

This one was a lot more exciting, but at that point we had to hurry back, since half of the group was already waiting at the bottom of the trail, and sunset was approaching fast. Yes, we're quite clueless. The Italians were still listening to us crazy Americans at the end of this, and looking the wrong way...

I took a portrait of me with Brandon... I look good, right?

The windows arches were really cool...

And the double arch was one of my favorites too. (I'll post pictures of landscape arch and sandstone arch later... two of my very favorites. :)

Thanks, Jason, for taking this picture of us! (And for planning this whole dang thing! :) YES, that's a fanny pack. Stop making fun of me... I forgot my backpack.

Some other funny & good things to remember:

Brenda's moth-up-the-shorts-while-holding-a-scary-big-bug-in-a-gatorade-bottle dance. You oughta try it... it's quite the dance. Dallas and I almost peed our pants watching her.

Allston throwing sand in the air, crying when it got in his eyes, then immediately playing with the sand again as soon as he was put back down. Geoff and Allston were cute together.

"Is this what you mean?" (Must be said while flexing a muscle... preferably the calf muscle.)

"Are you looking at me?" (I can't even explain that one... you'd have to be there.)

Aubrey saying that she couldn't go to bed yet, because she hadn't had enough fun yet. Didn't know that was the criteria for going to bed... but now we know. ;)

Olivia holding my hand whenever she had a chance.

Ethan letting me hold and snuggle him while Brenda took care of a poopy.

Kissing Donovan's cheeks.

Eating tin foil dinners at 10:30 p.m. (isn't that how it always goes?)

Oh, so many more... I'll have to try to remember them all to write in the next post.