Wednesday, March 25, 2015

moab, canyonlands, arches and waiting

We took our first family vacation this last weekend and it was a much needed breath of fresh air, although I spent Saturday running 13.1 miles. It was such a beautiful race and I am very glad (and relieved) that I did it. Brett's dad and Mary met us there and Mary and I ran together. The kids had fun at the lodge collecting rocks, seeing the river, horses, Arches and teepees. I grew up in St. George, Utah and cannot believe I had never been to Moab, or seen Arches or Canyonlands National parks before. Brett and I made a goal to visit every National Park in Utah before we move again next year. We may find ourselves camping out this summer in Arches, Bryce, or Capitol Reef.

Speaking of Brett, here's a little shoutout: he was elected as his track's (OBHR) President next year, and we are waiting to hear back about an internship location for an awesome internship that he landed, with GE Oil & Gas. Possible locations include: Houston, Denver, San Ramon and possibly others. He has done so well in school and I am very proud of him. We are now trying to get our finances in order to decide whether it is feasible for us to accompany him on a little summer adventure. We have always been ones to move around a lot, and if a career with GE works out in the end, I don't see that changing anytime soon. Excited and very anxious for what the future holds. Maybe someday we will be done with school.

In other news, I am starting to gear up for Kindergarten registration for a girl who I still view as my 3-year old. I am so nervous about everything I have to do to ensure her safety at school....504's are incredibly overwhelming, but I feel like I am finding the right people and the help I need. Griffin is as stubborn and sweet as ever, following his sister around all day. I love the way they play together now (when they aren't pinching or biting), they are so enveloped in their play land of make believe, car races, taking care of babies, playing dinosaurs, princess, dress up, dancing, birthday parties, building train tracks down the hallway, chasing each other and creating artistic masterpieces. March Madness has filled up most of our evenings and Maya filled out her first ever bracket. She informed me that she was only choosing teams whose names sounded like girls names, and when she heard Arizona, she obviously took them all the way to winning the championship. New Mexico State was also a favorite...(?) Some favorites this month include Griffin saying his name, "Grissin", calling me "monny", and saying "oh hey guys" to anyone he comes in contact with. Maya has recently declared herself an "art girl", and has found a variety of things to do "day by day".

When we first decided to move to Provo, my first thought was, "YES! We will actually have a winter with snow and skiing!" Well, we didn't really get any snow, other than right after Christmas, and we only were able to go up to the slopes 3 times. Some might think I'm crazy, but I really do love the seasons, and would have enjoyed some more snow. Now that it is spring, and blossoms and allergies are in full bloom, I am left wondering where the winter even went. Maybe we brought those warm winters from AZ with us. Either way, we have one more Utah winter to experience and we will see what it brings.

 rock hunting near the lodge


 at the starting line

at the finish line


we didn't have enough daylight to make the hike up there and didn't realize the viewpoint would be so anti-climatic and far away...but we were there!

red cliffs lodge, where we stayed (not in the teepees, there were individual cabins)



this was a while back, but we had a nice family shot on BYUtv at the men's volleyball game...at least no one was picking their noses (not that there's anything wrong with that!)