Family Moab Trip

Over Labor Day weekend we continued our vacation marathon (more about the other vacations in a later post) and went down to Arches to meet the Jar-no/Jar-Not family for a long weekend. We had a great time, like always. It was filled with adventure and a lot of laughs. (I will pre-warn that there are a lot of pictures and there will probably be another post of just vacation pictures after I get them from Han.)
The drive down was pretty easy (only 4 hours for us) because our kids are road trip warriors. I don't know if we just got lucky or if we have conditioned them to riding in the car but they make road trips so easy for us! We went down on Friday and had a relaxing evening hanging out with Juju, Han and baby Braxton, as Quinn calls her. The dads had fun with the little girls in the backyard of our rental. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Arches. I think we will make another trip down before we leave Utah. I love at night when the rocks turn dark against the night sky and the stars are so bright.

We found an old itinerary in the rental house we were staying in that was in an excel spreadsheet and had the activities for the vacation broken down into time, activity and even miles to travel. We had a lot of fun this trip talking about how we were not following our itinerary. For example, on Saturday we didn't leave the house to go sight seeing until about 1:30ish.... that was not part of the itinerary! 

However, when we finally made it out of the house and into the windows section of arches it was beautiful. We didn't make it there last time we visited because we were too tired to get out of the car! Quinn decided she still hated the backpack carrier and we used it for Braxton instead. Quinn rode in the stroller Han pushed to the top. She didn't like that her daddy was carrying Braxton though. It is funny how she gets so jealous if he gives his attention to someone else.

She thought this seat was a princess chair and proceeded to scream the entire way back to the car because she wanted her "princess chair." And as I mentioned she was in a mood that day and was not interested in a family picture. (Han photoshopped a nice picture of the lovely gate attendant into our picture to block out some random walkers.) 

Juju was a little nervous here because across the way was a group of photographers trying to climb up a rock ledge. A little old lady kept trying to get to the top and lets just say she was not the most athletic. Luckily everybody made it safely to the ledge. 

Jen and her family arrived on Saturday afternoon and we had a full house. We headed out on Saturday evening to watch the sunset from windows but due to not following the itinerary we didn't make it and had to settle for this beautiful spot. Han and the kids ventured into an illegal area and got some pictures while the rest of us waited by the car (that is why Leo is not pictured with his cousins). Quinn loves Marcel and Reese and it was fun to watch her get to play with during the trip. I can't believe how much they have grown since Dave and I have been together. It is crazy to think that when we started dating Reese was only 4!

On Sunday we decided to do the hike to Delicate Arch. It is listed as strenuous and we got there at the hottest point of the day (itinerary fail). It was pretty comical. We forced Quinn into a backpack carrier and she screamed bloody murder. She was eventually okay if I carried the backpack... up the steepest part of the trail. I didn't last long so Ryan came to my rescue and carried her up the mountain. We did the hike with 6 adults, 2 toddlers, 5 kids and an infant... and a lot of crap! BUT we made it to the top and the only causality was Han's umbrella.
We were able to get a family picture close to Delicate Arch and it turned out pretty good considering Quinn is a bear to try and get pictures of lately!

 

Han decided to climb to the top of this rock to get some good photos. 

We had a relaxing evening on Sunday with grilling out and hanging out on the back patio. It was great to see family and get to spend time together. We always have fun together and I am looking forward to seeing them all again for Thanksgiving. 

Quinn loved riding on the back of the bike. 

 Family photo with the whole gang! 

Family trips are good, life is good