Last weekend, I was lucky enough to go to Moab with some of my friends. Bryce was in Washington DC for work, so I decided to take a "break" and go to Moab for a few days. Thanks to Grandma and Papa Douglas and Aunt Jocie and Uncle Kyle, I actually had a needed time out for me.
On Thursday, we were headed to the airport to pick up one of our friends, Jenelle, when I started telling Jacqui about Bryce's trip in DC. I told her that he went to a movie. I said, "He went to "Dinner with the Shmucks." To which she replied, "Who is that"? To which Bekka said, "Steve Carroll and some others." To which Jacqui replied serious as could be, "How did he get to see them at dinner?" It was funny or maybe I was tired.....still funny to me!
We stopped in Spanish Fork for dinner where Wendy's decided to give us double our order....oh well, no complaining here. Then we barely made it through the canyon before Bekka needed to pull over for a "bathroom stop"( Jacqui told her she was not allowed to drink anymore caffeine). Bekka and Jenelle decide to go into Wingers to use the restrooms. Well, they walked in and the waiter sat them at the bar with menus. They acted all interested, went to the bathroom and then ran out of there as fast as they could!!
We made it to Moab around 9 that night. We met our other friend, Torri, up at the campgrounds called Sandy Flats. This picture is taken from right in front of our camper. Those are the LaSal Mountains in the background....pretty view. We took Jacqui's trailer, so as soon as we arrived, we pulled the wheelers out and set up camp. The only problem that night was trying to decide which beds we were going to sleep in. The trailer has double queen size beds like a bunk bed and then the couches fold into beds. Jacqui wouldn't sleep on the top, because she is afraid of heights. Bekka was summoned to the fold out couches because she pees alot during the night and Jenelle slept on the other couch next to her So, I ended up on the top bunk by myself and Jacqui and Torri shared the middle mattress. We all slept pretty decent but we were all up at 7 am the next morning
On Sunday, we got up and got our things packed and loaded so we could hit the road. We all bought matching T-shirts to remember our fun time together. They say Moab on the front and on the back they have a picture of a Jeep and it says, "you only wish you could drive like a girl".
Anyway, we snapped a few pictures in our shirts and then headed to Arches National Park. We jumped in the truck with Torri and she took us on a 2 hour tour of the Arches. I can't remember the names of all the Arches,but they were really neat.
We went to one called Balance Rock and it looks like it is going to fall any day. Its crazy how those rocks can just balance up there. There were many people from all over the world visiting the Arches and it was interesting to hear all the different languages being spoken.
We went to a place where there were to Arches close to each other. And again the pictures do not it justice, but it was definately worth seeing. Jacqui and Bekka were too lazy to climb up to the Arches with us, so they vegged in the truck.
We also went over to one called the Double Arch. We climbed up to the top and took a bunch of pictures. The rock in Moab is called Slick Rock, but it is not slick. It is fun to climb on the rock because it really grips to your shoes and makes it easeir to climb. 
After Arches, we headed back home. We made it all the way to Bountiful before we hit a really bad rain and wind storm. But, we made it safely home and it was a great time!
After we rafted down the river, we decided to ride the Onion Creek Trail, which passes over the creek 27 times. This was such a fun ride, one I would definately suggest for others! Like I said earlier, a storm came through and this trail is very sucseptiable to flash floods because it runs through a canyon, so some of the trail was washed away. 
We ended up having to go through the river bed for a small distance so we could get back on the trail. It was exciting to be able to ride through the water and we actually had to make sure we were placing our front tires on good spots when we came up out of the creek. In fact, Bekka came to a spot where she almost tipped over (this was her first time on a 4 wheeler) and I rode up next to her and told her not to put her foot down. Well, little did I know of the seriousness of the situation, because all of a sudden, Torri and Jacqui came running out of nowhere to RESCUE BEKKA!
This was a really pretty ride. We rode through the river bottoms for the first 4 miles and then it started climbing up quickly. We were a little worried about the weather because a bunch of dark storm clouds started rolling over the mountains. We made it to the top of Onion Creek and we stopped long enough to snap a few pictures and then we hurried back to the bottom. There are alot of flash floods in Moab because of all the rocks. It could rain 5 miles away and in minutes you could be in a bad situation because of the flooding.
But, we made it back safely even though Jenelle was really covered in mud this time. Poor Jenelle...Bekka made her get off the 4 wheeler every time they went down into the creek because she was afraid she was going to tip the 4 wheeler. Jenelle was a good sport through the whole thing!
We got to the "Put in Point" and she inflated her raft, handed out life jackets and we all sunscreened up! We hopped in the raft and off we went down the fast flowing river...just kidding...this time of year, we basically floated down the river.
The scenery was so pretty and we had a great time splashing each other with the oars. We had a tragedy on the boat though! Bekka was blinded by the sunscreen that had dripped into her eyes, so she spent some time working that out!
At one point, there were actually some decent rapids so we pretended that we were in the movie, "River Wild" and we had to paddle hard to get through them. It was fun...I just wish there would have been more rapids.
The food tasted great. Jacqui was in charge of the menu and where Torri had never had dutch oven food, it was definately a HIT! We spent the rest of the night sitting around the campfire enjoying each others company.
I ended up sleeping on one of the couches this night. I had a bad dream that woke me up in the middle of the night and I was so scared I didn't even want to move. Does anyone ever have those? Anyway, so then my mind started playing games with me and I was scared that if I turned over, some man would be looking in the window at me....I eventually turned over and the only thing looking through the window was the beautiful moon. Then I started wondering what we would do if a bear came ripping through our camper. Dumb dreams!
It is so amazing to see the red rocks down there and to see the different shapes that the wind and water has caused them to become over the years. And not one of them is the same as another. 
We rode a few miles and kept climbing little by little and we ended up on Hurrah Pass, which is around 4700 ft high. I call it "HOO RAH" pass like in the movie, "The Guardian." Anyway, the overlook was so pretty. It just seems like cameras do not do it justice. It was so gorgeous so we decided to stop and have lunch there.
When we left the pass, we went back down and ended up winding around the mountain cliffs. Bekka accidently kept her 4-wheeler in low and 4w drive the first half of the day, so she ran out of gasoline pretty quickly. We got off the trail a couple of times because of the rainstorm. We actually ended up in some jungle looking place and that is when Jacqui decided to pull out her gun. Torri and I kept looking at our trail books and the maps but they weren't very helpful. In fact, I don't think they mark the trails well enough down there.
We got back on the trail and drove for quite a while until we came to an overlook of the Colorado River. The river is very brown and sandy, but the scenery was beautiful. We didn't quite make it to Chicken Corners because we were afraid we would run out of gas.
On the way back we found some caves and spent some time eating there and hanging out in the shade. The rocks made for some really cool pictures and it felt great to get out of the sun for a while. 
Bekka and Jacqui were worried about snakes, so Jacqui pulled out her gun again! We walked around the rocks for a few minutes and then headed back to our cars. We spent about 5 hours on the trail and we had a great time. There were quite a few water holes in the middle of the trails and so Jacqui decided to go through one really fast so she would spray Bekka and Jenelle! Pour Jenelle was covered in mud and dirt when we got back!
After school shopping, we went to Chuck E Cheese to play some games and Cooper especially loves the little rides. He had exactly 15 tokens and when they were gone, he didn't ask for more. I got him some cotton candy and off we went to find some new shirts. But, I couldn't really find anything I liked and most of the clothes are winter clothes, so we headed home.
It was alot of fun to just spend some time with Cooper one-on-one and to actually follow him around and watch him enjoy the rides and games!
The kids enjoyed the few rides that they were able to go on. Cooper and Jaxson kept falling out of their tubes, so the employees would have to help them get back in them!
Later, we went to Lagoon and let the kids go on lots of rides. Even Clayton enjoyed a ride or two. Bryce and I were able to slip off for a few minutes and ride the white roller coaster and collosus, which made me dizzy. Cooper got a little brave and decided to go on this ride called Dinosaur Eggs...he wasn't so brave when the ride started going up and then dropped him. I was proud of him for trying it.
For dinner, Alpine brought in KFC, which was so tasty and healthy might I add. It was fun to be able to relax and visit with some of the other employees from Alpine. Its always a fun time and I always look forward to it every year, because I know Coopers thinks it is awesome! 
