Moab, Baby!

Get ready for a plethora of pictures and a gazillion adventure stories...

Oh Moab, sweet, sweet Moab. I think I had forgotten how much fun can be had in Moab. This last weekend we headed there for our annual Spring expedition. Dave was so excited to get there we packed up the car after he got off of work on Thursday night and off we went. The only problem was Moab was booked! We were driving around at 3:00 in the morning searching desperately for a site so we could lay down our heads but no, every single site was full. Believe me, we checked ;). Not to worry though, we are the Millers and very resourceful, we found us some nice BLM land to call home. The next day we were able to find some fellow campers who planned on leaving later that day, so, we left a few chairs to mark our place for when they were gone. I liked the BLM land just fine but it was about 30 minutes past Moab so I was super stoked to find a site actually IN Moab. Later that day we met up with some friends, Ryan, Jamie and Nick. Ryan had never been to Moab before so first thing was first, Baby Lions Back. The three piled into the back of our truck and off we went.

Ryan and Nick were so freakin' scared, they thought they were going to die for sure. It was hilarious. If there hadn't been kids present I think there would have been a lot of swearing directed at Dave. We all survived and spent the rest of the day hiking around Arches and getting a few poser shots.

Dave decided to spice things up a bit and climbed up onto one of the Arches. The problem? He got stuck. Really stuck. A very shaky Nick had to climb up and offer him a helping shoulder. Nick thought he was going to die...again :)

The next day we decided to hike up to Delicate Arch, a must for any first timer in Moab. When we started out we had BEAUTIFUL blue skies. As we were hiking along we turned around to see a BIG storm moving in fast. Dark, dark clouds, lightning and booming thunder. I'm not sure why but we didn't turn around and hightail it for the cars, no, we kept going and got caught in a torrential thunderstorm. It was crazy. CRAZY. Luckily we found us a little cave to hole up in in the nick of time. The hail that started down after we found our cave looked quite painful.

My little ones were such troopers. We were all soaked. I was literally wringing out our clothes. Ali was all laughs and smiles though.

Emma was too until she got cold. Poor Kiddo. Anyway, the storm moved out as fast as it had moved in and we continued on up to the Arch. It was little Als first time seeing Delicate Arch.

I think she liked it. It was beautiful and we pretty much had the Arch all to ourselves, a rarity for sure. I don't think I've ever had so much fun on a hike before. I know that may sound crazy considering our hiking conditions but it really made the hike an adventure, one I will never forget :).

We spent the rest of the day drying off and chillin' at camp. We had the coolest campsite that overlooked a technical climb on fins and things. We spent a lot of time up there watching jeeps, trucks and four-wheelers attempt to tackle it.

It was also a great place to take pictures of rainbows...

While in Moab we got some biking in, Slickrock of course.

Some of us even got some crashing in.

Can I just say quickly that I married the most amazing man ever?! Dave pulled the girls in the bike trailer for the whole ride....pulled a bike trailer on Slickrock! Ut. Mounain Biking had this to say about slickrock, "World's most famous bike trail, Advanced technical, strenuous with moderate long climbs and some short brute climbs." As we started there were quite a few bikers in the parking lot laughing. One even stopped Nick to ask us what our names were and said he would be watching the papers tomorrow for us. I'm super sad I never got a picture of Dave pulling the girls, especially on some of the crazy stuff. You will have to settle for this pic to know the trailer was on slickrock...

I know this is turning into the longest post ever so I will just hurry and list a few other highlights

*Diggin' on fins and things

*ALi grabbing one of Ryan's beers and trying to get someone to open it for her while chanting, "Juice, Juice."

*An AMAZING dutch oven dinner

*Hanging out around the campfire and roasting coconut covered marshmallows

*Emma flirting with her heart-throb, Nick

*The camping potty.

I better explain that last one. Before leaving for Moab I purchased a little potty for the girls so I wouldn't have to be running them to the stink pot every 2 minutes. It was so funny to look over and see them doing their business.

BTW-best $10 ever spent ;).

As with all good camping trips, this one had to come to an end. However, we weren't quite ready to end our adventures and head home so Dave, the girls and I headed over towards Goblin Valley to hike Wild Horse Slot Canyon. Check it out...

WOWSA. It doesn't get any cooler than that!

It was kinda crazy because there were a number of water/mud holes we had to navigate around, which can be quite tricky with a 30+ lb pack and child on your back. Poor, poor little Howie actually fell in one...

I wish you could have seen him emerging with a muddy stick stuck to his little head and frantically trying to find the edge.

We didn't get to explore/hike the slot canyon as long as we wanted too because it started to rain and we had to hightail it out of there. A narrow slot canyon is not a place you want to be when it starts to pour.

What a fab-u-louso weekend. I can't wait for a summer full of more adventures!