Arches!

How can you even put into words how amazing it is to see natural wonders like these? We were able to spend a morning in Arches on a whim. We hadn't really planned out our traveling days very well, but we had left time each day to find somewhere fun to stop. We ended up getting through Kansas and Colorado faster than we thought so we did a little extra driving and stayed overnight in Moab, visiting Arches National Park for a few hours the next morning.

We hiked up towards this arch, which was a little tricky, but the boys had a great time trying. I was telling Ben about how all this stuff was created by Heavenly Father, and we were talking about how very cool it all was.

I kind of wasn't thinking about potty breaks and suddenly we had an emergency on our hands and we weren't close to the bathrooms. Well, I hurried down to the car with Ben, having to carefully make our way down these huge rocks, when Ben decided it was quite a hassle when you have to go, and told me, "Heavenly Father shouldn't have made these so big!"

Jon was happy as can be in his backpack. One of the definite blessings on this trip that I was very grateful for was that despite his lack of sleep before the trip (and some nights on the trip) and a some strenuous activity, Dave didn't mess up his knee once, and for the most part kept awake, so he was able to do 99.9% of the driving, which was good. He prefers to drive, and I prefer him to drive too!

A friend of Dave's told us about Sand Arch, which he said not to miss, our kids would love it. He was totally right. It was a big sandbox to play in! They didn't want to leave!

Under the arch, I didn't get a good shot of the arch itself. (Dear Santa, I need a new zoom lens).

It just makes you want to dance!

It's always fun when someone offers to take a picture of all of you :)

And this one with my iPhone. I wish the kind person had been able to get the shot with my SLR (she tried, bless her heart for even offering!), because it turned out cuter but it's terrible quality!

We watched a documentary last week about the National Parks that made us want (even more) to see lots more of them with our kids. And also made me wish I knew I put that cool NP passport that we bought in the Grand Canyon.... I'll have to find it before our next trip so we don't miss out on any more stamps!