Goblins and Canyons and Pictures

We decided to take a little vacation with just our family.  We drove down to Goblin Valley to camp and hike.  Our poor van was packed to the gills with sleeping bags, tents, food, pillows, hot dog roasting sticks, camp stove, etc.  We drove down and found our camping spot, set up the tent, put the sleeping bags in it, and headed to Goblin Valley to hike.

This isn't Goblin Valley, it's just the pretty scenery. 

 I forgot to put sunscreen on my neck so it got burned pretty bad.  Of course no one else got burned at all.  Me and my skin that shuns the sun.

 This is Goblin Valley.  Pretty yes?

 Owen is in the middle of the picture here.  He loved to climb and run and climb and run.

 Erin was all into getting her picture taken this vacation.

Reagan liked to have her picture taken too.  This is the most non-posey picture we have I think. 

Owen in a ponderous pose. 

Reagan wants everyone to know she is 3 years old. 

Owen would jump from rock to rock. he jumped between these two rocks and scared me half to death!!  We kept telling him to stop, but he was having too much fun. 

Here's Reagan's version of climbing on rocks.  She wasn't quite as scary. 

 You  just hope the rocks don't chose this moment to drop on your children.

 Reagan the conqueror.

Again, Owen is grouchy for some reason.   

 The kids got hot and "couldn't walk one more step".

Liam took this pic.  We tried to get it so we could photoshop him in, but the kids just moved way too much. 

 This is our campground.  We just found a spot.  Erin picked it out and then Owen found this little cubby that was surrounded by rocks.  It had a fire pit already built and kept us pretty private.

This was a fun shady spot to eat lunch in. 

Everyone slept okay for camping.  Cameron and my bed was on the slightest slope, which felt like a mountain during the night.  I didn't drink enough water the day before, so I had a monster headache all through the night and there was one cricket who kept chirping that I wanted to murder.  Other than that, it was good.  The kids loved it and Cameron slept pretty good.  

Morning time.  We made omelettes in a bag.  Delicious! 

The view from our campground. 

Weird plant that I've never seen before.  I have no idea what it is. 

The girls found a cactus. 

Exploring before breakfast. 

Reagan's had got bitten sometime in the night.  Not sure what bit her, but her hand swelled up quite a bit.  She said it didn't hurt though. 

Crazy tree.  What's with the branch growing out of it into the ground?  

 We went up Wild Horse Canyon and hiked the slot canyon there.  It was so much fun.  I've never been in a slot canyon.  So cool!  A nice lady who thought it was great we were taking out kids hiking asked if she could take our family's picture.  Then she told me how badly sunburned my neck was and warned me to take a scarf with me.  She was well meaning.

 Erin being a mummy.

This was a hole in the wall that Cameron put his head into.  Still gives me the creeps a little.  What if there was a spider in there or something?  Eeesh! 

All the kids wanted to pretend they were dead. 

 This picture is an analogy of our family for me.  There is quite clearly an easy way to get around this rock.  Cameron took it and showed them how to do it.  My children chose to climb over it on the skinniest side possible.  What does that tell you?

This is the canyon.  Isn't it cool how you hike right there next to the rocks? 

Owen and Erin.  Owen is being dead again.  I don't know why. 

This is another instance where you hope the rock stays strong.  I was reminded of Aaron Rawlston, the guy who got caught in the canyon by a boulder and had to chop his arm off.  Shivery!! 

This is where we ate lunch.  It opened up a little and further on down the trail, there were pools of water that you couldn't get through unless you wanted to get soaking wet.  Which would be fun, but not with kids. 

Pretty formation in the rock. 

That's how wide the canyon was.  It was pretty narrow in some spots.

Liam being a drummer with his siblings. 

Jumping off the rocks. 

That's my foot to show how narrow the canyon got sometimes. 

The kids had fun running along the walls of the canyon and seeing how far up they could run. 

This is Reagan's version of that. 

After our one night, we told the kids we were coming back home so we broke camp, packed the van up and set out.  We surprised them about halfway back with a motel room we had rented with an indoor pool.  It was really fun to be able to stop, swim (during which Owen very nearly drowned, but we saved him.  I think he has a healthy respect for water now.), get some food and relax in our room while watching SpongeBob.  We were all in bed by 8:30 that night.  The next morning we got up and ate, swam again and came the rest of the way home.  It was a fun little trip and we made some good memories!