Moab

We went to Moab (yes drove) to have a big family get-together.  My sister came back from several months of military training so we all met in Moab for a couple days.  It got up to 90 degrees which was terribly hot for our soft Seattle bodies.  The cousins all had a great time playing together and the kids spent tons of time in the sand.   We took one of out two little motorcycles, my dad had his 4 wheeler, we took out mountain bikes and did Slick Rock, did some 4 wheeling, went to Arches, played some cards, BBQ'ed some ribs, and had a great time!

Here are the kids playing in the sand.  They even took blocks of sandstone and scraped it to make tubs and chairs.  It was pretty cool.

We saw some sweet petroglyphs

We did some rock climbing.

Arches was pretty much the last of the S Utah national parks for me to see and it was the first one for Marisa to see despite having been to S Utah several times for other trips.

The kids loved jumping off the rocks into the sand.

Bex wanted to seriously jump from here, but I was finally able to talk him into only jumping from the spot in the pic below.

We had some fun doing some night photography.  I don't remember where the kids got them but somebody had the crazy idea of bringing fireworks to the desert!  Someone else brought some safe glow sticks.

It was a great trip.  We got to see my sister's boyfriend Chris, my cousin Jaron and his girlfriend Angie.  Lots of family, lots of sun and lots of driving.  The kids were surprisingly good.  I hooked up the Wii and a video player to a big monitor.  That definitely made the 18 hour drive a lot more enjoyable!