Desert Heat

One of the best parts of our trip to Utah was getting to see my brother and his family who live abroad.  We only see them every 2-3 years, so we were excited to spend our vacations together.  Thanks to their great planning, we ended up being able to just hop in the van and enjoy following them around the state.  One of our trips was to Moab where we visited Dead Horse Point, Arches, and Canyonlands.

Dead Horse Point:

Arches:

Canyonlands:

I wasn't up for much hiking, so we took it easy for the most part.  Eric did get to go ahead on a slightly more exciting hike to Double O Arch with my brother and sister-in-law and some older kiddos after we all made it to Landscape Arch.  I stayed behind with some of the younger kids as they played in the sand, until we ran out of shade. :)  The kids had a great time at the Sand Dune Arch being able to sit and play in the shade there.

One of the highlights was the kids earning their junior ranger badges at each park.  They got a little journal/workbook to take around with them, and they identified plants and animals, learned what to do to help take care of a state/national park, and pledged to do their part to keep the park nice for generations to come.  Here is an excerpt from one of Mierae's journals.

This trip to Moab was special in another way because Mierae's birthday was the last day of our trip!  She decided to go to Canyonlands and earn her junior ranger badge, instead of heading back to Orem and having her birthday celebration with everyone else at home that day.  

The house we stayed at had the "You Are Special Today" plate, so she got to eat her special chocolate-peanut butter pancakes on it for breakfast.  

On our way to Canyonlands we took the scenic byway and stopped to see some hieroglyphics and a dinosaur print fossil.

I slipped on the way down from this little climb with Henrik on my hip.  Thanks to my brother and Eric, neither of us was hurt, though I was sore and super emotional the rest of the day....  We were all getting tired of the heat and happy to be headed home after this last day in the barren desert.  But it was neat to be able to share the wonder of these parks with the kids.  It was the perfect family vacation for a geology professor. :)