Spontaneous Fun

The Thursday before Easter, I got a text from Craig that said he wanted to go somewhere for the weekend.  I responded "That would be fun!"  But we didn't plan anything else.  He got home from work Thursday night and announced "I took the day off tomorrow!  Where should we go?!"

We decided that Moab was close enough that we could take a trip there for a weekend.  So, Thursday night, we packed up and drove to Price, where we spent the night. (Moab isn't too far of a drive to do in one day - it is only 4 hours, but Craig was ready to go Thursday night, and by the time we left our apartment Thursday night, neither of us wanted to drive all four hours, so we settled on 2 to Price)  We stayed in a hotel that night, and Friday morning we enjoyed a delicious continental breakfast, headed to Walmart to finish buying the food we would need, and drove the 2 remaining hours to get to Moab.

Little did we know, there was a big Jeep event going on in Moab, so we were really lucky to find a place to camp! We set up our tent, ate lunch, and headed to Arches National Park.

It was my first time going to Arches, and I really enjoyed it!  The weather was perfect, and we just had a blast there!  It wasn't exactly what I expected, I actually don't know what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised when we got there by how much fun we had!

Arches is beautiful!  This is one of the views as you drive through the park.  I love the rock formations that jut out of the ground.

 We did the longest hike first to Delicate Arch. It was 3 miles round trip, so it still wasn't bad at all.  Craig carried Calder in the backpack for this one until we got there, because it was longer, and there were a few places I wouldn't want him walking by himself.

It is so majestic.  I love that there are people at the bottom of the arch in this picture so you can see how big it really is. And I also love being able to see snow-covered mountains in the distance.

 After Delicate Arch, we made our way over to Balanced Rock.  I think the trail was 0.5 miles round trip, and was wheelchair accessible most of the way, so we figured it would be a good one to let Calder loose on.  And he had the time of his life!

He ran,

 and ran,

 and had fun climbing the rocks along the side.

We headed back to our campsite, and once again, Calder was in heaven!  He was so entertained by the sand and rocks. It was so fun to see him enjoying himself so much!  He loved the fire that we built, LOVED roasting hot dogs for dinner, LOVED sleeping in the tent and counting stars, he really just loved everything about camping.  It was so cute!  And it makes it all worth the effort.  I can see us camping quite a bit this summer until baby comes (as long as I can handle it as I get further along this pregnancy).

 The weather was perfect while we slept, too.  None of us got too cold, which is super nice.

 Saturday, after packing up our campsite, we stopped by the visitors center at Arches.  Calder loved riding the goat.

 We decided just to do a few small hikes on Saturday, so that Calder could explore and wear himself out before our drive home.  We started off with the Double Arch.  Once again, Calder loved running, and this time stopped for about 10 minutes to play in the soft sand.

Apparently this shirt won't work for this summer...it is a bit small.

This is where he decided to stop and play, maybe 200 feet from the arches.  

Double Arch.  Very beautiful!

 At the base of the arches, there are rocks you can climb to get a little higher.  Calder is quite the climber. We stayed close to him, but he did all the work himself and climbed all the way up!

He was working so hard! And he was so determined.

 He climbed,

 and climbed,

and climbed!!  I was so impressed!  

 You can see how high he climbed, starting at the shrubbery at the bottom of the hill.

 The last ones we saw were the Window arches (just from a distance), and we hiked to Turret Arch.

The Window arches

Calder wore himself out climbing so much up to the Double Arches, that Craig had to carry him most of the way to Turret Arch.  But once we got close, he wanted to climb again.

I love how Calder's "thumbs up" is his pointer finger. :)

Turret Arch

Arches was so beautiful!  And I loved how family friendly it was.  We had a good hike Friday, but after that, it was really nice to drive to an arch, hop out of the car, and have a half mile/mile round trip hike to see it.  It was perfect for our little family.

We only saw a few of the many, many arches there, but we had a blast!

We drove home during Calder's nap time, and he was a champ in the car when he woke up.  He kept asking for "more Arches!" I guess we'll have to do a bunch of outdoorsy things this summer.  I am looking forward to it!