ARCHES!!

We all had the flu, so we decided to head down to Arches and take advantage of the free national parks weekend! That sounds like a good idea, right??

We decided at 3:30, left at 4:30, stopped in Spanish Fork for the Stewart FHE at 5:00, and continued on to Southern Utah around 7:30. We got to the hotel at about 10:30 and that's when the kids started to lose it. We were all so tired and sick and no one had slept on the way down. 

We finally got everyone all situated, then the coughing started. It was Spencer's night. This is what it sounded like:

Cough...cough, cough. Wait ten seconds. Cough...cough, cough. Repeat. All night. 

Poor kid.

I gave him every remedy I could think of, but sometimes a cough just has no intention of going away. Somewhere around 3:00, I guzzled some Benadryl and zonked out.

We got up and everyone was surprisingly happy and somewhat rested...or we were just excited.

We ate breakfast and made it over to the park around 9:00, parked, put on the jackets I was so proud of myself for packing in our rush, and started hiking to Delicate Arch.

Joey's jacket was a tad big, but it was warm. The poor kid was so tired. But, he really did so great!

Oh. My. Gosh.

So cute!

Aww! Love!

The storm's rolling in!

We made it! That halo around my head is because I earned my sainthood by keeping five crazy boys alive up there! (Gary earned his too, but we just needed a different angle) The boys had no idea that death was a few feet away, which was probably for the best, but I was a sweaty, shaky mess! More than one boy got grounded right there at Delicate Arch! 

On the way up to the arch, there's like a 6-foot mini-arch that Ryan thought was Delicate Arch. He was so excited and ran up to it, and through it he saw the actual Delicate Arch. All he could say was, "Whhhoooaaaa."

At one point, I dropped the camera case and it started rolling very swiftly down the steep slope to its death. All I could do was very clumsily follow it while trying to stop it by throwing a backback in front of it, and missing over and over again, while also trying to keep the kids from following me down the cliff and trying to get it themselves. These college kids were just standing there laughing at me. Nice. 

Don't worry. I got it.

A friend asked me if it was hard to get everyone up. The hike up was actually pretty fast and easy. (It's nice to have a slower three-year-old you have to stay behind with as an excuse for your own slowness) The way down was actually longer. We had snow, and freezing kids, and also some very cute hill rolling happening.

I am so glad we went! We had so much fun and made such great memories! My phone ran out of memory when the boys climbed Sand Stone Arch (?) but we'll get them off Gary's camera. They were so brave and had a blast! The ride home could be described as one long, endless fight, (just keeping it real) but no one will remember that...except that I wrote it down for it to be remembered forever...but that's ok. It was so worth it! Here are some things we learned from our trip:

1. Be spontaneous

2. Make time to have fun

3. You can be sick at home, or you can be sick going somewhere else making memories, but if you go have fun, you'll make memories and most likely forget how sick you were. (This one depends on how sick you are, of course.)

3. Take advantage of free fun, even if it's the least expensive part of your trip.

4. Always have clean underwear so you can leave at a moment't notice. (I"m so glad I had had one of my crazy, marathon laundry days a couple days before, or we couldn't have gone.)

5. Get out into nature. Heavenly Father has made some breathtaking creations. He didn't have to. The world could all look the same and be fine, but He made it beautiful for us to enjoy. Its just another way He shows us He loves us and wants us to be happy and enjoy our time here.

6. Hotels that allow dogs are dumb.

7. People are psycho about their dogs. 

8.Obey your Mom and Dad, or you will die.

9. And I'm not too proud to admit that I learned this while we were there: The arch on the Utah License Plate is not Rainbow Bridge (like I had thought my whole living life), but is in fact, Delicate Arch. 

Oops.