Fall Break in Moab

I am in Moab with SNODPK. Corey and Lily are home. Corey had a demo today that he stayed for, and Lily stayed so she could be under Corey's thumb on Sunday evening with her college essays and to be under his watchful eye today to help her finish an online class to fix a bad grade (AP World History). They were going to come down today after the demo, but instead, after it was done, Corey had a lot more he needed to do asap before he and Sophi leave for Korea on Thursday, so I told him it made sense to me for him to just stay. Not worth the 7 hours of driving, especially cause the kids don't want to bike tomorrow, they just want to head home. 

But the kids have had fun today and we did do something, so even though things didn't totally go to plan, I say it was a success. First thing I did today was a presentation at 9am to get $100 bucks so yay, they said it would only be 30 minutes and they kept pretty good to their word. Then after that was done it was time for our group hike. It was the one hike I know about down here, cause I did it with the kids the other time that I was here in Moab (also without Corey!) - the Grandstaff Trail. Owen Daniel and Peter walking ahead of us. 

We did this almost exactly 9 years ago, cool. We read the blog post together before we headed out. I've endured a lot over these years and I'm proud that I've documented so much of it. I was impressed with all the detail I kept in that entry and wonder how I remembered it all, cause I'm sure I wasn't writing notes about Natalie's #2 accident while I was taking care of it at 3am. Anyway, all I could remember about this hike before reading this post, was that I did it with children and toddlers, so I felt confident that I could do it with kids again. One thing I was sad about was that I forgot to grab my exercise shoes before we left last night. All I had was two pairs of flip flops. But that turned out to be a good thing because it helped me still drag Sophi and Natalie out, who also only had flip flops. 

So that first pic is of the boys, and then a few of the girls, Sophi, Natalie, and Katharine. Unfortunately I didn't get one of all of them together. One of Katharine's quotes today after seeing a rock on the ground: "Ooh! ... I want to bury this..." 

She was super cute, humming and singing and talking to herself in her imaginary world. She did super great. 

About 30 minutes in, a light rain started. It continued for probably 20 minutes. After 10 min of getting very slightly wet, SND wanted to quit and head back. I told them lets keep going, they did for a minute, but then SN stopped and took shelter and wouldn't come any further. Daniel wanted to go back to join them and to go back to the car. I gave him the key to the van and said whatever, go back, but we might keep going and if we do we'll be another hour, so yeah. We also found an overhanging rock to hide from the rain. Owen offered a prayer for the rain to stop and for SND to be safe and for us to be safe. It was 11:40. I said let's wait for 5 min, and if it stays the same or stops, we'll keep going, if it gets worse we'll head back. O&P were game for that plan but they really wanted to keep going. Katharine didn't vote, she just stayed with me. Peter waiting.

Well, it stayed the same, so we decided to just go a little bit more. 

...and as we walked, it stopped! We crossed a creek like 8 times total, did 3 times with SND before they left. It was fun, and OPK did so great. Peter carried a backpack the whole time that had 2 and then 3 water bottles cause he wanted to carry mine after I gave him a drink. He wanted to carry it to get strong and would not accept my suggestion that Owen take it on the way back or anything. 

Peter wanted to keep going, and we passed the point that I remember us getting to last time, but after an hour and 2 miles, we decided to head back. Peter reluctant to stop...

Then resigned. "Oookaaaay...

Walking back. This stretch of trail going east and west was where I think we stopped in 2017.

So Owen and Peter did super great and I look forward to hiking with them again. Peter's only complaint was that his pants were too long, and so they got wet in the stream crossings, then got weighed down with sand sticking to the water. They were hanging down over his toes and under his heels. He tripped one time near the end and after that he was done hiking and done with sand and never wanted to come here again. He was also ready to throw the pants in the trash, but I was able to wash them tonight and they are good now. That was another good thing about me only having flip flops. I had forgotten about the stream crossings. My shoes would have gotten wet, sandy, and more worn out and ruined, so I was glad I was in flip flops. The hike was easy and the flip flops handled it great. I did most of the hike back barefoot. 

Owen and Peter were playing a game they called "Galaxy Divided", it has zombies in it that they were trying to find and kill. So the hike was a success. We bought $20+ dollars worth of ice cream afterwards and, after they had some sourdough as their real food, they each has two very generous helpings of ice cream. I let Owen, Peter, and Katharine choose the ice cream cause they won the good attitude and stamina award. Owen chose Red Button cashew caramel, Peter Cravin' mint chocolate chip, and Katharine Red Button pink Animal Cookie ice cream. I also got Moose Tracks and I fear I ate most of that container. 

A little more details of this outing - we drove down last night, left home around 5, so we got an hour and a half of light, it got pretty dark when we were in Helper and Price. I don't like driving in the dark but we made it. One section of Highway 6/181 had construction and we were at a dead stop for 20 min. It was probably a mile long that we had to wait and take turn on, ugh. But the Texas Roadtrip Wrides did great. Just like ol' times. That first trip was me and SNODPK and since I had the same group and we were driving the same roads, I was thinking of that Eclipse in Texas in '24 trip again. The kids did good. We sang to Veggie Tales and they had The Chosen dvd playing in the back. We have had two rooms,  are in the Double O building, rooms 2109 for SNOD and TPK are in 2111. Peter and Katharine this morning. 

I laughed when I saw how Belle Bear slept. She is a toy after my own heart.

The internet is lousy here at the Worldmark so I'm using my hotspot. I also forgot my computer's power cord, so I only have a bit more left on my battery. I'm impressed it lasted this long! I sent Abi an email last night before going to bed. I joined in on the video call with her today while the kids swam.

Katharine made friends with two girls named Gabby and Lily, and she told them she was going to just call them Abi and Lily, cause that's easier. They were really sweet to Kat and other people in the hot tub were smiling and laughing as they heard Katharine talking to them and basically ordering the around to follow her and come paint with water and stuff like that. She's cute. 

After K was done swimming, I walked with her back to the room and saw some crazy people being weird in the gym, thinking some guy shouldn't let his kids in there, then I realized it was my kids. I tapped on the window and shook my head, then they left (NDP). Out for more respectable kid activities - like video games. 

Daniel and I played two games of Jenga. He won the first game, I won the second. They we were done, Daniel said it was too stressful. 

Natalie helped DPK play CandyLand.

Then we colored and named bats. 

Cute Katharine.

These were my bats. 

The kids watched a little tv and then we said a prayer with Abi and Corey over the phone. I'm going to bed early, yay. I told the kids I can leave as early as the 20 min before sunrise, which is 7:44 am, so we'll see when we leave tomorrow.