Dirt Trip #1 2012 - Southern Utah

I say "#1" because, with what David has envisioned for the year, this won't be our only one.  We headed out into nature for President's Day weekend.  Originally, we had planned a ski trip to Taos, but when we were invited by David's brother Brian and family to meet them in Southern Utah (they were coming from San Diego), we gave our kids the choice: ski, or meet your cousins in the desert?  Unanimous vote - meet the cousins! Hiking in the desert!  Sweet!  Harriet was all too happy to head to REI for a new pair of Keens for the occasion.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Christine decided to join in too.

So, our "dustcation," "mud holiday," whatever you want to call it - started out with a stop at 4-corners monument.  I drive past this spot multiple times a year on my way to Salt Lake.  I have never actually been there before, though.  It's an hour detour from the main road to Salt Lake and I always feel like I just can't add an extra hour to our already dangerously long 10-11 hour day.  So, we keep passing it by.  It felt good to see it, check it off the list, and I can stop feeling guilty about it.

cousins: Grace, Clare, Harriet, Jeremiah

Chapman blood relatives:  Christine, Brian, David, Earl, Barbara

(I'm not claiming them!)

We stayed in Bluff, UT at a cute little inn.  (by Monday morning, I was SO glad we weren't camping!!)  We spent Saturday afternoon exploring the town cemetery, full of pioneer graves.  Harriet is always fascinated with cemeteries.  So is her uncle Brian.  I thought Harriet was pretty funny - she was eating a Haagen Daas ice cream bar from the motel gift shop and couldn't finish it.  She asked where she could keep it for later.  I told her we didn't have a fridge in the room, so she'd have to finish it or throw it away.  She said "oh, that's right - the pioneers didn't have refrigerators."  She thought we were staying in a REAL pioneer cabin - it must be super rustic if it doesn't have a fridge!  Again... glad we weren't camping!

Harriet was also excited to learn that she has a good, solid, pioneer name.  Her name was found on pioneer plaques all over town.  It's rare she sees her name in anything modern (like a keychain at a gas station) so she has to get excited over old stuff.

We opted to spend our Sunday "going to church" in "God's Country."  That U2 song from Joshua Tree will always be my favorite soundtrack for driving through the desert.

We started off by heading to the San Juan river "Goosenecks."  This would have probably been more interesting to me if I wasn't so cold.  The kids investigated with David.

We made poor Grandpa relive a terrifying moment from his life when he was out exploring with his young family and went down a super steep, narrow, windy, dirt road full of switchbacks and sheer drop-offs, only to be met by a giant uranium truck going the other way and had to back his car all the way back up the road.  When we got to that spot on this trip, he looked like he wanted to cry.  He says he's never been more scared in his life.   When we got to the top of this road (which, has been much improved since then, but still made me nauseous enough to never look out the window), we were met with a snowstorm.  Luckily, the drivers got smart and decided not to head to Natural Bridges and turn around - wait -we have to go back down?  More looking deep into the car avoiding any glance out the window.  No pictures of that, sorry.

Then, we drove through the "Valley of the Gods."

The kids went on a good hike with Jeremiah and most of the rest of the family.  Clare, Christine, and I wimped out and decided it was too cold and waited in the car eating junk food.  Plus, I am still trying to make my knee better from my epic walk a couple of weeks ago.  I'd love to get to the point of walking without a strap on it again.  (Actually after spending 3 days, mostly sitting down in the car, it IS starting to feel better.  I just might be able to head out for more walking in another week.)

And, then, onto Monument Valley.  I have never been here before either, but we have a photo hung in our house that Brian had taken on a previous trip.  I love looking at that photo.  Seeing it in person was stunning.

(this is my version of the same shot)

Again, we met with another desert snow storm.  Can I just say how much I love quick desert snow storms?  They make everything look so pretty, but they come and go within about 20 minutes and so don't make your life too difficult.  I loved the loose horses all over the monument.  We're pretty sure they belong to the local Navajo tribe and weren't wild horses, but it was cool to see them roaming completely free in a totally gorgeous setting.

do we look cold?!  

ok - these two family photos look like someone photo-shopped us onto a postcard or something!

storm rolling in...

check out "Three Sisters" before the storm

ponies headed towards "Three Sisters" - snowflake near the lens.

 Storm - white out conditions - we couldn't even see a giant mesa that was right next to us for a while.

"Three Sisters" during the storm

cool, weird, sad tree

"Northern Window"

It was so cool to watch the storm clear and reveal what was behind the "window."

"Three Sisters" after the storm.

Our good little Pathfinder was a trooper and lasted through the trip.  It feels like that car has been on it's last wheel a lot lately, but we put some extra trust in the new tires, crossed our fingers when the check-engine light went on, sang praises when it went off again, and made it home without any issues.  It's nice to have an old car you don't care about scratching up or getting dirty though.

Cool trip.  Thanks to Brian and Wendy for dreaming it up and inviting us.

We opted to head home early Monday morning when Harriet came down with another cold Sunday night.  This has been a dreadful several weeks with the kids just cycling through viruses.  She's home from school today.  Again.  At least we are home in our warm house.  Wish I had gotten JUST a little bit more done today though.

fun friends and a little rock climbing

I'm pretty lucky.  I have some fun friends here in ABQ.  My 26 year old friend, Sara, might be "a bit" more physically ambitious than I am.  Well, a lot of my friends are, whether they my age or younger.  But, Sara decided that we needed an active GNO.  None of this sissy movie-watching, food-centered, getting-dressed-up stuff.  She's pretty tough.  So are the other friends who came that night - Muffin can keep up with David's biking buddies.  Jamie can run circles around all of us.  Rowena, former Olympic skier with Olympian body intact after 2 babies.  I mean really, the list goes on.   So, Sara planned a late-night rock climbing evening.  I have to admit, I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to keep up and embarrass myself completely.  (really, no one wants to hit the dollar movie?!) To make matters worse, I had just torn apart my knee 2 days beforehand, I could barely walk from the car to the building.

So, I was pretty happy when I found out I wasn't all too bad at the climbing.  You are supposed to put your weight in your legs to climb, but with my knee, I found that I could keep up pretty well by using one leg and full strength of both arms.  I didn't do any free-bouldering or try any tricky over-hangs, but the rope belaying went well.  I also found out that my gangly gorilla arms and long torso came in pretty handy when reaching grips that were just out of reach for the others.  It was actually kind of fun.

 (me, Rowena, Jamie, Muffin)

 bouldering 

 a little friendly racing - these girls are competitive!

 a frustrating overhang

(me, at the top - yes dear, I made it to the top)

I'm not saying I'm going to take up the sport.  (Rowena had not one but TWO pair of her OWN climbing shoes?  Ya - I'll never get past renting, nor will I ever climb an ACTUAL rock.)  But, it was fun, and I think I'd go back if invited.  Plus, it WAS refreshing to hang out with some strong women who are not only intelligent, cool, and nice, but who are active as well.  I won't mention how late we stayed up or what time we got home.  The next morning I found out how old I was.  Young enough to appreciate having fun, but old enough to feel it too far into the weekend.

Diary of 2012 random stuff so far

Ok, blogging when you are not in a great mood is probably not the best idea.  But, I am looking at the next few weeks and if not now, then it's going to be a while.  My calendar is giving me hives.

I'll vent for a moment.  I'm officially an old lady.  I kind of have always been an old lady.  But, you know you're an old lady when you walk (not run!) 7 miles one day and can't. move. at. all. the next day.  I haven't slept in a few weeks.  Either a child has been sick, I have been sick, the person sleeping next to me has been sick, or a child has been waking up with nightmares.  Boo-hoo, I know, all you people with newborns wish you were so lucky as to have only gone 3 weeks without sleep.  But, then again, you aren't old ladies either!  My darling daughter, Harriet, has given me a giant run for my money.  I am giving 100% effort to be patient with her and work through her issues, but the math doesn't add up and apparently, in our math-alternate universe, I need 200% effort to get the job done.

Enough venting.  On to my magical world of blogging where only the awesome is highlighted!

This is what we've been up to since last time (I'm sure some of this is out of order.  Time is a blur lately.)

Well, let's tell the truth about this photo.  It was the only one we took of our last ski trip to Santa Fe.  Harriet was just starting to come down with what would be an epic virus that would run through the whole family.  She is in the pink jacket at the bottom of the photo on the magic carpet.  She went to ski school for 2 hours and then collapsed into a tragic pile of weepy winter gear with a girl inside somewhere, crying that "she could NOT go back!" She wasn't kidding - she was sick!  I would find out how bad it was the next day myself.

David has been on some crazy muddy bike rides.  His car is still full of mud.  

Forts and sleep-overs in the living room for the sickies.  Velvet slept with them all night.  Even though she has 2 cushy beds of her own, she seems to prefer human bedding whenever possible.

Galloping Grace invited us to the volunteer's rodeo dinner night.  This was the first time the girls had ever been to a rodeo and watched bucking broncos, bulls, barrel racers, and roping.  David's first time too.  It was pretty cool - the girls got to go "backstage" with 2 rodeo queens and learn about all the events and see the animals up close.  

I have been trying to resist buying something everywhere we go and making the girls use their own money if they want a souvenir.  But, I could not resist these darling light up horse necklaces. The kids didn't even ask for them.  It was all me.

 My favorite quote of the night was from Max before we went back to see the animals.  He said "hope y'all have your dirt shoes on!"  Of course!  Any good horsewoman ALWAYS has her dirt shoes on.

The 100th day of school!  Kindergarteners are especially excited to celebrate this holiday because it means that if they have never counted to 100 before, they finally made it!  I'm pretty proud of Harriet - she entered kindergarten, barely counting to 20 (still having mistakes in the teens), and is now counting to 200 in her sleep.  This was her 100th day of school project - she counted and organized 100 sea shells she collected at Cape Cod last summer.

Oh, and it snowed.  It was a total surprise to wake up to it.  No snow was in the forecast at all.  But, it was completely gone by 11am.  My kind of snow!

Snowy volcano - view from the kids' school when I dropped them off early that morning.

Where's the coyote?  (he IS in the picture somewhere.)  He ran right past the dogs as we were walking.  Shadow, Velvet, and Max didn't bat an eyelash.  Thanks a lot guys!  I feel real safe!  Actually, I'm not scared of coyotes.  We see them all the time and they never bother us.  But, I AM starting to doubt the protective factor of having dogs as they get to be very old.  

More biking.  Look at that happy dude.

Harriet's animal project for school:  Snow Leopard Habitat.  She has been waiting for SO long to make one of these as she has jealously watched Grace do it for the past few years.

Grandpa Earl's 81st birthday!  Good ol' guy just keeps on ticking.  The girls still adore him.

 So do the dogs.  They always lay right at his feet.

And, the cutest girl with the cutest pig-tails on the planet.  Miss Harriet Marie.  She was pretty upset that I didn't sign up for individual school pictures on class picture day, so she made me take a picture when she got home.

And, a partridge in a pear tree.  Bring on those March birthdays!  I have tunnel vision for spring break!