This year I spent my birthday in Moab with my 2 favorite guys. Angeluis had booked the campsite for us all a few months ago but then they decided to go to Honduras. Angel's parents are serving a mission there and they wanted them to come visit before they came home in July. We missed them terribly but we made the most of our fun camping trip in Arches!
As you may or may not know, Tanner has been accepted to the Physician's Assistant Graduate Program at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania. Yes, we are moving back east.... in a week. There's no other way we seem to do things than by the skin of our teeth. We are totally stoked, though, and can't wait for our next adventure! I'm so excited to explore the east coast (especially since my sister will be in DC for 2 years, too!) and it makes me happy to think that Parker is old enough to remember the adventures we will have while living there!
Back to camping. We pondered not going since we literally have a million things to do to get ready for our huge move/life change/full time student status. We have a lot of packing to do. BUT, we figured we'd need this time together to get us through the distance we are going to have between us very soon. So we packed up (better get used to packing) and headed east.
Luis scored us an absolutely BEAUTIFUL camping spot right in Arches National Park. It was amazing. I kept wishing there were friends with us to enjoy the epic-ness of it.
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| Parker loved exploring all around our campsite. There were trail heads right in our camp that led to many different arches. Not to mention cool rocks to climb! :-) |
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| This was just right smack dab behind our campsite. |
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| Tanner trying to find cell phone service. ha ha |
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| Can you hear me now? |
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| It was so cute waking up next to sleepy head Parker. He is precious. |
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| We spent my birthday hiking all day. We set a goal to see 10 arches. This one was first. They all had names- I think this one was Tapestry arch- but, we liked coming up with our own names for the arches. |
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| Arch number 2 |
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| Sand Dune Arch- my personal favorite of the day. |
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| Parker made a friend at Sand Dune Arch. |
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| Checking some of my birthday messages |
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| Parker named this arch "Race Car Arch" |
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| This was Tunnel Arch |
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| And the boys at Pine Tree Arch. |
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| My sister in law, Nicole, had her 3rd baby on my birthday! A baby boy names Kesler. We were due around the same time (the second time I got pregnant last year) but since I lost mine we weren't able to share in all the baby bliss. ;-( |
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| Parker was a champ! He's the BEST little traveler/hiker! |
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| Parker has been really into picking me flowers and bringing them to me lately. No matter where we are or what we're doing, if he sees a flower he runs and picks it for me and tells me to put it behind me ear or in some water or whatever. His favorites for me are dandelions. I love him. Here he is giving me one of many flowers. At one point, back at camp, he'd picked so many for me my little cup holder (where I was keeping them) was over flowing! |
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| Landscape Arch |
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| It's the longest arch in the park-306 feet long! |
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| Parker sat down in the sand and put his hand right on a cactus! He had like 3 thousand little needles in his finger! He didn't cry- he's so brave. And Tanner, the Eagle Scout that he is, had a Swiss army knife on him with tweezers so we were able to save the day! |
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| Oh yes, we did. |
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| Many a lizard were seen while hiking... |
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| It was nice to take a shower/bath when we got home! Camping is dirty business! |
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| Navajo Arch |
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| And Partition Arch |
These were taken on the rock behind our campsite
It's kind of anti climatic spending your birthday away from friends and family and cell phone service. When I finally turned my phone on half way through the day I had like 6 voice mails and 14 texts. It was so sweet.
Camping was a blast and now it's nose to the grindstone to get ready for our move! When I got back to work the next day my desk was covered with confetti, cards, and flowers. They even had a cake for me and sang happy birthday! They sure do treat me well at the Utah Valley Vein Clinic and it's going to be so hard saying goodbye! I love them so much!
I can't believe I'm 28! I thought 27 would be my lucky year and in many ways it was. I wouldn't say having 3 miscarriages was lucky but I sure was lucky to get pregnant 3 times. I was lucky to be happy through it all and have 2 very strong healthy boys by my side. I was lucky to have such a wonderful job that I loved. We were lucky that Tanner was accepted into PA school! I know I'm missing many, many things that make me the luckiest girl ever!
28 has got to be the year of seeing the sites! And I can't wait!
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