Kanab, Haunted House, Zion, Pedicures, Northern Lights, Temples, Friendly Faces, Work

It has been a crazy two weeks.  Aaron has been traveling quite a bit lately.  He was gone for three straight weeks last month coming home only for weekends.  One of the trips was out to Washington D.C.  On his way back to the airport from some meetings he had a few extra hours before his flight home and decided to try and squeeze in an endowment session at the DC Temple.  It was totally unplanned so he wasn’t wearing church clothes, but the temple workers didn’t care and was glad he came anyway.  That was pretty cool.

Friday evening after he got home, we went out on a date after I got home from work.  We went bowling and played a few arcade games.  Aaron must have been suffering from jet lag because I kicked his can every single game--even playing the arcade games, too.  He might have been giving me a break because it had been a long and hard three weeks of him being gone...who knows? I just know that I was the champion that night--haha! I can be a bit competitive...

A few weeks ago we were able to see some Northern Lights in Northern Utah.  It was awesome.  We could only see most of them through the camera lense, but we got to see them nonetheless.  Here’s our view from our backyard:

I wanted to go out where it was a bit darker to see them better.  Noah was the only one who wanted to go with me so it was just us two.  Here’s what we saw 3 miles west looking out west from our house:

We happened to park by a horse pasture.  They were friendly horses, but Noah AND I found out the hard way that they were surrounded by an electrified fence.  My inner arm got shocked while I was trying to pet the horse as did Noah’s.  However, we still fed them some grass, but made sure we stayed far away from the electrified fence.

It was pretty dark, but my camera made it look like it was a lot lighter outside than it was.  Here’s the view of our city looking East:

It was fun. I was glad Noah wanted to go see them with me.

Aaron was finally back in town and had the day off for Columbus Day.  I had to work that morning, but after work we decided spur of the moment to head over to the Desert Peak (Tooele) temple open house to check it out.  It was beautiful.

Right after we got done with our tour of the temple we got to speak with Daniel for a few minutes since it was his P-Day.  He didn’t have a lot of time right then to talk so he was able to call back later that evening which was nice because he was able to talk to his siblings since they were all home.  He is doing well.  Still adjusting to missionary life, but doing well.

I have been working quite a bit lately.  One of my clinics was doing a social media post and took this picture of all the people I was working with that day.  I have been doing my immunization job a lot lately, but I have also started up my school district CNA Instructing job, too.  With Aaron being out of town with working a bunch I am a bit frazzled.  Things should be slowing down soon...I hope at least!!  I keep telling myself next week will be a better/lighter load, but it tends to stay crazy busy...ugh.

For Fall Break we decided to get away for a few days.  Josh only had the Friday off from school so we left Thursday afternoon and drove down to Kanab.  I have been wanting to check Kanab out for a while so it was great to finally get a chance to go. We drove all of Thursday afternoon to get there.  On our way down we stopped and ate dinner at a Wendy’s in Beaver, Utah.  Interestingly enough we ran into one of Matthew’s housemates down from Ogden visiting family.  Of all the randomness being at the same place at the same time of someone that Matthew lives with.  It was crazy.  We said hi to him and his family before we left to drive the rest of the way to Kanab.  We checked in and got settled in to our hotel Thursday night. We then went swimming and sat in the hot tub. That is where we ran into someone who knew someone else who served with Aaron on his mission in Canada. That was interesting, too. The world can by such a small place.  Anyway, we got up early Friday morning and set out to see things.  It was cold and rainy so we had to adjust our schedule a bit. I really wanted to go to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes and a slot canyon, but the rain made us change our itinerary.  We then first drove down to the Horseshoe Bend in Arizona.  It was pretty cool.  You park and walk down a trail to see it.  On the way down the kids decided to pose on a rock:

Horseshoe Bend is a curve in the Colorado River that looks like a horseshoe.

We tried to get a selfie, but my camera turned into portrait mode and blurred the surroundings out.  Oh well it still is a cool picture.

We then started back to Utah and stopped to see the Glen Canyon Dam.  It was a bit of a hike down to the viewing point.  Aaron decided to stay at the parking lot while the rest of us hiked down.  Here is Aaron from where we were at the viewing point:

It was cold and rainy so we didn’t stay very long here, but it was good to see.

Next we drove back to Kanab and hiked to see the Toadstool Hoodoos.  They didn’t disappoint.  Along the trail they had lots of things you could climb on which the kids took advantage of.

That whole wall was made of crumbly sand:

We saw a formation that looked like an elephant’s foot:

The landscape looked like it was from Mars.  It was cool to see.  Here’s a few of the toadstool hoodoos we saw and a few we climbed on, too.

Next we decided to hike/rock scramble up to the Moqui Sand Caves.  This was more of a rock scramble than I had anticipated.  There was a rope that you could use to help climb up the steep, slick rock face, but the line to use the rope was pretty long.  Aaron and I went around to the side of the mountain and just scrambled up the rock face without the rope.  It was slick since it was sandy and had been raining, but we made it up. It was steep and a bit slippery, though.

Here’s the kids using the rope to climb up:

The Moqui Sand Caves were cool to see.  They are man made.  They were made when they began mining sand in the area in the 1970s.  There isn’t too much to them, though.  We were done exploring after about 15 minutes.  

We actually had the whole place to ourselves for a few minutes which was pretty great.

Getting down off the mountain back to the parking lot was more difficult than getting up.  The rock face was slick from the sand and rain.  There wasn’t very much to hold on to, either.  I ended up sliding down on my bum, but I was able to stop myself before I hit anything. Aaron wasn’t as lucky.  He slid down and ended up getting some air and coming down on a rock. I think he bruised his tailbone--his back was pretty sore afterward. It took Aaron and I a bit longer to get off the mountain. We are a bit more cautious than the kids. While the kids were waiting for us they found another place to rock scramble/hike up. Here’s a few pictures they took while waiting for us.  Josh took this from his point of view.  Sarah is standing by the tree at the bottom:

Sarah was at the bottom and here’s the same picture from her point of view looking up at Josh and Noah:

Noah found a cactus flower/blossom along the trail.  They are edible so he decided to try it out.  He wasn’t a fan, but can now said that he has tried it.  It did stain his hands and lips a bright magenta, though:

Next we went to check out the Belly of the Dragon.  It is a man made tunnel that goes under Highway 89 and is used as a drainage for the upper canyons.  We just went through and stopped at the other side.

It was pretty dark in the middle of the tunnel.  I was glad I had my phone flashlight.

We then drove back into town.  We stopped by the Little Hollywood Museum.  It has a bunch of different old movie sets that have been used for different movies/shows throughout the years.  Of course we can’t skip over any photo op:

You can walk around and look at the different sets.  You can see the mud on Aaron’s pants from his rock scramble/but slide down from the Sand Caves hike--haha!  (His tailbone is still bothering him a week later from his unfortunate rock scramble--poor guy.)

This wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be, but it was still fun to check out.  The movies these sets were used for are quite old so most of us hadn’t seen any of the movies they were used in.

After this we grabbed dinner and went back to our hotel for the evening.  Josh needed to take an online test for school and Aaron wanted to watch the late BYU game.

The next morning it was still cold and rainy so we decided to drive up to Zion National Park hoping the rain would let up by the time we got there.  Despite it being October the place was PACKED!!  It took us over two hours just to find parking and wait in all the lines to even get into the park. It was crazy!!  We finally got into the park and decided to hike up to Scout’s Lookout.  This hike is rated a strenuous hike that ascends over 1100 feet in elevation and is 4 miles.  I was questioning our decision when we hit the crazy steep Walter’s Wiggles 21 switchbacks at the end of the trail.  However, we made it and the views along the way were amazing.  Here’s us at the beginning of the trail.  Shortly after Josh, Sarah and Noah left Aaron and me in the dust.  We were too slow for them.

Here’s one point in the trail where we could see the kids far ahead of us on the trial:

Here’s a 2 second clip to show how far ahead of us they were:

Here’s their point of view looking down at us at the same time:

We made it to the top even getting through the 21 very steep switchbacks called Walter’s Wiggles.  Here’s what they look like from the top:

Here’s another angle from an aerial view that I found online.  They are so steep!

Here’s our proof of life that we made it--haha!

Here’s the trailhead for Angel’s Landing, but we didn’t get a permit to for it so we only got to the trailhead.

Like I said the views were spectacular once I could catch my breath enough to enjoy them--haha!

Aaron and I hiked this same trail about 8 years ago.  Here’s the same picture from the same location:

It was rainy and cold when we started, but then it cleared up and ended up being a beautiful day.

After hiking that trail we got on the shuttle and rode over to the beginning of the Narrows trail.

We did the Riverside/Temple of Sinawava hike up until it hit the river.  

Taking a rest break at the end:

Everyone tried their hand at skipping rocks in the river:

It was a fun day.

On the drive back over to Kanab before we exited Zion Park we ran into these critters right next to the road--Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep:

When we got back to the hotel we had a game night the rest of the evening:

The next morning we started the drive home after breakfast.  We were surprised to find snow along the roadside in the higher elevations.  That is crazy! I am not ready for Winter yet.

We got home that evening and then went and picked up Sophie from Grandma T.  She handed out the Halloween goodies to the kids.  She makes these every year for them and they love it!  It is a gloved hand filled with candy covering a soda.

Noah and Sarah had their city youth council swearing in ceremony the other evening.  Sarah had to work and wasn’t able to make it, but Noah was there.  It was fun to see him sworn in. 

Here’s the youth council, their leaders and the city council members.

Every year Josh and I go to a Haunted House.  No one else in my family likes these so it has always been Josh and me.  This year, however, Noah wanted to join us.  We ended up going Thursday night.  It was awesome because it wasn’t very busy so we did not have to wait very long. Our entry time was 9:30 pm.  We went through both haunted houses.  They also had some photo ops around the outside of the venue Josh and Noah had fun with.  Here’s a few pictures:

Josh and Noah are in the pumpkin:

They also took a few pictures of us.  Here’s the proofs.  I am too cheap to buy them, though.  They had us do a screaming face:

Regular face:

Waiting in line to get inside:

I lead the way through both sections of the haunted houses.  Noah tried to lead, but when it came to a long, dark hallway with lots of doors, he passed the baton to me--haha!  It is a fun tradition.

For Grandma’s birthday back in September we gave her a pedicure coupon.  We were actually able to find time where Grandma, Sarah and I had time open Saturday morning so we went and got our pedicures.  It was awesome.  We got to have a heated neck pillow put on while we got our feet pampered.  It was great.  They even gave us ice water in fancy glasses and a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie.  

Afterward we grabbed some lunch and then headed over to see the Syracuse Pumpkin Walk.  It was a fun morning/afternoon.

Later that evening Aaron hadn’t had a chance to see the Pumpkin Walk yet so we went to check it out together, too.  We have gone every year since we moved here.  We try to go with our kids, but everyone was busy so it was just us.

We still had a good time.

Matthew got to enjoy his Halloween goodie from Grandma T. when he got to our house Sunday morning.

We had a fun surprise Sunday morning.  We have some good friends that live on the street over from us.  Their daughter and husband just moved out to Omaha two months ago. They ran into Daniel at their Stake Conference.  That was awesome!!  I talked to Annie before they moved and told her to watch out for Elder Mancil. Her mom and my friend, Liz, texted me this picture Sunday morning.  It was awesome!!  I loved it!!

In other things I tend to drive on the faster side of things.  My kids joke that when I put in an address into Google Maps and it gives me the estimated time of arrival--I view it as the estimated time to beat--haha!  We all thought this meme was funny in relation to that: