THIS IS NOT GOOD.

The trip was great, but there were a few things that happened that were not so good.  In fact one thing that was so bad that I almost cried.

As we headed back towards camp to pack up the wind started to blow like crazy, and when I say crazy I mean 60 mph crazy.  I looked over at the area of our campsite and it was a big dust cloud.  I just imagined what was going on, and it didn't look good.

About that same time Coren started telling me how bad his arm hurt, and I looked back and saw his bruised and scraped arm from when he fell.  It looked sore.  
Carson had already fallen asleep and Kenna looked exhausted.
Then we pulled into camp.  Our tent was blowing so hard that it was nearly flat.  Sand was blowing all around like crazy.  My mind flashed back to when I told Steve I wanted to pack up before the hike, and he said no.  I looked at Steve and he said that he would get out and pack up.  I decided to be nice and help.  As I looked into the tent, I was not at all prepared for what I was about to see.  Sand was everywhere.
The wind was blowing so hard that I had to hold the tent up while Steve tried to roll up sleeping backs and pack up.  Finally, after getting blinded by sand, having my ears and hair full of sand, and watching a tent pole snap, I told Steve that this was not going to work.  I started to throw stuff into the car, and then he followed.  With the help of our friends we got it all taken care of (Kenna even got out and helped) and got in the car to leave.  The car was full of sand.  It was a depressing sight.

When we got home we opened the trunk and saw our big mess.  Then Steve took everything out and cleaned up while I worked on the car.  He even fixed the tent.  Needless to say, we got it taken care of for the most part and had quite the adventure.  

Crack.

Before we set out for home on the last day we went on our final hike on a trail called crack.  Maybe they call it crack because it is a crack in the mountain, maybe they call it crack because of all of the cracked broken fallen rocks, or maybe they call it crack because you have to be on crack to get little kids to complete it.  It is not the easiest trail, but once again, we made it.

The kids loved this trail because there were tons of tricky parts to it.  They loved the parts where they got to crawl through tight little caves made by fallen rocks.





They loved to climb up big rocks, and be dropped down through a cougar nest (luckily the cougar was not home).
There were parts that you have to climb in crazy ways.  Some of us loved that more than others.






But when it was all said and done, the kids forgot there blisters, Mom and Dad recovered from carrying the boys the last mile, and everyone agreed that it was our favorite trail yet.

The slot canyons

Saturday morning we set out on our first big hike of the trip.  We went to this amazing slot canyon.  I had no idea that there were canyons like this.  It was so pretty.  The kids loved climbing on all of the rocks and ledges and were all so excited.  Coren of course thought that he was Spiderman, and we had to keep him on  a tight leash.  Makenna wanted to climb as high as possible into every little crevasse that she could find.  Carson shocked us by taking the lead and being the powerhouse of the hike.  On the way down he took off with Brandon in the front of us all and beat everyone down.  Brandon said that they ran most of the way, and he never even stopped for a break.  He loved it.  The hike was around 4 miles, and the kids all made it!  I was really proud of them.

Goblin Valley

This weekend we ventured out for our first camping trip of the season.  We ended up in Goblin Valley, a place that we have never been.  It turned out to be one of my favorite desert places to camp.  I am not huge into desert camping, but this place had a lot of fun places to hike and cool things to see.  It was a great place for the kids.

Once we arrived and got unpacked, we went to see the goblins.  They were the cool rock formations, and they actually let you run around and climb on them.  The kids thought it was great.  We explored for a while, and eventually found a cool canyon to climb up.  The kids were pretty impressed with themselves, and had a blast.  

Once we got back to camp we prepared for our first freezing night.  This was the part I was dreading.  We had packed well and were very warm, but our air mattress went flat, so Steve and I slept really bad.  I was just glad that we didn't freeze!!  I do however stick to my theory that camping in March is too soon.  From now on we need to stick with Mid April to May!

Obsessed.

Coren is seriously obsessed with this dang DS.  I cannot keep it away from him.  I keep finding him in all of these random places playing it.  He will find somewhere that he thinks I won't see him and just sit there and play it until I find him and make him turn it off.  Then a few minutes later I find him somewhere else with it again.

It is starting to really bug me, but even worse make me all paranoid.  Makenna has been having a hard time with math again.  So, we spent tons of time going over her test, and correcting the ones she missed, and by the end she was burned out and mad.  She hates math.  I went into her room and found her sitting in the closet.  It is weird to find her in the closet.  In fact, I don't think that she has ever gone in there to pout.  BUT, I find her in there and instead of won

dering what is going on the first thing I say is, "You aren't playing the DS are you???"  Then I realize she is not Coren and feel like a big dork.

I don't know what to do with this boy.  I hide it, he finds it.  Coren you are CRAZY!

Oh and speaking of math, I can't speak of math.  Things are bad.  I may be going gray over this one.  I feel bad for Kenna, and I feel bad for me.  I hope it gets better soon!

PaRtY!

This weekend we went to the Mayan for a big celebration of all of the family birthdays we have this month.  We celebrated for Zak, Carson, Alex, and Kyle.  We decided to go to the Mayan because they have people diving off of a waterfall, so it is pretty fun to watch while you eat.

We did learn the hard way that if you watch from the front row... you get wet!

The kids had tons of fun, and it was so nice outside that they were able to play around before and after we ate.





It was a really fun day.  I cannot believe that Carson is going to be 6.  Time is flying!!