Heading Down South

This pretty much describes our trip to the Capitol Reef area. We had a great time hanging out with Brad's parents Wood and Susan and Brad's brother Derek and his family. We stayed at a Best Western hotel in Torrey and enjoyed the scenery that is so distinctive of that area.

We left Saturday morning hoping to escape some of the cold, rainy weather we were experiencing at home. Our first stop was Fish Lake where Wood collected water samples to run tests on the water quality. (He always mixes business with pleasure.) Well, we did escape the cold, rainy weather--right into the cold snowy weather. For the love of Pete, isn't it almost June?!? We walked around the lake while Wood and Derek went out on a boat to collect samples. We rested a bit on what I think is the most ridiculous bench I have ever seen.

The kids hanging out (literally) from left to right are: Max, Caleb, Rachel, Hunter, Brad, and Ellie. Emma saw the camera coming out and high-tailed it outta there. After Grampa was done with the water sampling, we played mix and match with the kids and headed toward Torrey.

We were pleasantly surprised when we checked into the hotel to see that we had suites with back porches that looked out to the park. After enjoying the view from our back porches and relaxing a bit, we headed into Capitol Reef and took them on a hike to Hickman Bridge. All the way from Fish Lake to Torrey,Brad and I heard, "This is boring. This is the most boring day," from Rachel, Emma, and Hunter. O ye of little faith!

The hike to Hickman Bridge was approximately three miles for the adults and probably four for the kids because they kept scrambling up the sides of the canyon.

We can't let the kids have all the fun though, can we?

I took this picture of Brad unawares. He was just stretching his legs. Maybe it was because we had just seen the new Indiana Jones movie the day before but that unmistakable theme song was running through my head when I saw him standing there on the rock. Somebody please get that man a whip!!


When we got to the bridge, the kids had a heyday climbing around in the bowl under the bridge. Laura, Susan and I were standing in the distance fretting over the safety of the kids while I could sense that Wood was getting ready to spring into action if anyone needed rescuing. Brad and Derek apparently had a lot more faith in their kids than the rest of us.

You can see the different levels of abilities in these pictures. There's Ellie at the bottom sitting comfortably on the rock, the boys venturing onto narrow ledges and the girls running around like they had suction cups on their feet. Can you see Em in that picture of Rachel? Yeah, it was a really big cliff.

After the hike when we were eating Pizza and watching the NBA playoffs in the hotel room, Hunter proclaimed that this was probably the second funnest day he's ever had. How quickly things change.