Our Holiday Adventure

Chapter 1. Welcoming Winter.
Saturday (12/20/08) was a busy day. We had to finish laundry pack, buy some last minute gifts, go to the grocery store, Target, pick up the Ham, pick up the pie, take Nala to the PetsHotel, Woozle to John and Julia’s house, and somehow after all this we had to be ready for our planned dinner with Brian’s dad and present opening, as well as our solstice ceremony. And Brian was working at Marion House Soup Kitchen most of the day so Lily and I were on our own to get everything accomplished. They day got very cold in the afternoon – a blustery wind came in and it was very unpleasant to be outside! Appropriate that we should be welcoming winter tonight, I suppose.

Finally everything was ready. Brian’s dad arrived a little before dinner was ready. We had gotten some prepared sides from Honeybaked ham that just had to be heated in the oven. The greenbean casserole was taking a long time though so we finished it in the microwave. Dinner was very yummy – way too much fodd of course but Brian’s dad could take it with him to eat for the next few days. And for desert we had mine a Lily’s favorite – Candy Cane Pie from Village Inn!

We opened presents after we ate. Lily had been so excited to open hers from Brian – she had been hoping so much that it was the Wall-E computer she wanted. Of course it was, and that was the first thing she opened. And as usual she just wanted to play with it for long time before moving on to anything else. We were a little more pressed for time though so she went ahead and opened the one from me. It was a “My Twinn” doll – made to look just like her! She immediately started calling it her sister, and later declared that she had gotten the two best presents ever. So we did good this year! We opened the rest of our presents, Brian got me the Stone Age game I had been wanting, and Lily got me Disney Scrabble Jr. I got Brian a Sandwich Press, and Lily got him a book about being a dad. Lily also gave me a coupon for a free hug and kiss, and said it was reusable!

The one thing on our to-do list that we hadn’t managed to accomplish earlier was dropping off Woozle, at John’s house, so after presents we headed on over. We took their present and visited for a few minutes before heading home. Then it was time for our Solstice Ceremony. We each picked a candle – it turned out that we all picked a chalice that someone else had made – I picked on Lily made, Brian picked one I had made, and Lily picked on Brian had made! We lit the candles in the darkened kitchen and spent a few minutes just quietly watching our flame. That small meditative act is always so powerful for me. Then we took turns sharing what we were most grateful for from the year, and what we most hoped for in the next. Then I read the story – Winter’s Gift. It was about finding hope even in hard times – a very heartwarming one indeed. Finally we spent a few minutes outside (in the COLD!) admiring the clear starry sky on this longest night of the year...

Chapter 2. Our Almost Missed Flight.

We got up very early the next morning – though not early enough because we were still a bit late getting out of the house. I really thought we would be okay though – not likely to run into traffic and 5am. We breezed right up to Denver – Brian dropped us and the luggage off at the door and went to park in the economy lot. Once inside I became a little concerned. The check-in line was HUGE! And with just me and Lily there was no way I could manage to get our luggage to and through the line so we had to wait for Brian to get back. We had arrived at the airport an hour and 45 minutes before our flight, which should have been plenty of time. But it sure was busy… eventually we made our way to the front, with just under an hour before our flight. Fortunately there were no problems with check-in, but they were not able to assign us seats – we would have to go to the gate.

We were told to go through the A Terminal Security since the main one had a very long line. The line there was shorter, but moved painfully slow. Partly because we ended up in the line that goes through this new air blowing chamber, testing for dangerous chemicals. We got through all that with only about 20 minutes until departure time. We had to catch a train to the B Concourse, then ran to our gate. Everyone was on board already, and we didn’t even have seat assignments! The agent working the gate spent several minutes trying to figure out what to do with the handful of people without seats. I overheard him tell another passenger they would have to put him on the 12:15 flight, and was afraid we were going to be bumped. But he managed to find seats for us, just not together. There was more confusion to sort out on the plane with our seats but at last we were settled, and the plane backed out. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed a few minutes early.

Being in the Orlando airport again brought back lots of memories. I couldn’t help but look a bit wistfully at the Magical Express sign, and wish we were getting on it. We met Grandma and Grandpa and collected our bags – everything had made it fortunately. They took us to the hotel where we would be staying for the next 3 nights – the Hilton Grand Vacations Club on International Drive. We found the rest of the gang by the pool (Mike, Tina, Ashley, Cassie, and Cam)– Mike and Tina had met a former NFL football player and had to introduce him to everyone! And Lily was showing of her new Twinn doll. Getting everyone, and everything, up to the room and settled was a bit time-consuming – that tends to be the case with such a large group. The kids had a good time playing together in the room though while everyone else bustled around.

Everyone was hungry so we set out to find some food, settling on a Golden Corral because it was close and would be quick. We had considered going to a nighttime Shamu show after dinner, but Lily was begging to go swimming back at the hotel. She was a little jealous that everyone had been swimming all afternoon before we got there. So we decided to go back instead. We stopped by the Crocs store to exchange some shoes they had gotten for the kids – it was right next to the hotel so once Lily had picked hers out we walked back with Mike while the rest of the gang finished up. It turned out to be a nice, relaxed evening – swimming and catching up what had been going on with Mike, Tina, and Ashley. After a couple of hours we went over to the deli and got a light dinner before turning in for the night.

Chapter 3. Sea World

We got going as early as we reasonably could the next morning – headed for the days adventure – Sea World! It was packed going in – this is definitely a popular time for Orlando. Good to see that the economy wasn’t hurting the tourism industry too much though.

While Grandma and Grandpa went to get the wheelchair, we got our picture taken by the giant Christmas Tree with Pete the Penguin! We were headed in the general direction of the kids’ area, which was near Shamu Stadium, but we saw the dolphins in the dolphin nursery being fed so we stopped to watch for a few minutes. We went the wrong way when we left and ended up a long way from where we meant to be, but were right by the Pet’s Ahoy show and it was starting in 15 minutes so we went on in. It was really cool – they adopt animals (mostly dogs and cats, plus a few more unusual ones) from animal shelters and teach them amazing tricks – the animals do this whole choreographed show almost completely on their own! I had never seen anything quite like it.

After leaving there we watched a diver picking up oysters, and Grandma and Grandpa bought one for Cassie and Lily. They watched it get cracked open and caught to keep the pearl. Then we walked through the Shark Encounter – saw lots of cool fish and frogs. Lily and Cam even fed the small ones outside!

Finally we made it to Shamu’s Cove, our original destination and rode a few of the rides, including a carousel of sea creatures and Shamus’s roller coaster. We met up with the rest of gang who had already gone to get lunch, once we were all finished and in the same place we headed over to Shamu Stadium for the Believe show. Lily and Cam really wanted to sit right at the bottom in the Soak Zone, but it was getting pretty chilly already so we talked them into moving up at least a few rows. The others didn’t want to chance getting wet at all so they sat farther up, Brian and I sat with Lily and Cam. The show was really awesome – the killer whales did some cool tricks and the trainers talked about how inspiring their job is. And of course we got to see Shamu!

After the show we walked over to the Polar Express. It had a really long wait but was a temporary attraction and supposed to be really cool, so we waited. There was a barbershop quartet singing Christmas Carols that helped to pass the time. And we munched on some snacks too. Finally it was our turn to board the train. It was a motion simulator, apparently with scenes from the train ride in the movie, though we haven’t had a chance to see it yet. It was pretty neat. Then we got off at the “North Pole”! There were Beluga whales there – we couldn’t help but sing “Baby Beluga” while we watched them. And of course, being the North Pole –Santa was there too! Lily, Cassie and Cam got to see him and get their picture taken together with him. Cassie surprised everyone by asking for a laptop… Lily asked for the usual. Just Wall-E. We wandered through the caverns for a few more minutes, then were “magically transported” back to Sea World.

It was getting dark and rather cold but we had promised the kids earlier we would ride a few more rides in Shamu’s Cove so we stopped first at the giant net climbing thing. Cassie and Cam immediately took off up it, with Mike, Tina, and Ashley following. Lily decided to go too, and we ran to catch up with her. It was several stories tall and just the run up the stairs to the top was tiring. Going through the first tunnel I realized I still had my backpack on, and my camera around my neck. The back pack was smacking me in the back of the head with every crawling movement, and the camera was smacking me in the face! I somehow got to the end and stumbled out onto the rope netting. My balance was so thrown off by the backpack that I didn’t stay on my feet long and on the way down got beaten up by the backpack and camera some more. Brian was already way ahead of me and I decided that this was not a good idea. I shouted to him that I was going back. The camera had also hit my fingers pretty hard one time and I couldn’t feel them for several minutes! I waited with my Dad at the bottom, finally they emerged, looking a little ragged. Well the adults did anyway.

I wanted to make sure I had time to pick up the photos we had had taken that morning on the way out of the park, and was worried that there might be a long line at Adventure Photo. The kids wanted to do one more ride, so I set off on my own toward the front, telling them I would meet them by the entrance. We had actually gotten two separate ones taken, plus Mike and Tina had gotten one too. They had lost their card with the picture number but it was taken right before one of ours so I was hopeful that they could find it that way. We were farther back in the park than I had realized and it took a while to work my way back to the front. The line wasn’t too long, and they were able to find all the pictures with no problem. As I was finishing the transaction the rest of the gang showed up. They still had to take the wheelchair back, and I showed Mike and Tina their picture. Everyone (well besides us) decided to go get coffee, it ended up being a very long ordeal but at last we were ready to leave. It had turned quite cool, and I was glad I had thought to bring Lily’s jacket.

We went to Lone Star Steak House for dinner, and while waiting for our food began to make our plans for the morning. Tomorrow was Magic Kingdom Day, and the kids had 8am appointments at the Bippity Boppity Boutique. The park didn’t open until 9am, and according to their policy only 2 adults were going to be allowed in early with the kids. I strongly suspected (from what I had read and from our experience there during the summer) that the policy was not enforced , but wanted to have a plan in case they were being strict about it. Mike and Ashley decided they would rather sleep in anyway, the rest of us would go early and hope to get in with the kids. Worse case scenario, Tina and I would go in, Mom, Dad and Brian would wait and meet us at 9. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and straight to bed, ready for an early morning.

Chapter 4. Morning in the Castle

The alarm went off early, and we hurried to get ready for our magical day. The kids, of course, were going in costume. Lily was wearing her new Belle dress that she had recently bought with her saved up allowance ($90 – she had been saving for a chameleon but changed her mind). Cassie was Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Cam was Captain Hook. They made a really cute trio. We drove to the Transportation and Ticket Center and caught the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Brian had been giving me a hard time on the way about my use of “Lingo”, all the acronyms that Disney uses. We were going to the MK for the BBB and CRT ADRs, via the MR from the TTC, which would take us past the Poly and GF. There were amEMH but since we weren’t DWR guests or DVC members we couldn’t use them . But we were hoping the CM would let us in from the EA line with our MYW tickets (no PH this time) so we could go with the kids down MS to CC. I’m sure I’m forgetting some :)

Anyway, we got off the monorail and found things to be very similar to the way they were in June. The CMs were announcing that anyone with ADRs needed to come to a certain roped off area, but they weren’t questioning anyone and checking anyone’s confirmation numbers. So we went right on in. Brian really wanted to see the opening ceremony show, but we were going to be let in a few minutes early so we could get to the Castle by 8, so he stayed behind to watch and said he would meet us there.

I wish we had taken our time on Main Street a little more and gotten some good pictures of the kids without it being crowded, but I was afraid we would be late so we went at a pretty brisk pace. The BBB wasn’t even open yet when we arrived, and Brian met us before they opened the doors. We were the first ones in and immediately Princess Lily, Princess Cassie, and Prince Cam were called back for their makeover. Cassie chose the Fairytale Style (with the bun) and Lily chose the Diva Princess (with the curly hair extensions). Cam was getting the Cool Dude. All three had very nice FGITs. (Fairy Godmother In Training) Cam was the first to be done, and was very proud of his Mickey painted on the back of his hair. Lily and Cassie were both acting very serious, but enjoying all the attention immensely. The Photopass photographers were on hand to snap tons of pictures, and we got lots of our own too. As Cassie’s FGIT was about to Pixie-dust her – she “missed” and pixie-dusted Tina and I instead! Finally, they had each been “revealed” and we were ready to set out into the park.

It had taken almost the full hour so the park was open now. Mike and Ashley called to say they were on their way in, and they met us at the Pooh ride. We wanted to see Tigger and Pooh but they were going in for a break just as we came over so we were hoping to catch them after the ride. Cam rode with us and Lily, and got very excited that his shirt glowed in the Heffalumps area. Sure enough, Tigger and Pooh were out again when we finished, so we got in line. The kids got a little impatient, but we warned them that we would be in lines all day – I could already tell that it was going to be a very busy day there. Finally it was their turn. Pooh bowed to the princesses and Tigger did some bounces with Cam! And there was another photopass photographer. I was hoping we would get enough of those in one day to justify ordering the CD.

It still wasn’t time for breakfast so we rode the carousel, then went over to Peter Pan. That seemed fitting since Cam was Captain Hook. The line was rather long, and I knew we would be cutting it pretty close but thought we could just make it as long as there were no other delays. Lily seemed to enjoy the ride more this time than she had in the summer – she definitely had a more relaxed demeanor for this trip.

After the ride we made a beeline back to the Castle and checked in for breakfast with the princesses! We had to wait a while to be able to go inside, there seemed to be quite a backlog meeting Cinderella. They actually called us to go to our table while we were in line, but that was happening for almost everyone and we were just supposed to go on up as soon as we had met her. Finally it was our turn! She was lovely, as always and we got some really good pictures of the kids with her.

Then we headed upstairs to the dining room. It was just as we remembered it, though much brighter this time since there was daylight streaming in the leaded glass windows. We were seated at two tables next to each other in the middle section of the room, which was nice because we had been told that we might have to split up. The Princesses came out after just a few minutes and began making the rounds. Our food arrived, it was a pre-plated meal of eggs, bacon, potatoes, etc. Plus plenty of muffins and breads. Overall the food was pretty good, though not as impressive as the dinner we had there this summer. Each of the Princesses visited, and we finally got to meet Snow White! She was the one Princess we didn’t manage to find anywhere last time – must have been on vacation with her Prince somewhere. Mike even had his picture taken with Jasmine…Belle was wearing her blue dress and noticed that Lily had on her yellow one. At one point there was a wishing ceremony where the kids used their wands and wishing stars. It all seemed to happen pretty quickly and before long it was time to go. I’m glad we did it because it is a neat experience, but next time we go I think we will do dinner again – the atmosphere is much more formal and just feels more special somehow at night. And the show they do at night was much cooler than the one they did at breakfast. But a successful character meal, anyway.

Chapter 5. Experiencing Disney at Christmastime

We went to Small World next, and had to navigate our way down a very busy exit line to follow my mom in her wheelchair. I certainly never saw IASW this busy before. I was starting to understand what the “Holiday Crowds” were really like. But the ride was great, as always. And Lily and Brian would be singing the song for days (or weeks) to come. They know all the verses.

Cassie, Cam, Mike and Ashley wanted to go to Thunder Mountain Railroad next. Lily decided she still wasn’t up for that one (had a bad experience on it this summer) so we took her over to the Magic Carpets of Aladdin while they rode. On the way back we just happen to see Peter Pan sitting on the ground by the restrooms. There was no one there, so Lily went over and had her picture taken. She was being shy as usual, but it was still a good find, and she had just been saying earlier how he hadn’t gotten his autograph yet. We had brought her book from last time, and so far had already met two new characters to add!

When we got back they still weren’t off the ride, but they came soon enough and we all headed together back to Adventureland to ride Pirates and hopefully meet Captain Hook and Smee. We were in luck – they were still out but no sign of Peter Pan. The CM working the line had a lot of fun playing with Lily’s Princess Cloak that she was wearing, and Cam had a great time meeting the “real” Captain Hook”.

POTC had a 40 minute wait but that was the case with everything it seemed. It was shoulder to shoulder people everywhere – man we sure were spoiled when we were here last June! This was insane. But the ride was fun, and Lily was less spooked by it this time.

When we finished it was time for Tina to go –she had to head back to Naples early to go to work the next day. Mike walked her out and we went to find lunch, planning to go to Toon Town afterwards. We ended up at Cosmic Rays. It was packed as well, we eventually managed to find seating for everyone. Lily and Cam both fell asleep at the table, and we waited there for a while to let them nap. In Toon Town we first went to Mickey’s house because it was the only thing that wasn’t crowded. We opted not to wait to see him in the judges tent since we would see him tomorrow at breakfast. Then we went back to Minnie’s house. The kids always like that one better because you can go in the rooms and do so much more. It was so crowded though that it was hard to explore much, had to pretty much move through with the line.

The kids were wanting to go meet the fairies, and they were right next door. Pixie Hollow is very new – I think it only opened a few weeks ago and had a posted wait time of 60 minutes. But what could we do. It was in the County Fair Building, where the Pals greeting rooms had been before. The line didn’t seem to move at all for a long time, then would move only a few feet every 10 minutes or so. Mom and Mike sat down in the waiting area on the side, and decided to just wait there for us. After a full hour it was finally our turn. In the area right outside, we could see tiny fairies zooming along the walls! We must have been shrunk when we went through the doors, because the fairies were life size, and the trees and flowers were suddenly huge!

Iridessa greeted us first – she was beautiful and shimmering in her yellow dress and translucent wings. She was very friendly and invited us over to her spot to chat and get a picture. She was a little put off that Dad thought she was Tinkerbell, and even more so when Ashley pointed out that he had slept through their movie! After a couple of minutes she led us over to Tinkerbell. She was very friendly as well, and when Cam asked her why she couldn’t fly she told the story of how she had been flying earlier and broke something in Rosetta’s garden, and now none of them were allowed to fly for the rest of the day. Rosetta overheard and started getting onto her about it again. When we moved over to her spot, Rosetta carefully pulled Cam’s toy sword from his belt and played with it a little. When she gave it back, Cam thought now it was his turn and started going after her with it! She played along of course, but we had to get him back under control. We were able to get their picture with her, but as we were about to leave Cam went after her one more time and she ran over to Tinkerbell for help! Cam started to chase her over there but we finally managed to get him away and got out of there before it became more than a game…it was a cool experience though and I’m glad we waited the hour for it.

After that adventure we headed over to the Barnstormer. That had been one of Lily’s favorites last time, and all three kids loved it this time too. Had to wait about 40 minutes though – I never would imagined these crowds! Definitely wouldn’t want to come for a big vacation this time of year, though the weather is certainly nice. Cam had been wanting to do the race cars all afternoon so we took him over there next. They needed to ride in twos so decided to sit this one out. Brian went with Lily, Dad with Cam, and Mike with Cassie. I took a brief excursion through a couple of stores hoping to find some black tights for Lily – I had forgotten to pack hers and she likes to wear them with her Minnie Mouse Costume. But no luck, oh well. Her white tights would just have to do.

I came back and waited for Brian and Lily’s car to come around the curve where I could see them. Another long wait, but at last there they came! We called Ashley and arranged to meet her and Mom at the Astro Orbiter. That was another ride we hadn’t gotten to last time and had wanted to try. I thought it would be especially cool to ride it at night. After one more long wait we were whisked up the elevator and loaded into our small space ships. It was a lot of fun actually, though the wind made it pretty chilly. The Castle was all lit up in icicle lights, I tried to get a picture but we were going to fast and everything just came out blurry.

After the Orbiter we decided to do the People Mover since there was no wait. Had some trouble getting loaded into the cars in time and they had to stop the ride for us – oops! As we went through Space Mountain the lights were all turned on because it was broken down. I think that has happened before when I’ve been on PM but its cool to see how condensed that track actually is.

Chapter 6. The end of a very long day at Magic Kingdom

Spectromagic Parade would be starting in about 30 minutes so we went to find spots to watch – I knew we had waited too long and as expected it was packed. We sat down behind about 5 or 6 rows of people who were also sitting down, thinking this would work out fine. But as soon as the parade started, everyone in the front stood up! I couldn’t believe they would be that rude to everyone behind them –I thought most people understood parade etiquette – if you are in the front sit down! So we scrambled up closer to where we could hold Lily up and still give her a reasonably good view. It was a cool parade, would have been nicer not to feel so crowded though. But that had been the story of the day.

After the parade there was only about 20 minutes until the fireworks, but Lily decided she had to go potty and couldn’t wait. So we ran to the potty as quick as we could. The fireworks were great, but again found myself wishing for our amazing seats that we had landed in last summer right in front of the Castle. And again, everyone stood up. Why was everyone standing up??? After the fireworks Ashley wanted to stay for the Christmas with Mickey show, which was in another 15 minutes.

Lily was so sleepy and begged to leave, but we couldn’t go anywhere if everyone else was staying. So she laid down on the ground. Again once it started everyone stood up and we would have to stand to if we wanted to see. At first she said she didn’t care, she just wanted to sleep. We finally convinced her to get up though, and she ended up enjoying the show despite being so tired. We all stumbled toward the entrance when it was over. The second Spectromagic parade was about to start, this time the Main Street was almost deserted. Now that’s the way to watch the parade, but we were all too tired. Made a mental note for our next Disney Vacation though – plan a late afternoon break, then late night at MK to see second parade.

We decided to take the boat back to the TTC since we had taken the monorail that morning. We got onto the one that was loading and were soon off. It will come as no surprise that Lily was sound asleep before we even made it out of the parking lot. Near the hotel we stopped by McDonald’s to pick up some dinner. We never eat McDonald’s but there was no way she was going to wake up to go inside a restaurant. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I’m sure glad we didn’t try to do any days like this during our vacation – we never would have made it a whole week! But we had had a really fun day and covered a lot more of the park than I thought we would, considering how busy it was. Back at the hotel we managed to get Lily to eat a few chicken nuggets before collapsing into bed, something which she would have no memory of in the morning.

Chapter 7. C-Ya Real Soon, Disney!

Again, we had to get up earlier than we would have liked to get packed up and head to breakfast with Mickey! We were doing pretty good for time, got checked out and were on our way… then I remembered that my camera battery was still in the charger. And the charger was still plugged into the outlet in our room!!! What a disaster. So we turned back – Dad ran inside to try to get a key. Of course they had to program a new card. Brian ran up to the room to fetch it, but the new key didn’t work, so we had to back to the front desk again, get another one. Fortunately this one worked, but we had lost almost 20 minutes in the whole ordeal.

So we made a beeline toward Disney World again, hoping to goodness we wouldn’t hit a traffic jam. Fortunately we didn’t, though we almost missed our turn because as we came through the left lane of the Entrance, we were told our turn was on the right – across about 8 lanes of cars! Somehow we made it across without getting run over and were at the Contemporary in no time at all.

We checked in at Chef Mickey’s, got our picture made and were seated within a few minutes. Goofy was on his way but we had a few minutes so we hurried to the buffet to get food. The other were along shortly – Mickey, then Minnie (who liked that Lily was wearing her dress!), Pluto, and Donald. Donald got excited when Mom complimented him on the good breakfast. As he was leaving, Lily fell out of her chair, and he helped her back up! We finished eating, purchased the picture of all of us, and at it was time to go, time to head back to Naples. C-Ya real soon, Disney!

On the way out of the hotel I mentioned to Brian that I suddenly didn’t feel so great – that queasy, yucky, dizzy sort of feeling I always get when I am sick with just about anything. I wasn’t used to eating such a big breakfast though, and was a little worn out from the last few days and figured a nap on the way back would take care of it. The 3 hour ride back to Naples was uneventful, Lily slept for a lot of it, and me too, on and off anyway. I was feeling mostly better when we got to their house, and hoped that was all it had been. It was already mid afternoon and preparations were immediately begun for that night’s feast and festivities. The kids, of course, were in the pool within minutes. I went to the grocery store with Mom and Tina while they swam to get the food needed for that night.

It was a pretty typical Collins Family Christmas Eve. A Feast (of steaks, potatoes, etc…and raviolis for me). And then time to open presents! Mostly just the ones from Grandma and Grandpa since we had exchanged Solstice gifts already at home. She got several Disney things – a coffee mug, a picture frame, a snowglobe, and a singing Cinderella doll. All night the kids had been watching the NORAD Santa tracking page, and noticed that he had now crossed the Atlantic Ocean – probably wouldn’t be long before her got to Florida! So everyone hurried to get ready for bed. Lily left Santa a peanut butter cookie and some milk, and then decided the reindeer might be thirsty too and wanted to leave them a cup of water. It took a little bit of time to get to sleep, but at least we were quietly tucked into our room. We finally fell asleep listening for jingling and the sound of those tiny feet...

Chapter 8. Santa found us in Florida…

In the morning Lily crept through the house looking for where Santa might have left his loot… it was all in the living room by the tree! And at least half of consisted of… can you possible guess??? Wall-E!!! And EVE too. Several toys and stuffed animals of them in fact. Plus a signing Ariel, remote control Little Einsteins rocket, and some other small toys, puzzles and games. Getting everything out of the packaging consumed most of the morning, and of course she had to try everything out. During all of this I started to not feel so great again and by now was pretty sure I was coming down with something. Why is it that one of us always has some issue on Christmas? Someone is always sick, hurt, has a weird allergic reaction to something… I think we must be cursed.

We were having another big feast for lunch – this time more traditional fare like ham and turkey, and the usual sides. Mike, Tina, Cassie and Cam came over, and soon lunch was ready. Afterwards the kids went swimming. The rest of the day, and the next actually, are a bit of a blur. I was definitely sick – throat and head hurt like crazy, I had a fever, and the yucky, achy all over feeling was here in full force. All I remember about the rest of the day and the next is lots of swimming (sometimes me too, mostly in the hot tub) and the kids playing with some of their new toys while I mostly sat or lay around. Several times I would think I was feeling better and try to do something with the kids, only to realize that had been a mistake and then spend the next two hours lying on the couch huddled under a blanket.

By Friday night I was definitely starting to feel better for real, finally, though my throat was still pretty sore. We went out to eat, being tired by now of leftover ham and turkey, to the Blue Monkey. The kids got to decorate cookies to eat afterwards! Saturday morning I could tell that whatever this bug had been it was mostly behind me – what a relief! The kids did some more swimming –Lily had turned a major corner in the water and was not only putting her whole face and head in the water, but was doing a lot of real swimming on her own! She could swim unassisted across the narrow part of the pool, and she would do it over and over again, barely taking time to catch her breath before going again. She was totally addicted. When the kids weren’t swimming we played some of the new games we had gotten, and Grandma helped them put together a puzzle. Later in the day, Mike and Tina came over and the guys tried to figure out what was wrong with the pool heater which wasn’t working right. Tina and I made a quick trip to Target to pick up a couple of things. The day was slipping away, and soon it was dinner time. We kept it easy and went to Bob Evans, then came back and started packing as our flight left early the next morning. Another successful trip was nearing its end.

Chapter 9. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles… will get us home!

We drug ourselves out of bed very early and finished packing the last minute things, then were off to the airport. When we checked in, we once again did not have seat assignments for not only the first, but even the second flight of our trip. Our third flight had seats, but they were not even together. Why have we had such bad luck with that on this trip??? Everyone else seemed to have seat assignments together when they arrived with no problem. Later I realized it might be because we booked through Orbitz. I think from now on I will book through the airlines directly. Since we didn’t have seat assignments yet we wanted to get to the gate as soon as possible, so we said our goodbyes. Security was no more than the usual hassle, and we grabbed some breakfast on the way to the gate. We were able to get seats with no problem, even three together. That was the only time on the whole trip. Our connection in Chicago was very tight – only 40 minutes and we didn’t have seats for that one either so we were really hoping our flight from Ft. Myers got out on time. It did, and actually got us to Chicago about 30 minutes early, so we had plenty of time to get to the gate. They couldn’t assign us seats yet though; finally they called our name and gave us boarding passes. Three more seats, not together. We told them we had a 5 year old, they said we would just have to ask someone on the plane to switch seats with us. That almost didn’t work out, as the first person I asked wouldn’t move, fortunately the person sitting next to the other seat offered so Lily got to sit with me in the very back of the plane. Brian was all the way in the front.

That flight was a tad bit late leaving, but we had a long layover in Oklahoma City anyway. I had never been to Oklahoma City, and had formed a mental image of what I expected the airport to look like. When we got off the plane I was a little shocked to see that my vision was freakishly correct. Not so much in the layout, but in the overall look and style. I guess it just symbolizes the Midwest – tall, stark, neutral colors, very open and airy, just slightly modern but not too much. We got some pizza while we waited, and Lily saved her milk in the pocket of her backpack. I mentioned how the lid didn’t seal tight so we would have to be careful when we set it down. Just one more flight – this one to Denver. At the gate, Lily made a new friend who also had a sticker book (she had been playing with her Wonder Pets one) and they spent a long time trading stickers.

Again our seats were not together but we got lucky and it only took getting two people to switch by one row so that we could all sit together. Unfortunately we were in the bulk head row, which means ALL of you carry-on stuff has to go in the overhead compartments. I hate that – especially when the seat belt light stays on for almost the whole time and then you can’t get to anything. We were already in the air when I remembered the milk in Lily’s backpack. I suddenly had a panicked vision of the entire overhead compartment filled with spilled milk –all over everyones stuff! That was a tense few minutes waiting for the seat belt light to off so we could go rescue it. Fortunately the lid had stayed put. Since we were almost last getting on the plane our stuff was scattered in compartments several rows behind us, I knew we would have to wait until everyone else got off before we could gather it up. But we weren’t in any particular hurry since there was no chance of getting back to the Springs in time to pick Nala up from the Petshotel that evening, she would have to spend one more night.

We rode the train back to the main terminal, and collected our luggage pretty quickly, loaded it onto a cart, and headed to the parking lot. Took a bit of searching to find the car, but finally we located it and were soon ready to make the drive back to the Springs. It was uneventful, and after unloading our stuff we got a late dinner at Applebees. I think they were practically chasing us out of there because they wanted to close . Nala and Woozle would have to wait one more night for us…at home it was obvious that we had left after a celebration. But it was still good to be home, and my bed had never been calling quite so loudly! I think I must have been asleep before I even laid down. The next day (Monday) we picked up Nala and Woozle, visited for a while with John, and bought Lily a swim mask. We forgot that Lily should have gone to school – oops! They probably aren’t doing much this week anyway. We are hoping to go to a movie later in the week and maybe take a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. No big plans yet for New Years, but lots that has to get done in just a few days.
A new year is almost here – here’s to making it all it can be!

Finally an Update on Us!

Wow, I guess it's been a while since I posted an update! Things have been busier than normal, bordering on chaos most of the time in fact! But we are all doing well nonetheless. Let's see... a quick reacp of the last month or so..

Lily went to the Fishing class at Bear Creek Nature Center not too long after my last post. They looked at some pond water in the classroom then went to the lake and made fishing poles out of very long sticks! I wasn't brave enough to put the worm on the hook for her, but the guide helped us out. And Lily had no trouble picking up and playing with the worms! She also caught 6 fish. She did not want to leave, and was begging for us to take her fishing again sometime.

Halloween was very busy - we had 4 different Halloween events, and Lily wore a different costume to each! She was Jasmine at the church party, Giselle at "Boo at the Zoo", Cinderella at her school party, and Minnie Mouse for trick-or-treating. I think Halloween is becoming the new Christmas. :) But it is Lily's favorite holiday, she enjoys the costume stuff so much!

The auction finally arrived at the beginning of November - overall things went pretty smoothly. Not as much attendance as we had hoped but I had been suspecting it a little since so many people mentioned they wouldn't be able to make it. But we raised over $10K. Not too bad considering it is kind of an off year for the church.

Soccer and Ice Skating are both over for now. The last half of soccer season wasn't that great for Lily. She was getting very distracted by friends on her team and having a very hard time focusing on the game. We are hoping she will do better next season. She really liked Ice Skating, and is going to do that again starting in January... I almost forgot I still need to sign her up for that! They had a mini-recital at the end of the session, and Lily got promoted to the next class. She may have some real potential there. At her check-up appt the DR was concerned that was rolling her feet in a little and is sending us to the podiatrist. I had noticed that while she was ice skating too, so hopefully taking care of this will help her do even better.

We had Thanksgiving at Brian's house, a sucessful feast as usual. Lily went dressed as Cinderella! On Black Friday we went to the mall after Lily's dr appt, I thought we were crazy and that it would be packed, we were hoping to see Santa if the line wasn't too ridiculous. But the place was practically empty! In fact Santa was so deserted that we weren't even sure he was open yet. Good for us, but not so good a sign for the economy :( We were happy Lily got to see Santa though. This is the first year that she hasn't been terrified to go near him! Got that picture at last!!! Later that weekend we got some snow - Brian and Lily built a snowman at the park. He was pretty cool.

This past weekend we went to Tuba Christmas to see Brian's dad play, a yearly tradition! Then went to the Festival of Lights Parade which is always right afterwards. The weather was pretty cooperative, it's nice not to be freezing while watching the parade! The next day we went to the museum in Denver (played hookey from church to go!) to see the new Dinosaur exhibit. It was pretty neat. Lily got ot make fossil cast of a dinosar claw to take home. And we saw both an Imax and planetarium show. We made it home in time to go to game night at John's house - what a weekend! Busy, but had lots of fun.

This Saturday we are going to Brian's Aunt Arline's house for her yearly party, and we are hopefully going to the Winter Wildland at the zoo tomorrow night if it's not too cold. Next Wednesday is our "Elmo Makes Music" show at the Pike's Peak Center, and then next Saturday is our Family Solstice Celebration. Brian is doing the Marion House Soup Kitchen that morning, he has taken charge of our church's contribution to it now. Then the next day we leave for Florida. We still need to figure out how we are getting to Denver to catch our plane, we were thinking about taking Frex but haven't worked out the details. Nala is staying at the PetsHotel, but we haven't worked out anything for Woozle yet. So the chaos will likely not be ending soon, but we will try to hang on and enjoy the ride!

Fall Break Update

Update - Pictures are here! Enjoy this adorable little mouse...there are two versions of the first one because I edited it a little so you can see her ears better!














Well as usual Fall Break is slipping by in what feels like no time at all. I used to be so productive on these breaks, but lately it feels like I don't get anything done at all. Oh well, its still nice. So we got back from Moab, still haven't totally finished unpacking and getting laundry caught up though. I've been busy with lots of Auction stuff, but like everything else I just am not making progress very quickly.

So it turned out that we didn't miss as much on our trip as I had thought - Lily soccer team was supposed to do team pictures after the game she missed, but they ended up rescheduling them. And the birthday party we were going to miss, for her friend John, got reschedule too and she ended up getting to go! She did miss a family tree project at school, but she said her teacher helped her make it up when she got back. So all in all, not too bad. Her new school is working out very well so far. She seems to be very happy there, and they are doing real "school" type stuff. She even has homework every night - its not difficult and only takes her a couple of minutes but at least I feel like they are taking academics seriously. The whole place just has a more organized feel to it, and I feel much more comfortable with her being left there every day.

Let's see, other than that...I made a Storybook (a digital scrapbook) of our Moab trip - the Creative Memories tracking page says it was shipped yesterday so it should get here tomorrow - YAY! I can't wait to see it. We got portraits done at Target last week with Lily in her Minnie Mouse Costume - I really like the way Target does portraits. They do lots of unusual poses but don't insist on changing the background 5 times. They are perfectly happy to let me keep one solid background for the whole shoot- that was always my complaint about Kiddie Kandids and even Sears to some extent. Busy backgrounds take away from the people and I never end up liking it as well. Unfortunately Target does take a little longer to get the pictures back - I won't be able to pick them up for another week, and they aren't even available online yet. As soon as they are I will upload them, I think they came out pretty cute.

I am also waiting, and anxiously checking the tracking page everyday, for Lily's Solstice present that I ordered last week. Since we will be in Florida for Christmas and will need to exchange gifts before we go, we have decided to so Solstice presents instead. I ordered her a "My Twin" doll, it supposedly will look just like her. I choose the eye, hair and skin color, then sent them pictures of her so they could get the face shape right. I am excited to see how it turns out. Won't be here for a few weeks though. I even got two matching outfits for her and her doll! I think she will love it, or at least I hope she does considering how much money I spent on it!

So that has been our week. Usually during each of my breaks Lily gets to stay home from school one day and have a "Fun Day", but with her just having started a new school (where she actually misses stuff when she's gone) and having already missed two days from our trip I just didn't feel good about pulling her out any more. So instead we are going to do some special stuff this weekend. On Saturday morning we are going to go to Fountain Creek Nature Center for a "Fishing with a Pole" class (I think they get to make their own fishing pole and then try it out). On Saturday night we are going to "Boo at the Zoo" (the zoo's Halloween party). Lily is going to dress up as Giselle. On Sunday afternoon we are going to a "Fairytale Concert" by the CS Philharmonic, it's part of a kid's series they are doing this Fall. And then Sunday evening we will probably go over to John's house for game night. So it will be a busy weekend, but hopefully lots of fun!

I still have three more days (counting today) of break, but still lots to do. I have spent quite a bit of time doing some stuff that needed to be done on the compuer, have had a few mishaps along the way. Lost 3 years worth of email on one account, several weeks worth of budget info, and almost lost my entire iTunes library- OOOPS! But things were getting crazy out of control so I had to do something. Hopefully there won't be any more screw-ups. Well that's its for now - I should probably get started on this massive to-do list. I will post about our weekend next week!

Trip Report - Moab, UT - October 2008

Click here for the Moab -Fall Trip Photo Album

Pre-trip report
Let me start by saying that I love vacations. I look forward to them more than anything. And we had been planning this Moab Fall Trip for many months. So I should have been excited that it was almost here. Unfortunately events had been conspiring against me, and my mental state in the days before was not what it should have been because…

1. I was unprepared. I am the master of vacation planning, but it had been such a crazy few weeks. With Lily’s birthday and Brian being out of town, and meetings and school and everything else, I had not had any time to make plans and do the research I had intended. The only thing that saved us at all was that back one day in the summer when I was bored I had made some tentative plans, thinking I would come back and revise them with more info later. At the time I thought I was really planning too far in advance, but its lucky I did it then because I never got back to it. So I wasn’t really feeling ready.

2. It was a really bad weekend to be gone. Of course I couldn’t have known this when we made the reservations months ago, but we were missing several things – a soccer game, a birthday party, the Kindergarten transition ritual at church, and two days of school for Lily. The last one didn’t seem like a big deal until she started a new school three days before the trip… that wasn’t ideal for sure. I was wishing we had planned the trip for the next weekend instead. But what can you do.

3. I was sick. I had been battling a cold for almost 2 weeks, and actually suspected it might be a sinus infection. I should have gone to the doctor by now but with the crazy week that had come before there was just no way. Better sick on vacation than sick at home… but still. I was sick.

4. The weather forecast did not look good. Moab is in the desert, it hardly ever rains, but I did notice that October was supposed to be the rainiest month. Sure enough, the forecast called for sun all week (before we got there) and then rain all weekend. Great. I went ahead and rescheduled our evening boat cruise from Sunday to Monday because that was the only day that looked even remotely promising. Sitting in the tent watching it rain for three days wasn’t really what I had in mind when I booked this trip…

So I was hoping we could overcome all this and still have a good time…but the anticipation is fun too and I felt like I had missed out on that.

Chapter 1. Through the Glowing Mountains.

We got up early, just after 5am. We were hoping to be on the road by 6am, the rush was due mostly to the fact that I was hoping to make it to the Sorrell River Resort for lunch, which was just outside Moab. We got ready and rounded up a few last minute things and were on the road just a little after 6:00. We stopped in Castle Rock for some Chick-fil-a, one of the few places we can all agree on for breakfast. We took our food to go, and saw a “Barrel of Fun” (looked like some sort of carnival ride) on a truck in the parking lot! Lily thought that was pretty cool and wondered where it was going.

We headed on up north through Denver, missing the E-470 turnoff, so we went through downtown. And then on into the mountains to where all the ski resorts are. The Aspen’s had turned and were all glowing bright yellow. Many of the mountains through there are covered with them and it looked like the whole mountainside was glowing fluorescent yellow at times! It was simply beautiful, I took some pictures but they don’t really do it justice. Onward we went, through the tunnels, through the glowing aspens, through Glenwood Canyon (the most expensive span of interstate in the country), that road seems to go on forever. Finally we crossed the border into Utah, but it was still a while until the exit.

Once off the interstate, we found ourselves on a winding up and down road that meandered through the desert. I don’t usually find driving very fun, but that came pretty close! It was very different for sure. By now we were starting to drive through some canyons with steep red walls all around us. The clouds, rain and fog had moved in and made the whole place seem very eerie, but beautiful in its own way. Almost like it was haunted. We were starving though and glad to at last see the Sorrell Resort come into view… it was (past) time for lunch!



Chapter 2. The Tent that Caused all the Trouble

There was still a light rain falling when we got out, so we all wrapped up in our rain jackets. The restaurant was on the upper level overlooking the resort grounds, and was almost empty since we were so late. I ordered a Tomato Caprisse sandwich, which I apparently mispronounced to the chagrin of the waitress. Brian got some sort of steak sandwich, and Lily played it safe with a grilled cheese. The food was pretty good – pricey but then again you are paying for the location and experience too.

During lunch the subject of the tent came up. Our big gray tent had mysteriously disappeared since our Albuquerque trip last year, and not wanting to be crowded into the backpacking tent for three days I had picked up a cheap 4 person tent at Target a few days before. Brian wasn’t very happy about this. I was hoping it would blow over…but it didn’t. Things continued to go downhill once back on the road…eventually we stopped next to the river just outside Moab and everyone managed to get themselves back together again.

Coming through Moab I tried to spot the various restaurants I had listed on my itinerary so many months ago… I had managed to print out a few maps at school the day before (since my printer at home was out of ink) but again I felt very unprepared. It looked like most stuff was somewhere along Main St though so it shouldn’t be too hard. The KOA campground was on the other side of town… Brian was a little disappointed that we weren’t camping more in the wilderness or closer to the river, but its so much harder to find those places online and get reservations when you don’t know where stuff is. Fortunately the rain had slowed by now to a very slight drizzle, hopefully we could get the tent set up without everything getting soaked.
We checked in at the office and drove over to our campsite – we had as usual requested a remote site, they were indeed a little farther from the RVs but very close to the other tent sites. Lucky for us, I guess, we were the only tent there. Were we crazy to be camping in this weather or what???

Getting the new tent set up took a little while, since we had to figure out how it worked first. Lily played on the playground across from our camp site while we worked. We finally got it together though, and spent some time relaxing inside. Lily was hyper, and bounced all around the tent dancing, singing, climbing on us… this is a camping kid for sure. For a while we were talking about names, and Lily wanted to guess Florida Grandma and Grandpa’s names… we gave her a hint about the first letter, her first guesses were “Kanet and Damet”. We got a pretty good laugh out of that… I don’t think she had heard either of the expressions that those words sound like, she just thought they were reasonable guesses! Around 6pm we decided to venture out to find dinner.



Chapter 3. To Town and Back Again

We drove back into town, I had a few options in mind for eating and was again trying to spot familiar things as we drove down Main St. When on vacation I have a rule about not eating at any place we could eat at when home, so I am always looking for local joints, preferably that offer some unusual atmosphere when possible. I had looked up what I could about Moab dining, and Eddie McStiff’s Restaurant had come up several times. We found it pretty easily and there wasn’t even a wait. I had a yummy strawberry smoothie and some pasta, Brian got a Prime Rib, and Lily had mini-corn-dogs. We were pretty tired by the time we headed back and were soon ready to snuggle down for the night in the tent. We must have been asleep pretty quickly, I know I at least slept very soundly, more so than I usually do when camping.

In the morning Lily was ready to get going a little before we were, finally we all rolled ourselves out of our sleeping bags around 7am and got ready to head out for the day. Lily was amazing us with her reading ability by reading all the signs she saw around the campground…she has really been doing well.

Once in town we spotted the Pancake Haus, there was a large tour group standing outside but decided to go in anyway and see if we could get in without much wait. Fortunately they seated us right away. I got the banana walnut pancakes. I hadn’t been paying much attention to what Lily was eating until she suddenly announced to look at her plate – she had eaten it clean! On giant pancake, two pieces of bacon and a large pile of eggs! After breakfast we found the grocery store and stocked up for our picnic lunch with some snacks and Uncrustables (frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). Our destination for the day was Canyonlands National Park, which was a bit of a drive still from Moab. But at last we were on the way, hopefully the weather would hold out!



Chapter 4. Canyonlands

The drive towards Canyonlands was very scenic, more of the red rock cliffs and unique formations. We entered the National Forest area first and stopped at the Monument and Merrimac Lookout point. Monument and Merrimac are two huge mesas. Lily had fun running and jumping on all the rocks. We soon moved on and headed on into the park. We bought a new National Parks Pass since ours had expired in August. We should get quite a bit of use out of this year’s pass with our planned travels… and its always nice to support the National Parks even if we don’t end up getting our money’s worth.

Canyonlands National Park is actually divided into two sections, “Island in the Sky” and The Needles”. The two areas are not reachable from each other, unless you take the highway around the park through Moab. It looks like it would be about a 2-3 hour trip around, so you pretty much have to pick one part and stick with it. We had chosen “Island in the Sky” which is the northern part. The two halves are not connected due to the vast canyons and river in between.
Canyonlands reminded us a lot of the Grand Canyon, and I am surprised that it is not as popular or well-known. It could definitely put up some good competition with the world-famous park in terms of size and beauty. The canyons go on as far as the eye can see, in every direction! It is simply beyond words.

We started our adventure by driving to the far end of Island in the Sky, to Grand View Point. There was an overlook area, and a trail that headed off from there. It wasn’t a long trail but was very cool, hiking along the rim of the canyon and over lots of rocks, which Lily liked, of course! The weather was holding up decent enough so far, very overcast but no rain in our immediate area. We could see it coming down in the distance though and hoped it stayed away. When we first started the hike it was rather cool, but by the end the sun had come out some more and we were all peeling off our sweatshirts. Once back at the trailhead we were hungry for lunch, so we drove back to the White Rim picnic area which was just up the road.

There were several picnic tables, each with a parking spot right next to them. Unfortunately all the parking spaces next to tables were taken, though several of the tables themselves were empty. We weren’t sure if the people parked there were planning to come back and use it, but we went ahead and set up at one of the empty ones. About that time the guy in the car that was parked there came back, and he assured us we could use the table, later though we saw him eating his car and felt bad that we had taken his table. Oh well.

Lunch was yummy, after we had our fill we headed out to the trail. Lily was pretending to be a rocket and was taking me on a journey through the solar system. We would stop at various planets to look around sometimes. We all stopped for a little while and sat down on the rim of an amazing overlook into the vast canyons below… it was very humbling. And also very quiet, when we stopped talking we could almost hear our own heartbeats in the peaceful silence!

We moved on and finished the trail, then headed back north to see the rest of Island in the Sky. Lily fell asleep for a few minutes, but woke up when we got to Whale Rock. It really does look like a whale. There was a short trail that went up to the top, and Lily took another pb&j sandwich to eat on the go. Walking along the top was pretty cool, we were definitely in one of the highest spots around. There were also several big puddles of water in low spots on the rock from the rain the day before, and since we were running low on water we took the opportunity to filter some for the water bottle. Canyonlands National Park has no drinking water available anywhere, so you have to come prepared. And there was very little access to natural water sources so this was a good chance to stock up.

Back from that adventure, we continued on the Upheaval Dome. Lily and I decided to sit this one out, but Brian took the trail and said it was really cool. Finally time to head back into town, we drove out of the park and back towards Moab to find dinner… I still think this place is one of the best kept secrets of the West, anyone appreciates the Grand Canyon would be blown away by Canyonlands!


Chapter 5. We couldn’t escape the rain ALL day…

Heading out of the park we decided that Italian sounded good for dinner, I had spotted a place called Cabano’s on the northern edge of town so we went there. We sat upstairs by the window, it was a very relaxing end to our fun but exhausting day. Since Lily had done a good job hiking, I had told her earlier in the day we would get some ice cream for dessert. The restaurant was right on Main Street, and I figured a walk down the tourist section of town was bound to lead to an ice cream shop at some point. We noticed as we were leaving that there was rain not far away, and I briefly thought about bringing the rain coats... that would have been a really swell idea. But I didn’t. I did get some nice pictures of the beautiful sunset though.

We did pass a couple of ice cream places, but they were closed. I guess the season for that has pretty much ended. We hadn’t given up yet, but suddenly I started feeling rain drops. And then got a little panicky when I realized that we were all wearing our only sweatshirts, and the only thing that was going to keep us warm in the tent that night! Except that they wouldn’t keep us very warm if they were wet! So we ran as fast as we could back to the car. We were a bit wet, but not totally drenched anyway. The ice cream would have to wait for another night…we ate some oreos left over from lunch instead. Back at the campground we got ready for bed and settled in for the night. I was very glad I had rescheduled our boat tour which had initially been for this evening, the weather would not have cooperated for sure! Hopefully tomorrow we would have more luck…


Chapter 6. Arches

I didn’t sleep quite as well that night for some reason, I remember waking up several times and having a hard time getting back to sleep. I was still sick, that combined with being a little bit cold made for a less pleasant night than the one before. But we managed to get ourselves going not long after 7am, again Lily was bouncing around the tent long before I wanted to get up.

We drove back into town for breakfast at the Jailhouse Café. It is in a building that used to serve as the courthouse for the county back around the turn of the century, apparently the restaurant office is in what used to be the jail cell, hence the name. The breakfast was pretty good, though a little pricey I thought. After eating, we stopped for gas, and then decided to swing by the grocery store for more Uncrustables and Gatorade, we still had enough of everything else left-over from the day before. We were headed to Arches National Park, which isn’t so far out of town, but due to its size we decided it would still be a pain to have to come back into Moab for lunch, another picnic would be nice anyway. With everything we needed finally gathered up, we headed for the park.

We sailed right through the entrance with our new annual pass, but almost immediately hit a huge traffic jam. That was unexpected. The cars were lined up at a dead stop as far as the eye could see. People were getting out and walking along the road to see what was going on, but no one could make much out for a while. Finally we realized it was due to some construction, they had closed one lane and were using the flagman technique to trade off which direction could go at a time. But it was a very long stretch of road that was affected so we were waiting at least 20 minutes or more. Finally we got to go, and I snapped a few cool shots as we drove.

We passed Balanced Rock and hopped out for a few minutes to take a stroll on the short path around it, it looks like a giant anvil ready to come crashing down… hope it really is as “balanced” as the name implies…

Again we started our adventure by driving all the way to the far end of the park, which was at Devil’s Garden. There were several arches along this trail so I figured it was a good way to start. We came to Landscape Arch pretty quickly. The trail used to go under the arch, but after a section of the arch collapsed in the 1990s they decided it was too unstable so now the trail ends at a good viewing spot, but you can’t go all the way up to it. The geology of these sandstone arches is very complicated, but has to do with the underlying salt bed, and the forces of erosion on the rock layers as they have shifted and collapsed above the fragile salt deposits. From there the trail continued to the Double-O Arch, which we could see in the distance. Lily really wanted to go to that one since you could climb up inside it, but it was up on the cliff face a bit and I thought at least one part of the trail looked a bit treacherous to be taking her on. So we waited at the bottom while Brian went. It was a good chance for Lily to play in the sand and rock anyway, which was one of her favorite activities.

On the way back we took the side trails to Pine Tree and Tunnel Arch. Lily especially liked Pine Tree Arch, that was the first one we visited that she could go under and climb around inside. She is getting so daring at climbing on rocks, sometimes a little too daring for my comfort zone, but at least this one didn’t have any precarious drop-offs on the other side. Tunnel Arch was up high on the cliff wall so we could only view it from below, then it was time to head back and find a good spot for our picnic. I hadn’t been feeling at my best so far, between being sick, not having gotten a good night’s sleep, and being a little tired from our hikes before, it was all taking its toll. So I was hoping lunch would rejuvenate me a bit.


Chapter 7. Lily the Rock Climber

There was a picnic area at Devil’s Garden, but we could tell even at a distance that it was packed, so we went back to Balanced Rock where the map indicated there was another picnic spot. It was on the other side of the road, and to our great luck was almost empty! Why everyone was crowding into the Devil’s Garden one I do not know, but we quickly grabbed what I thought was the best spot there, right near the edge of the cliff overlooking the canyon, and with lots of shade! Lunch was very refreshing, more yummy picnic food and the weather was just perfect. Plus, you couldn’t beat the view. I felt so much better after lunch, hopefully I could enjoy our afternoon hikes more than I had the morning ones.

After lunch we drove over to the “Windows” section of the park. The North Window was the first arch on the trail, this was one of Lily’s favorites. The arch itself started from the ground, but went up just steep enough to make me a little uncomfortable with her climbing up it. Of course she did it anyway. At one point I remember thinking as we were scaling the side back down that we were absolutely nuts. This would turn out to just be a warm up though. There was a really nice view out the other side of the arch from where we climbed too though. Once safely down we continued on to the South Window. From there a primitive trail leads in a long loop back to the parking lot. Brian wanted to take it, but Lily suddenly desperately needed to go potty. So I took her back to the trailhead the way we had come, and Brian continued on to finish the longer loop.

We had only been back from the potty a few minutes when Brian got back, he makes such better time when we aren’t tagging along. There was one more arch in this section, the Double Arch. It was on a very short trail, in fact we could see it from the parking lot but wanted to get closer, since this was another one that you could go up inside.

Remember that our earlier arch climbing adventure was just a warm-up… this one was named Double Arch because there are two arches that kind of make a V with each other, its hard to describe so you’ll have to see the picture. Anyway, to get up into the second arch you have to scale a very steep and rather tall wall…I absolutely cannot believe we did this. Actually Brian and Lily did it, I never went all the way up. Mostly because I couldn’t even keep up, that girl was up the rock before I could even warn her to stop! Brian was just trying to stay close enough to catch her if she fell, even that was sometimes hard. Going up isn’t so hard, its always coming down that is a bit precarious. We were struggling to get Lily down, and I was thinking how crazy we were to have gotten ourselves into this predicament. Fortunately a nice man who was about half way up offered to help, he was in a better position to grab Lily and lifted her on down to the ground. I’m sure we would have made it anyway (or at least I’d like to be)… but I’m still not sure that was a smart thing to do and was very grateful for the help. Lily on the other hand, was beaming at her accomplishment and didn’t understand why we weren’t so thrilled about what we had just done. She says she is going to climb Mt Everest one day (or Mountain Everest as she calls it) and I am starting to believe her… this girls’ got rock climbing in her blood!

We had mentioned several times during the day how this place reminded us a lot of Garden of the Gods, only MUCH bigger and MUCh more dramatic. It was now getting close to time to head back for our dinner and boat cruise, we stopped at a few places to take pictures along the way, and Brian did one more hike, it was a one way hike where I could pick him up at the other end so it worked out well, especially since Lily was asleep by now. After he was done, we headed out of the park and back into town. It was a tad bit early still but there wasn’t time to do anything else, so we were off to our evening on the river!




Chapter 8. Canyonlands by Night

We checked in at Canyonlands By Night and picked up our tickets. We had a little while until diner so we wandered around by the fountains and looked out onto the river. I also bought a t-shirt for myself, and aa zippered hoodie for Lily. We were soon seated for dinner and the lead tour guide, Dee (who totally looked like an old cowboy), gave us a brief synopsis of how dinner and the cruise would proceed. It was a Dutch Oven Dinner of several types of barbequed meat and some really tasty sides. When we were almost done, one of the servers brought Lily an apple that had been sliced to look like a duck! That was pretty neat, as Lily was the only kid on the whole tour that evening. Finally it was time to board the boat. Cameras are not allowed on the night cruise, so I snapped one last shot of Lily once we got settled then put the camera away. I had bought a pack of pictures from the gift shop since I couldn’t take my own.

Dee started us off down the river, explaining a lot about the area’s climate and geology. He was a really fun tour guide, and pointed out lots of spots on the canyon walls where it’s easy to see a “face” or other shape. Once down the river a ways, it had finally gotten dark enough for the show to begin.

The road we had come into town on runs right beside the river, and they have a “light truck” that drives along the road lighting up the canyon walls for the show. The narration told about the history of the area in the form of stories, some real and some more legendary. The light work was amazing. They create these moving shadows on the walls that, if you use your imagination just a little, look a lot like what is happening in the story. It is easy to see men riding on horses through the desert, or wild animals running across the plains. But it’s very abstract, makes it a little eerie and cool. And the music soundtrack was perfect, made the atmosphere feel very authentic and complete. A few times during the show they turned out all the lights so we could admire the night sky – it was totally clear and the stars were beautiful. I could even see the Milky Way, can’t even remember the last time I saw that, at least not this clear. I was thinking that this was definitely the highlight of the whole trip, the whole canyon had seemed to come alive with the history and beauty of the night. But finally the story and the cruise were coming to an end and we were docked back at Canyonlands by Night. After we got off they had free hot chocolate. It had been a very special evening indeed.

We drove back to the campground, this was the latest we had been out on our trip, so we were all tired by the time we got back. Lily and I decided to sleep underneath one of the blankets we had been using as padding, that would definitely make for a warmer night. It had been an unforgettable day for sure, tomorrow we have to head home.


Chapter 9. A History Lesson, then Home

We slept in a bit the next morning, finally got up around 8am and went to get breakfast before packing up. We had noticed a Chinese restaurant in town that advertised a Breakfast Buffet so we went there. It was pretty tasty, mostly typical American breakfast stuff but some Chinese food as well. Lily especially liked the shrimp and lo-mien noodles. Yes, that was for breakfast. But we had eggs and pancakes too.

After breakfast it was time to pack up camp. As usual it took a while to get everything back into the car. The tent was especially hard – I have no idea how it fit so easily into that tent bag the first time, I didn’t think there was any way it was going back in! We finally got it, but the poor tent bag looks like it is ready to burst at any moment. Lily played again on the playground while we packed up, she was having a blast.

Finally we were ready to check-out. We drove back into town for one last destination, the Moab Museum. It was small, but really neat. Had lots of historic stuff, including many native American artifacts that date back to over 1000 years ago, as well as some more recent exhibits having to do with the towns mining and cowboy days. There were a few geological pieces too, showing dinosaur fossils and the changes that have taken place in the area over the millennia. We had the place to ourselves, and the elderly lady who worked there commented on how observant Lily was for a 5 year old!

After we were done there we went to the nearby Pantele’s Desert Deli for lunch before hitting the road. Lily was asleep before we even made it out of town. We drove back on the highway we came in on, even though it is a little longer it is much more scenic, and since it was raining on the way in we didn’t get a very good look at it before. I was spectacular, of course. Eventually we made it to the interstate, and despite the temptation to head elsewhere for another adventure, we got back on it. Coming through Glenwood Canyon from this direction it was easy to see why it is such an impressive feat – almost 16 miles of raised interstate! The westbound lanes are suspended up above the eastbound lanes, and all of it is perched the side of the narrow canyon. As we came through Denver we stopped at Red Robin for dinner, then homeward bound. It would be too late once we got into town to pick up Nala from the PetsHotel, so she would have to enjoy one more night there.

We have already decided that we would like to come back to Moab next fall, we found a nice camping area right along the river that would be a big improvement over the parking lot that is KOA, and there were several areas in both of the parks that we didn’t get to see. We had planned on going to Chicago next fall break, but now that I think about it, there’s no reason why we have to go there in the fall. Since Fall seems to be a great time in the desert, maybe spring would make a better setting for the city…