52

The view from our campsite as we pitched our tent

For four years, we have planned on camping at campsite 52 in Arches National Park. Not that there was anything spectacular about #52, it just looked like a nice spot. But camping inside Arches takes a lot of forethought (something us spontaneous people don’t do.) We got our reservation back in March and looked forward to our trip all summer.

We packed up our handy dandy Thule trailer with all our gear and headed out a couple weekends ago. As we pulled into our campsite and unloaded our things, I looked around. The thought came to me ‘I am home’.  Arches is one of my favorite places to be. It just feels like home.

The kids love climbing the rocks and exploring the sandstone creations.  Something about the surroundings there beckons us. The kids sense it, too.

With no distractions, we are able to focus more on each other and less on things that don’t matter.

The first full day there, Randy took us on a 7 mile hike to see Double O Arch and what we thought was an arch we had never been to (turns out it was a big, tall, disappointing rock.)

                                                       Yeah, it’s neat and all, but when you’ve

                                    coaxed 6 kids that far, you kind of expect something grand.

This was no small feat with six little ones in tow. To make the feat even more amazing, let me add that the wind was blowing fiercely and rain visited us off and on the entire time.

                                       What? You’ve never seen a family of 8 hiking in ponchos?

                                                                Seems perfectly normal to me.

Furthermore, remember Nathan’s middle of the night purging? Well, that wasn’t the end of it. It was accompanied by a lovely bout of loose bowels. And more vomiting the first night in the tent.

Yeah, that was a first. Tyler and Emma didn’t want to be left out and they each took turns in the tent, as well.

Maybe it was the amazing full moon we had…

While our trip was short, we did see most of our favorites:

 

Landscape Arch

 

Double O Arch

….Complete with a Snap Happy Hungarian posing my kids and exclaiming “YES!” when he captured the shot he wanted. Why is it when a Japanese or European tourist wants to take pictures of your kids, it ‘s amusing. Yet , if an American tried that, you’d find it creepy?

Boom, Boom, Fiya Powa!

 

Balanced Rock

It’s our tradition- we like our version better…

 

Sand Dune Arch

 

The Windows

Emma enjoyed the view from Randy’s shoulders. I had hoped she was still my baby and could fit in the backpack, but she hated it and quite frankly, looked a little awkward in it….sigh…

 

 

Double Arch

I waited in the car with a sleeping Emma.

 

And my very favorite arch- well worth the hike (which the kids were FANTASTIC on, by the way…)

 

Delicate Arch

(or as Hailey calls it, ‘Cowboy Arch’….so Nathan had to dub it ‘Pirate Arch’.)

            

We saw several small lizards (and surprisingly, only pulled off one tail…)          

And a frog…

The kids had fun around camp and Hailey and Tyler told Hannah all about the Arch Monsters that live in arches. ;)

   

The fire is Casey’s favorite place to be and he has become an expert fire starter. We enjoyed many nice meals because of him (and Randy’s cooking…) But something new to this trip was the Utensil Art my children created. They’d melt their plastic utensils over the fire and lay them out to form made-up words. Never-ending fun, I tell you!

When Casey wasn’t tending the fire, he was sanding some eyeballs for his Grandpa Frank.     

Sad to leave, but some ice cream at the Moab Diner helps….

And we definitely couldn’t leave without visiting “The Sand Hill”.

After a long ride, we arrived- exhausted and somewhat sad. Until the next morning, when I was greeted with this:

And I realized- I am home.