Family Trip 2012

Last year, with a one year old and a newborn, we decided to forego a big family trip and instead opted for a stay-cation in Park City for three nights.This year, though, we're all grown up and back out there.  We left Tuesday morning and drove to Vernal, where we got out at the temple to have lunch before driving to Dinosaur National Monument. We had with us Daisy, our pet quail, because she is such a good bird and follows us around like a dog, but isn't nearly as messy and/or needy.

We were walking around the temple grounds, getting ready for a family picture, and Daisy was following behind, 5-6 feet away from us, on the grass. Suddenly, I hear Jeff gasp and look over to see a large bird on the grass, where Daisy was standing, take off and fly away. It took a moment to process that this large bird (a hawk, Jeff confirmed) had landed on the temple lawn and flown away with our pet quail. It was unbelievably surreal, like a nature show come to life. It was all over in 5 seconds and Daisy was no more. 

No one was in the mood for a pic after that, but Jeff snapped one anyway. Note the girls' hysterics and Carter's shock. So funny. And sad. But most of all, crazy.

Dinosaur National Monument was awesome and definitely worth seeing (the Utah side, where all the dinosaur fossils are). We then drove around to the Colorado side (Dinosaur, CO) and on this steep dirt road down to Echo Park. We set up camp near Steamboat Rock (seen below) and started getting worried that the wind was going to ruin our night. A couple of our poles on the tent broke and we were a tad worried the tent would actually blow away.

We took the kids on a hike (supposed to be one mile each way) where we would get a great view of Steamboat Rock.We started at Picasso Face (the kids called this Witch Mountain) and scrambled up to the top of the hill. Then we proceeded to hike in 90+ degree weather and the beating sun for over a mile with no end in sight. The kids were good sports, but started wearing down, faces looking more like tomatoes than peaches. Jeff went on ahead while we sat in the shade, trying to get them cooled off a little. 

After some panic from Damon (he thought Jeff was going to die--maybe he's seen too many survival shows), Jeff came back to tell us that he hadn't found the lookout either and we headed back down to the water, where we cooled off a little.

Carter and McKay loved throwing things into the water and we spent more time doing that than anything else on our trip. Seriously, they were in love with the water.

That night, after eating our soup in a bread bowl in the van because of the wind, we got into the tent and everything just died. No wind, nothing. In fact, we were a little warm. But grateful we didn't blow away.

Wednesday morning we got up and drove to Rocky Mountain National Park, a few hours away. We stopped and had lunch in Steamboat Springs, which reminded us all of Park City. We played at this park and were glad for a little cooler weather.

We drove all the way through Rocky Mountain National Park, which was a 1.5-2 hour drive on windy roads that go up to 12,000 ft (above the treeline). Jeff was getting a sinus headache and the kids were BEYOND done traveling, but we kept going to Estes Park. It was raining, and we got there way later than we planned, but we found a two bedroom lodge that had room and stayed there. That was a lot of fun, although the gas stove accidentally was left on and I stayed up extra late after everyone else had gone to bed to make sure there wasn't anything fishy going on. 

The next morning we went back to Rocky Mountain National Park and tried to do some cool hikes. But there was so much construction on the roads to the trails, and so many people wanting to go, that we ended up doing one short "hike" (.2 miles) to some waterfalls. Again, we spent quite some time throwing things into the water. Pure heaven for my boys.

We took off a little earlier than we planned (the park was beautiful, but not any more so than a lot of places in Utah. Not a must-see if you live in the mountains here) and drove down to Denver. We ended up staying at a Hampton Inn there. Jeff wasn't too thrilled when he found we had to pay for parking, but once we found that we had scored a handicap accessible room (with PLENTY of space, including two queen beds and a couch bed), I was redeemed. The kids swam in the pool, we got takeout Qdoba and played games. 

The next morning after a hearty breakfast (one of the best things about Hamptons), we went to the Denver Museum of Science and History, which was awesome. We didn't even have enough time to see everything we wanted to see there, and I would love to go back someday when the kids are a little older and their attention spans are a bit longer. 

We then drove out of Denver back toward Utah on the I-70. We stopped about an hour outside Grand Junction at a place called Rifle Mountain. We took a slight detour (GPS on my phone was not working), and ended up going about 30 minutes out of our way, but finally made it to the campground. It was gorgeous. We walked around, threw things in the stream, and took a few pics. 

Then we headed back to our camp, had some pasta and spaghetti sauce, and tried to talk the kids into going to bed. Instead, we listened to music, played more PIT (a new family favorite with the kids) and finished the candy we had brought. Good family memories.

Saturday morning we got up and hiked (not much of a hike at all) to the falls and caves, which was really cool. And except for a run in with the world's smelliest latrine, it was a great day.

We then headed home, stopping in Grand Junction for a last picnic lunch and a Redbox movie. We made it home in one piece, having driven 1200 miles in five days, with five kids. We rock.