Family Trip to Moab

Rick volunteer's for the Utah Valley Marathon So throughout the year there are different Expos that you can volunteer at. For example, last year Rick and I volunteered at the Womens Expo. We got next to nobody signed up...but we walked around and got free bread out of it, so that was fun. Haha:) So in preparing for this years marathon in June we've gotten to go to two different Expos, one in St. George last November and one in Moab about a week and a half ago. Because we are volunteering, the Marathon pays for our gas to get there, our food while we are there, and a hotel to stay in so that we don't have to drive back super late after the Expo is over. Sweet deal, right? This is pretty much the best way to go on family vacations:) We volunteer for 9-ish hours and then we get to have the rest of the time for a little vacation!

Here we are in front of the St. George temple last November:

 
And here are some pictures from the other week when we went to Moab:

This was at a rest stop on our way. We were getting really close and Kimbri had been so good but by this point she was getting a little bit sick of being in the car. And I had to use the restroom so we decided to stop for a bit. She turned her head right as the camera took the picture;)

After we arrived and got the booth all set up with Hyrum Oaks, the guy that started the marathon, we all went to Pizza Hut. Rick ordered chicken alfredo pizza with bell peppers and garlic bread and Hyrum and I each got a salad and a chicken alfredo pasta dish. Yum!

We went back to the expo just in time for it to begin. I took Kimbri outside for a break during the Expo. We were there for 8+ hours so we went on a few walks outside when she started to get bored. The weather was fantastic that day! 

For dinner we had Subway. After the expo was over we went and got checked in to the River Canyon Lodge, I think is what it was called. We watched 'Family Feud' cause there were no good movies on. Quick funny side note: On 'Fast Money' at the end, the first person to answer the questions didn't do so hot. When asked to name a word starting with a 'Q' she replied 'cute'. And the second person said 'Quiznos'. Haha! I laughed soooo hard.

The next morning it was pretty nice outside. A little windy but a great temperature. We decided to let Kimbri stick her feet and legs in the water. She LoVeD it:)

Kimbri loves to look at herself in the mirror.

After we checked out of the hotel we decided to find somewhere to eat. I was so hoping there was a Cafe Rio there, but there wasn't so we found a place we'd read about called Miguel's Baja Grill. I had read great reviews and was really excited to have some good Mexican food. Well, we got there and read that it didn't open until 5pm. Darn. So we saw a place called Pasta Jay's on the corner and decided to just eat there. Rick ordered an chicken alfredo pasta dish and I ordered a pesto and chicken pasta dish. They were both pretty delicious but they were both a little bit too cheesy. Now, I love cheese. And I never thought I would say that something was too cheesy. But this was over-the-top. The pasta was filled with cheese inside it, smothered with a cheesy pesto sauce, with cheese melted all over the chicken on top. Sounds good right? That's totally what I thought, but neither Rick or I could finish because of the richness and cheesiness of it. Anyway....

Kimbri loved sitting up in a highchair at the restaurant:

Far before actually going to Moab for the Expo we had decided that we wanted to go to Zions National Park while we were there. Rick has never been so we really wanted to go! We heard that it was supposed to be windy that day but it didn't seem to bad when we entered the park. We drove all the way up to some of the furthest trails to hike to one arch called the Landscape Arch. We were going to hike to that one and then drive back down to the park entrance and on our way stop at some viewpoints and also hike to Delicate Arch (the one on the license plate).

We parked at the trail head for Landscape Arch and Kimbri had done a major poopy in her diaper which got all over her clothes. So we changed her and got her all cleaned up and into the front pack. We packed our camera, water, extra diapers/wipes just in case and some fruit into the Camelback and were ready to go. We got out of the car and it was super windy! One lady even stopped us and told us that we would want to wear sunglasses because of how bad the wind was. We got maybe 50 yards down the trail and the sand was blowing so hard on our legs that it was hurting! We of course had Kimbri all bundled and covered up, but we decided it wasn't worth it to risk getting her sick or hurt from all the wind.

So we decided to head back to Delicate Arch to see if it was just as windy there. On our way we stopped at the Fiery Furnace viewpoint:

After that we arrived at the trail head to Delicate Arch. It was still sooooo windy and Kimbri was asleep by this point so we decided that we would just have to come back someday when there would be more baby-friendly weather.

From there we just drove straight back to Provo, with a side stop in Spanish Fork to say hi and have dinner with my family. It was a really fun little 2 day trip! Hopefully well make it back to Arches someday!!