moab...

...was fabulous.  We had such a good time.  Oliver was a dream the entire time.  In fact, as you'll see from the pictures, the whole trip seemed to revolve around him.  Which I guess is what happens when you have a baby.  It was just so fun to camp, explore the city, have a dinner date, sit in meetings and visit with the other seminary teachers, hike the arch, etc. etc... with him in tow.  And if anything, having him there seemed to make Zach and I enjoy each other even more.  It was a dreamy trip with two of my boys.  Quinn and Max were with their grandparents having an equally fabulous time which made it so much easier for us to enjoy ourselves knowing that they were beyond happy.

Here's our trip.  Or rather, Oliver being cute on our trip:

We gave our new tent (an 8 man tent in brand new condition bought at a yard sale for $25 - Score of the year) it's first run and I can't wait to take it out again.  It was so huge that we just set Ollie's porta crib up (which he sleeps in every night anyways) inside of it.  Since we were taking it for the hotel the next night anyway it worked out perfect.  And we even took it with us to the meetings at the church building in Moab and set it up in a dark classroom with his sound machine so that he could nap.  Seriously, for that reason alone, Zach and I are geniuses.

After walking around downtown Moab for a while we settled on Pasta Jay's for dinner.  It was ok, but we both regretted not getting anything with an alfredo sauce.  Dangit.  Anyways, I didn't take any pictures of the food, but I did take a few pictures of Ollie charming us for bites of pasta, garlic bread, and sips of our water.    And I'm pretty sure the older foreign couple behind us was trying to figure out a way to smuggle Ollie into their bags.  He tends to have that effect on people.

Here he is at bedtime, all smiles and giggles, but ready for sleeping.  Once I nursed him and put him in his crib he went right to sleep and slept like a champ, only getting up to eat once in the night.  Once we knew he was asleep we turned on Zach's laptop and watched the 2nd Sherlock Holmes movie on the air mattress.  It was about as romantic as it can be in the middle of a campground with people all around and a baby sleeping a few feet away.  We only got halfway through the movie before we were both too tired to watch and ended up turning it off and going to bed.  But really, it was lovely.

Oliver woke up around 6am to eat and then promptly fell back to sleep in bed with us.  When I got up to shower at 8 he was still snoozing away.  I don't mean to give a play-by-play of everything that he did, he just really was, in every sense, a happy camper.  And how can I not show a picture of an adorable sleeping baby?




We didn't have to be at the church until 11:30 so we packed up camp and headed to Dead Horse Point to see the view.  Side story - Zach couldn't remember what the name was and kept referring to it as "Horse Head Point" over and over again.  Even though I'd remind him every time he still couldn't get it right.  My favorite was when we were leaving and he said, "So why in the world did they name it Horse Head Point???" and I said, "They didn't!"

The view was amazing and I had plenty of vertigo-ish moments.  But I loved walking around and seeing my two boys hiking around.  Ollie LOVED the backpack.  And Zach confirmed that it's much easier carrying Oliver than it is carrying Max. ;)

This was a view point that looks like you're standing right on the edge, but there's a few steps below that you can't see.  This is where Zach took a series of pictures of me and Ollie where I don't look ginormous or retarded.  Way to go Zach!

Dear Oliver, this sticking-your-tongue-out-when-you're-excited phase is delicious.

After our meetings were finished for the day we checked into our hotel and then headed into Arches to hike Delicate Arch with a bunch of the other seminary teachers and their wives.  It a beautiful hike, but it was way tougher than I expected!  It really showed me how out of shape I am, which I still haven't quite recovered from (mentally).  Also, I thought that seeing the arch would help me overcome my fear of heights/huge things (I looked it up - it's called megalophobia), but I think it actually made it worse.  Not to mention the new phobia I acquired - fear of your husband stumbling and dropping your baby into a canyon.  Not sure what that one's called, but I'm pretty sure you could just refer to it as Motherhood.  Oh, and I wish someone had told me about the giant hole beside the arch that makes it near impossible to walk straight without feeling like you're going to fall in.  BUT STILL, it was awesome.  I didn't cry, but I almost screamed as we walked out to get a quick picture.  Yikes.  I'm such a wimp.  Here's Delicate Arch and me having a minor freak out moment underneath it:

Once we got out there we made an Ollie sandwich, like true loving parents:

And since Zach is a weirdo (admittedly, it's one of my favorite things about him), as we walked away he licked the arch.  If I had been in my right mind I would have spit off of it (I tend to do that in places of significant height - hot air balloon, Golden Gate Bridge, Angel's Landing in Zion...), but I was too freaked out to even think about anything other than putting one foot in front of the other.  And making sure Zach had a death grip on Oliver.  Which, as I'm sure you can imagine, Zach appreciated (not).

Hey Oliver, how big is the arch??:

Soooooo big!

What I wish I'd taken a picture of was all the people sitting around just taking in the awesomeness of the arch.  It amazed me how quiet it was once we got there.  There had to be at least 70 people there, but everyone spoke in whispers as if we were on hallowed ground.  I've found that it's hard to be in a place like that and not feel the presence of God.  It always amazes me that He created such a beautiful earth for us to enjoy.  I also loved that no one spent a lot of time right at the arch.  You'd just get a couple of quick shots and then leave so that everyone could have a good view.  I appreciated that mutual respect that everyone seemed to have for each other.  I read that this one time someone visited the arch and there was a guy there that wasn't so respectful of the "don't hog the arch" rule and instead sat on the side of the arch and ate his lunch.  Rude!  Then everyone referred to him as an "arch-hole".  He deserved it.  

Mandatory Chaco shot. We have a lot of pictures like this in different places - although Zach usually puts in two feet (he was feeling rebellious).  And for anyone who's friends with me on facebook - these are the jeans that were bleached and then dyed yellow.  Perfect for hiking and feeling like Bon Jovi at the same time.



So Moab, you did not disappoint.  Thanks for helping me ring in my 29th year.  And also, thanks for not killing me but just scaring me enough to make me feel like I'm really living.  It was perfect.