More Moab.

Us girls made it to Grand Junction, without incident.
We picked up the bags from the airport, and went shopping.
I had packed a plain white tee shirt and markers for Mikayla to make herself an "It's My Birthday Today" tee shirt.

(Lighting courtesy of Pizza Hut.)
We found a ROSS in Grand Junction.
Things were starting to balance out in my world...
Mikayla picked out a couple of presents, I found TWO(inexpensive)dresses for ME.
It was a miracle.

Then we drove back into Moab to meet up with everyone for dinner at Pizza Hut.
Our friends brought Mikayla a cake.
The whole restaurant sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

She finally felt like it was a real birthday.

Later, back at the hotel (Moab Valley Inn):

everyone went swimming in the highly chemically altered pool, and then we had a little family celebration for our new 8 year old, with candles squished into half melted ice cream sandwiches.

We stayed up late, listening to stories from Grandpa Randy and Uncle Jeff.

You can't put a price on memories like that.
Real, yet almost unbelievable experiences shared from a time long ago.
Hysterical giggling from both the kids listening, and the adults reliving the past.
My dad and his brothers are expert story tellers, with their descriptive narration- you feel like you are right there with them.
They had the most colorful childhood, growing up on a farm in Idaho.
I can't get enough of them.

The next morning, we got up, and ate some shoddy continental breakfast.
You know how I like my waffles, right?
Yeah, well, they got rid of the waffle maker.
I had to settle for eggs. And not the Cadbury kind.

Then the boys got the Jeeps ready for a day of trail riding.
Mikayla had her own Jeep.

It kept up.

The boys chose a trail that wuss-bags like myself could handle.
It was called the "Poison Spider/Golden Spike" trail.
I don't know who named those things.
I did see some funky looking spidery trees on the trail?

Spidery? Maybe?
I wasn't sure how Poison Spider was named, but I steered clear of any visible webs.
Some of the trail names made sense, because they contained the visual formations that they were named after. Like potato salad. The rocks there looked like dumped out, chunky potato salad.
Or Pig Rock.
You can see the pig...

I guess if I were to name the trails they would ALL be called "wienie rock trail" and that wouldn't be helpful to anyone trying to navigate that place.

Anyway...at the start of the trail there is an area where you can hike up this cliff and see some actual dinosaur tracks.
Here is Mikayla overlooking the cliff. You can see how high it was.

And here are the dinosaur tracks:

Then we headed out on the trail.
We went in a group of six Jeeps.

Along the trails you would run into other groups.
Sometimes where there was an obstacle, there would be traffic jams.
It is a busy week in Moab.
This is what it looks like on the trail, behind a caravan, through the windshield:

Here is the view next to me:

And in case you wondered where exactly the trail was...there are usually tire tracks:

Moab is home to breathtaking landscape.
You have to get off-road to access most of it.
Either by off-road vehicle or hiking.
Like this:

Cool looking plants:

It really is a camera friendly place.
Seems like every hill you crest opens up to another money shot.
But here is also where Moab and I part ways.
The cresting of hills.
Color me crazy, but I don't enjoy white-knuckling it for hours on end.
I really like pavement.
My husband is a wonderful driver.
He has skills.
He knows just how to maneuver his Jeep to climb steep rock cliffs...even when there is a perfectly good, safe and smooth path NEXT to the steep rock obstacle.
Jeeping is about the challenge of conquering obstacles.
Pushing your vehicle to the limit.
Through experience, learning to navigate the best possible line to drive.

Here is my question: "Why?"
Here is his answer: "Because I can."

So we did a lot of this:

And this:

And this:

And I did this:

(image courtesy of google, not my actual praying/sweaty hands.)
Then, just when my stomach would take no more, we stopped for lunch.
That was nice.

The kids played.
I napped. That much clenching can take a lot out of a person.
The girls colored the red rock with sidewalk chalk.
I brought it, cause I am cool like that. Totally a hit.
And if you ever go to Moab, bring some. And perhaps some Depends.

The boys entertained themselves the way boys do.

Like destructive numskulls.

We wrapped things up, and reloaded everything to finish the trail.
Quick family photo, before mom has an accident?
Mmmm, okay!

Not more than five minutes later, one of the Jeeps broke down.
And this folks....THIS....is what the men LIVE FOR.
I kid you not.
They hear the grind, squeal, and ping! of metal, and they literally cackle with glee.
CHALLENGE ON.
Bring.
It.

Every one of them had to come over, and crawl under, and give their assessment.
Then, the broken part is discovered!

And here is the exciting part!
Every man digging through their own Jeep, scouring the rusty buckets of greasy parts to see if he is the winning guy who has an extra that will fit...
More miraculous than me finding two dresses at ROSS was the fact that the broken part needed to be WELDED!
Fear not, blog readers.
My Dad has a Jeep equipped with a portable welder.
He was ecstatic to be the winner!

IT NEEDED WELDING!!!
Sweet justification for the $$$ he dropped to accessorize his Jeep with a seemingly extravagant and previously unnecessary piece of equipment.

In spite of my sarcasm and negative points of view on Jeeping, it really was impressive and slightly cool that these men had what we needed, and knew how to fix it right out there in the sticks.
We were up and running in less than a half hour.
Back on the trail.

And headed back to the hotel.

The plan was to swim, (our hair was not yet as green as we would have liked) and get some sleep to hit Arches the next day.