Thanksgiving in Moab

This Thanksgiving we went up and met up with most of Mike's family in Moab. Elizabeth got this amazing place for us near the Arches National Park were we all stayed.

Lilah was greeted by new to her toys from her Brown cousins.

I was in charge of making an itinerary for our family's adventures. It was a little intimidating making sure everyone had a great time, specially since I've never been here before.

Turns out this group was a very adventurous and easy going group which made it such a fun week!

The first day we went to Park Avenue which was suggested by one of my friends.

When I told friends we were going to Moab, they all had great recommendations, specially for the younger crowd.

Park Avenue was an easy beautiful little hike.

It was perfect for all the little ones.

The rock formations were amazing!

Karin was nice enough to carry Lilah for me, she loved it

We couldn't get over the rock formations, it was an unbelievable place.

Happy girl!

We did it!

Lilah having her post hike snack.

After Park Avenue we went to Balanced Rock.

Lastly we finished off the day at Sunrise Arch.

At night, each family had assigned days for dinner.

Lilah loved being around so many cousins.

Here she is watching her favorite movie, Sing, on Julia's iPad.

The next day we did the longest trail of the week.

We went on THE Delicate Arch.

It was a little steeper than the rest but definitely not as hard as I had imagined.

Here's my little family and I under the arch.

All the kids did pretty good walking all on their own, including Lilah.

Here we are visiting Double Arches again.

When we visited the first time, Lilah and I were so tired we only saw it from far away.

This time we got to walk right up to it.

The following day we did the Primitive Trail.

We were practically the only ones on the trail which was so much fun.

I couldn't believe how empty it was and what cool arches were at the end of the short trail.

Marcia was sweet enough to take Lilah with her and they met us at the very end so Lilah could have a rest from all the walking.

It was a little chilly and even snowed a bit while we were getting from one Arch to the next.

The views did not disappoint.

Some more unbelievable rock formations.

Lilah and grandma meeting up with us at the end of the trail.

Our last hike of the day was Sand Arches.

Lilah was pretty much ready to go home by this time and it was quite chilly and windy!

On a warmer day, I'm sure she would've played in here for hours!

On thanksgiving day we all had food assignments.

We had smoked turkey legs, turkey, stuffing, rolls, potatoes, and lots of desserts.

The Nielsons got to join in on the fun too!

Lilah coloring on the kid's table. 

That day we also announced to our family that we were having a boy!

Family picture!

On the last to Canyonlands

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Once again we were surrounded by the most amazing rock formations except these were so much different and unique.

Lilah loved walking all on her own except she wanted to stop every 2 minutes to look at sticks on the ground.

We made it to the top!

The canyons looked like there was a big dinosaur foot on the ground.

Doesn't that look like a big dinosaur print?

So beautiful!

Marcia pulled over so I could take a picture as we were driving out, so beautiful!

The last hike of the day was Mesa Arch.

It was a quick hike with more amazing views.

Lilah stealing snacks off the table. 

On our way home we got in an accident on the ice. Mike skid on ice and the truck swerved to on coming traffic.

Thankfully there were not cars at the time and we just ended in the ditch.

There was no service on the mountain so we had no way of calling for help.

Thankfully a high way patrol drove by within 15 minutes and called a tow truck to get us out. He tried pulling our truck out but had no luck. Unfortunately the nearest tow truck would not arrive for 2 more hours.

Thankfully our phones were charged up and Lilah's tablet was charged enough to watch a couple of movies while we waited.

After the tow truck finally picked us up, I was finally able to call my mom and tell her what had happened. The tow truck could only take us to the nearest town which was the opposite way we were driving. He asked if we wanted him to drop us off at a hotel but we thought maybe my mom could just pick us up. The tow truck left us at the junk yard and we thought we could walk over to the nearest wal mart to hang out while we waited. Thankfully Elizabeth called me they were just passing the town we were staying at. They were beyond sweet and stayed there with us for HOURS until my mom finally arrived with a tow for our truck.

Unfortunately the dolly they had rented was not big enough for our truck so we decided to leave the truck behind and come back another day since every uhaul was already closed at this time and no one carried anything larger.

That night we arrived to abuelita's house around midnight. 

She had a cute little cleaning set for Lilah to play with. 

Lilah woke up ready to work/play

The next day we drove back and worked on the truck again. Turns out that buying a new tire and using a spare did the trick!

The next day we were on our way back home. It was a little scary driving on the messed up tire but we made it! It was so nice to come home. Unfortunately when we got home our dogs had, had a case of the diarrhea while we were gone and the entire house smelled awful! Mike immediately got to work on cleaning up our carpets but it was days until the smell would go away. Either way, we were all happy to be home from our fun vacation.