Goblin Valley 2010!

After a fun vacation there last year, (here and here - man my kids have grown up a lot in 1 year!) we had another great weekend in Capitol Reef and Goblin Valley. We left early Friday to spend some time in Capitol Reef. On the way we there we stopped to get some lunch. We hoped to find a Subway on the way down and our GPS led us to this one in Bicknell, UT. It was hillarious. Right when we got to this point it said "You have reached your destination". Huh. Funny that the Subway in Bicknell is invisible. Luckily Torrey (the next town over) had one.
The first thing we did was hike to the Goosenecks and Sunset View (or something like that). Both hikes were under 1/4 mile. It was perfect.

We saw lots of cool lizards along the way.

Doug got pretty daring (this ledge was actually only about 10 ft from the ground - sorry Doug - but it looks cool!)

Sophia at Sunset View. Although it's a pretty view, we think it might be more spectacular at sunset.

We stopped at the orchard in Fruita to have our picnic. The girls had fun playing on the cool trees there.

After lunch we went on the scenic drive through the park. It was pretty cool and we were glad we did it.

We hiked a little to see some petroglyphs.

And the pioneer register. I was a little dissapointed because there was so much graffiti. It was hard to tell which markings on the wall were real that I didn't even bother to take a picture. We did find this cute thing on the wall though.

Doug was a good sport and carried both girls for awhile. I don't know why but he absolutely refused to let me carry either girls. Something about how I was already carrying a child and didn't need another one.

After Capitol Reef we headed to Goblin Valley. We had such a blast! The girls loved playing in the hoodoos. Doug and Sophia were ahead of us and when we caught up to them Lilly said "Look! Daddy's on the dolphin and So-sia's on the chicken!" She was right. I love her little imagination. She kept pointing our hippos and ducks and other creatures. It was hillarious.

This is as close as I would let Doug get to me with the camera.

Here's one of our cute nephews that joined us on the trip. We were so glad cousins were able to come with us!

That night we went to the ranger show about scorpions. It was pretty cool. I learned a lot and was glad I went because I'm not as afraid of them now. I didn't realize that Utah has little tiny ones and that most of them are not poisonous and that their first defense is to hide or run away. When I saw one in the bathroom that night I didn't freak out. It was good to be informed. I however did not take part in the scorpion hunt. Our niece and nephew said it was cool though and that they easily found about 2 dozen of them. Pretty comforting.

The next morning we went to the Junior Ranger Program about Predators and Prey. The kids loved it as well.

After the program the ranger took everyone on a little hike to this cave in the valley. I didn't know there were any caves there. I also didn't know that there are actually 3 valleys at Goblin Valley. The things you learn. I managed to climb up in the cave (somehow) but wouldn't go all the way back. The kids made it to the back and were greatly enthralled.

Here's the group of newest Junior Rangers!

As we were heading back to our cars it started to get really stormy. This picture was taken around 11 am.

That sky was crazy! We were so glad Grandpa and Grandma came too. They were such great helpers!

Doug wins again.

We hurried (My lazy pregnant self actually stayed in the car with the girls and watched everone clean up - most of our stuff was already packed though) and packed up the rest of our camp in the wind and rain (it had dropped about 30 degrees!). We hurried off to avoid the storm and were pretty successful. We went through Captiol Reef again and had another fun picnic in the Fruita orchard. That place is beautiful!

Both of our kids did great. They were troopers and were completely exhausted at the end!

I'm going to try and post a few videos later if I can. We had a great time but are happy to be home. This was our third camping trip of the summer so far and I think I'm done! Our air matress also sprung a leak and the zipper on our tent is starting to break so I think our equipment is done for ahile as well. Thank goodness I'll have a better excuse to stay home in 3 weeks!