Arches

Warning: There are a lot of pictures in this post! I put them all in here so that I can have them for a blog book in the future but feel free to either skip this post or scroll through them quickly.
Last weekend we went with Doug's parents and a few siblings to Arches National Park. I hadn't been there since I was a little kid and it was so awesome! We saw a lot of arches and did a lot of hiking. I will admit that we did not hike to delicate arch. I even forgot to include the picture we took at the overlook. It was way too hot and there was no parking at the trail head so we decided to skip it. Plus (I should probably be shot for saying this) I think that arch is a little overrated. There are plenty of way cool arches that deserve just as much attention. Just sayin. Here we are getting ready to go. Don't we all look so excited! The first thing we saw coming into the park was balanced rock. Seriously though, how has this thing not fallen over.After we got our campsite all set up we went and did some exploring. There were a lot of cool rock and fun trails to explore near our campsite.Here's me and Mabes showing our strong muscles (not!)After going back through these pictures we discovered that Lilly finally knows how to look and smile at the camera! We got so many good pictures of her on this trip.Doug really wanted to get to the top of this little crack. He seriously tried forever and finally made it. He was so proud (as was I). It's definitely called slick rock for a reason! We also did plenty of relaxing in Grandpa's hammock.We were camped right by Skyline Arch. The amphitheatre for the campground was right in front of this arch. It was pretty spectacular. We also did plenty of sitting around in the shade. It was sooooo hot!We also all got plenty dirty and ate lots of good food!Random shot of Lilly. After dinner we went on a hike to a few other arches.The first one we saw was Tunnel Arch. We also went to Pine Tree Arch. This was by far my favorite arch in the whole park. It was HUGE! It seriously took your breath away when you came to it. This picture totally does not do it justice.Another random shot of Lilly on the trail. I love this girl and how she insists on wearing skirts everywhere! I'm pretty sure she was the only one camping in a skirt in the whole park. Oh well. The pioneers wore skirts in the heat of the summer and they got along okay right? We also made it to Landscape Arch that night. This is the one that lost a huge chunk out of it about 20 years ago. They're really not sure how much longer it will be around so we had to see it. Even though it doesn't look like it in this picture, we took this picture around 9 pm. It was so dark! It actually was really cool to hike in the dark and it was definitely a lot cooler!The next day we stopped by a few more Arches on our way out of the park. The first one we went to was Sand Dune Arch. It was pretty cool as well. One of us though had kind of a hard time on the trail. It's kind of hard to see but the arch is right behind Lilly's head and to the right a little. Even though it looks like her head could fit in the arch, it was actually pretty big. Here's one of the "windows" of the Window Arches. Turret Arch. This one was Doug's favorite because he has a thing with turrets.
Sophia and I hiked up to Double Arch that was by the Cove of Caves and Parade of Elephants. I noticed this cool heart shaped cave on the way up to Double Arch. I just had to take a pic of it for Doug. Ah. How sweet. JK. Double Arch. This one was pretty cool as well. Sophia at Double Arch.Here's one of the Parade of Elephants. It actually took us awhile to see these in the rocks. This elephant is on the right side of the picture and is looking straight at the camera.This picture has three (and maybe more) elephants in it. Can you spot them all? I took this one for my sisters. It's of the Three Gossips (not that we do that). Let's just call it the Three Sisters instead. I think this is a better angle of us though. It makes us all look a lot skinnier. Here's a shot of the 2 newest and cutest Junior Rangers I've ever seen! On the way home we stopped at Dead Horse Point. That was a pretty cool place as well. The kids all wanted to hurry and do the Junior Ranger program there as well so we did plenty of this while they all worked on that. Doug had spent most of the night with a screaming Lilly and Mabel in the van so we really didn't get too much sleep. He was tired!The view at Dead Horse Point. Another shot. This place really was pretty spectacular. I guess part of Thelma and Louise was filmed here. Doug's mom said she saw a shot online of a car going over the cliff from that movie.Lilly really wanted her picture taken on this bench for some reason. She has seriously turned a corner. She used to never want her picture taken.Two cute girls and Brian Dean at Dead Horse Point.And finally a huge spider we saw there. Overall, it was a fun trip and we saw a lot of really neat things! We were definitely glad to be home to our cool house and cozy beds though!