A Short Weekend Trip

We took a short trip Friday-Saturday to Capitol Reef and Escalante. It was a fun little trip and nice to take a day off from work. We left early Friday morning and headed on down to Capitol Reef. Once we arrived we headed down the Notom Road. There is a lot of neat sites along the Notom Road. One of them is this place where we had lunch.

Wide view of our Lunch Spot

Grandma and Grandpa climbing around

Diaper changing time

Once we were all full of lunch we headed on our way. We next came to this fun part of the road. One of the reasons Joe wanted to drive it. Driving up the reef with many, many switch backs.

View of the switch back from the bottom

Letting James stretch his legs and play in the dirt

Half way up

We Made It!

Those are some steep rocks

After that we continued on to the Petrified Forest. We were racing against time to make it through the dirt roads before the storm so we didn't have too many stops. The last thing we needed was to be stuck in mud.

In our race against time we just hit the very tip of the petrified forest. It was still cool to see all the stumps everywhere and piece all over the ground.

A petrified stump

taking pictures

Wood everywhere

This must have been on big tree. See the rings?
I dubbed this one Alicia's stump. Why you may ask?
Well, only because the book I was reading along the way had
 just mentioned a stumped named after someone.
It is an incredibly dull book so I was trying to make light of it somehow.

Another stump

After that we headed into Boulder and then on to Escalante where we spent the night. We stayed at the Escalante Outfitters where we have stayed in the past. They have the best pizza and cute little cabins. James woke up in the middle of the night very disoriented and took me close to an hour to get him back to sleep. It was sad.

The next morning we headed back up the Capitol Reef with a stop at the Kiva Koffeehouse for breakfast. It is a small little Cafe/Bed and Breakfast in the middle of nowhere along highway 12. Such good fresh food. After breakfast we continued our trek. Back in Capitol Reef we headed out to Cathedral Valley. Once again racing against time, so we didn't get stuck in a rain storm. Darn rain! We couldn't do everything we planned because of you! Any way, once in Cathedral Valley we enjoyed a nice lunch. James enjoyed more dirt playing time. 

View from Highway 12. The building is the Kiva Koffeehouse.

Lunch at Cathedral Valley

James loves to play in the dirt

Driving back from Cathedral Valley

Back through the main part of Capitol Reef, we go. Joe made a few stops along the way to point out geological features to his parents and to see some swim tracks. His possible next project will be naming and describing these swim tracks in Capitol Reef and finding more around the area.

Swim Tracks 

More Swim Tracks

All in all it was a fun trip. James did great for being in the car through out the day, except a few break downs when it was time to move on to the next site and a short bit on the long drive home. I'm glad we were able to take a couple of days away. Hope to do it again soon and hopefully we won't get rained out again.

Here's a short video of James playing. It was windy...

My Imaginary Friend or is he?

I have an imaginary friend named Facebook. He shows me what is currently on my friend's minds, their personal information and even pictures/videos of them. He even lets me make comments like I am having actual face to face conversations. Isn't he great! He is like my personal gateway to my friend's lives, well the part they share with him. Kind of like a gossip chain, they tell Facebook and Facebook tells me. Oh, how I love thee my imaginary gossipy friend.

However you are not like ordinary imaginary friends, you are harder to get ride of. You are there with just a click of a mouse. I can't just replace you with real friends when my real friends work and are busy during the day just like me. Plus it seems so, so much easier to find out how their day was or how they are doing through you. But, is that really a healthy way to interact? Isn't it better to have face to face interactions? The book I've been reading YOU: Raising Your Child enforces the importance of interacting with your baby as they grow because babies who are constantly being talked to/read to/played with retain more brain neurons then those that are not. So no matter what age interacting with others face to face is the best way to learn and grow and become better people.

Though Mr. Facebook, you do come in handy when there are family or friends who are far away. It is nice to find out how they are doing or what they are up to. It is even nice to instantly receive pictures instead of waiting for them to come in the mail. For that reason, you are a great friend to keep around.

So my dear imaginary friend Facebook, I am going to try not to use you as much as I have been. There's not much you can share with me that a quick phone call wouldn't do.

This isn't a good by forever, just a good bye Imaginary Friend Facebook, I hope to be seeing you less often.

Nothing New...

just some videos of James and his every day tactics.

He likes to carry his cars around the house.

Playing with Tic-Tacs

Eating Lunch.

Sunday Best! Though he didn't want to smile for me.