Tuacahn - Beauty and the Beast

 Beau has a work friend who recommended Tuacahn to us very early on in our planning. It's an outdoor amphitheater (is "outdoor" moot?) and a gorgeous one in the mountains of Utah. Luckily for us they were showing Beauty and the Beast at the time we were there, one of the kiddos all-time favorite movies. In fact, both of them were Beauty and the Beast characters for Halloween two years in a row! 

We started off the evening with their first trip to In 'N Out Burger. Hats and all. Big success!

                                                            And then off to the theater! 

It was an amazing performance with a great stage set. It was a packed house and the theater ended with fireworks and lights all over the rocks of the mountains, flying witches and lots of singing! Beau even saw a co-worker!

UTAH National Parks

 Utah has some amazing National Parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Capital Reef (Didn't see it.), Bryce Canyon and Zion. Truly something for everyone. We already touched on Arches and Canyonlands, but on this trip we saw Bryce Canyon and Zion. 

And of course, we got our Junior Ranger badge!

Zion was one of my personal favorites, as it is for many people. But specifically the Narrows, was truly amazing to see and hike!

Beau had the opportunity to hike Angel's Landing in Zion (without us). He said it wasn't as technical as Half Dome, but just as scary. 300 foot drops on both sides of the trail!

And Then There Was Utah

Beau affectionately called southwest Utah the burning pit of hell. I should not actually say "affectionately"; the heat was horrible. The thermostat below is what the inside of our camper temperature was despite the use of our air conditioner. Each morning we'd wake at 6:00 to 90+ degrees and go to bed each night at 10:00 to 105 degrees with it peaking at around 115 during the "heat" of the day. Imagine walking outside to what feels like the heat pouring out of an opened fully pre-heated oven ready for cookies! Except no cookies. It's you baking. 

We stayed two weeks in this RV spot around St. George, Utah. We did have some great highlights. 

1. The kids learned how to burn things with a magnifying glass and the heat of the sun. (Pretty sure I'll regret this lesson in the future.)

2. Kids were invited to a birthday party at the campground and made some friends.

3. Kiddos were able to attend Vacation Bible School at a local Baptist church and they had a ball! 

4. Caroline learned how to work the quarter laundry facilities. Good for her; good for me!

            And we all saw some beautiful sites throughout, but more to come on that in the next post!

 

Meeker, CO

The ventured up to Meeker, CO to visit my mom's first cousin (and my uncle), David and Aunt Jenny. Uncle David is the original Colorado cowboy. He's a professional elk hunter, at one point owned cattle of all sorts and was born/raised and still lives in this wonderful town of Meeker. Uncle David and Aunt Jenny took us out for some ATV adventure through the mountains of Meeker and what a day! 

                    Caroline managed to sleep through the rough terrain. She was one tired cookie.

I'm just loving the trees out west. The little Christmas tree in a forest of Aspen was beautiful to me!

And this is what I looked like after-the-fact.

The video is Gray's response to the close of the day and Uncle David allowing him to drive the ATV. "It was my dream!"

The rest of the weekend with Uncle David and Aunt Jenny was filled with more great memories. Uncle David had a gathering with the rest of the family at his house with everyone sitting around the fire. My sis and her husband drove up from Grand Junction and Uncle David's siblings who lived in the area joined in. It was a great time of catching up, eatin' good food and lots of laughs.

We continued the weekend with the kiddos learning to work some of Uncle David's equipment, feeding chickens, gathering chicken eggs (on the bucket list) and driving into the mountains to see herds of elk and their new babies!

            Those tiny dots out there are herds of elk. It was amazing to see so many in one location!

And lastly, onto Dinosaur Monument to see some real dinosaur bones still in the earth! 

                Overall, an amazing time in Meeker. One of our best adventures of the whole trip! When we left Caroline cried for a solid 10 minutes and apparently so did Aunt Jenny! Hearts were won. 

Western Colorado Sights

 Did you know there is a national park called Black Canyon? Neither did we! We'd never heard it, but what a great surprise! It did look somewhat black in color and had amazing rocks that looks like tall, thin in depth and wide in width popping up right in the middle. It was a confusing sight for the eyes unless you looked closely. 

Another day we did a twofer with going to see the very famous Arches NP and then on to Canyonlands NP.

                            Canyonlands NP. The kids loved the huge boulders, great for climbing!

The three kings.