{We've Just Gotta Get Outa Here}

We had the funnest weekend break a few weeks ago! We loaded up the kids, and the bikes and met up with two of Derrick's cousins and their families and took off for a little weekend vacation! We left early Saturday morning (I have to admit I'm not a morning person) and when Kami decided we were meeting at 6:00 instead of 7:00 (which was too early to start with) I was about ready to stay home, but I drug myself out of bed and did my best to put on a happy face. We stopped for breakfast in Loa, and pretty much filled the little restaurant with our group of 6 adults and 9 kids....how can we really have 9 kids between us, it seems like just yesterday we were the kids? Anyhow after breakfast, we continued on to Caineville to spend the day riding.

Caineville is one of James and Kami's favorite spots to ride. We'd never been there, but I'm pretty sure we'll be going back again! The kids had a great time, both riding and climbing on the hills and playing in the dirt. I relaxed, read a bit, did a few word searches, visited with the girls and also fit in a bit of riding time.
The day was nice (until the wind kicked up in the afternoon) and by the time we packed up to leave, we were tired, a bit sunburned and DIRTY! Carlie was asleep before we even pulled out of camp and Kaleb had been trying to nap on his four wheeler before we even loaded up! We decided to go to dinner as is.....in other words dirty and grungy. By the time we checked into the motel we were ready to get clean and crash, which was good since there was nothing else around the motel, and I mean nothing, it was just a lone motel on the side of the highway!

The next morning we headed out to explore Goblin Valley. The kids had a BLAST! They ran and climbed and just had fun! It was hard to get them to even stop long enough to snap a few pictures.
Wind and water have carved these fantastic and unique goblin-like sculptures out of rock, creating an amazing outdoor playground. We had so much fun exploring and just hanging out a bit!

~The Dearden Clan~

We stopped and made lunch as we drove through Capitol Reef. After lunch we went on a little hike. Yea, I knew I was out of shape, but holy cow, it was only a mile and by the time we got a third of the way, I was beat!

It was worth it though, the kids were great at trying to keep up (or to wait up for us slower ones). Brock played tour guide and read the descriptions at each stopping point.

The natural arch was beautiful!

And most importantly......we had a super fun weekend as a family!