On Thursday we went over to my brother Brian's for Thanksgiving dinner. We celebrated with his family, which included Brian, Norma, and their children William and Sierra. Norma's mom, Evelyn, came, too. She is always so delightful to be around. I find her stories so interesting. Norma's brother Ross, his wife Cyleste, and their children Leah, Corban, and Paige were there, too.
We enjoyed a yummy meal, of which our children ate very little. Unfortunately, I have to admit that our girls are pretty picky eaters. Reagan even struggled to eat a roll. Good grief! She was very excited about getting to eat pumpkin pie though. So, she forced herself to eat her roll and her ham, so that she could eat dessert. Kirsten almost managed to eat the bare minimum required to earn dessert, but she decided to leave one bite of her roll. She actually liked the roll, but she's never had that much of a sweet tooth unless dessert includes fruit snacks. She was just fine without pumpkin pie.
Regardless, Matt and I enjoyed the meal. Afterward, we talked for a couple of hours and played a game. I always enjoy talking to my brother and Norma. The kids played downstairs and outside. They were so happy to be with their cousins.
A couple weeks before Thanksgiving Matt and I made a plan to take our family down to Moab on Black Friday. With Kirsten losing her voice, we almost cancelled the trip, but she was so disappointed, as were all of the rest us, that we decided we would go anyway. We had the intention of taking it easy, which I guess we did in some ways, but, honestly, we aren't very good at that. Fortunately, we all survived and can look back on our little trip with fondness.
One way in which we did manage to take it easy was by not waking up super early to maximize every last minute of the day. We left the house a little after nine, which seemed reasonable. After driving for about three hours, we arrived at Arches National Park, which is just outside Moab. We ate a picnic lunch at the visitors' center and went to the bathroom. While we were going to the bathroom, Kirsten complained in true Ehle/Roberts style, "You want to waste our fun time going to the bathroom?!" Yes, yes, my dear Kirsten, I did want to waste our time taking care of that very important necessity. Sweet girl!
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| At the visitors' center |
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| At the visitors' center |
Then we went hiking. Initially, we were planning on hiking to Delicate Arch, but with Kirsten feeling sick, me being pregnant, Matt being sore from a rough game of flag football, and Reagan being three, I thought it would be better to do a hike that's not listed as strenuous. So, we hiked to Sandstone Arch and Broken Arch. The hike was about a mile and a half total, and it was relatively flat, which was nice.
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| Matt and the girls at Sandstone Arch |
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| The girls at the foot of Broken Arch. It was hard to get a good picture of the Arch, but for the record, it is less broken than you might imagine given the name. |
After our first hike, both girls said they were too tired to hike anymore, but Matt and I didn't know what else to do in Arches. So, we convinced them that we should hike to Landscape Arch, Pine Tree Arch, and Tunnel Arch, which was another mile and a half. I think both girls were pleased that we did the second hike. They even ran part of the way. Landscape Arch is breathtaking.
During the hike Daddy was so silly. He kept worrying that it would get dark before we got back to the car. So, he strongly encouraged us to hurry up by telling the girls that the coyotes would come out and get them. Then we ended up talking about all sorts of different wild animals and what to do if you come across them in the wilderness. In the end, the only wild animal we actually came across was a cottontail bunny, and Kirsten suggested that Daddy should shoot it. Fortunately, he opted not to do that.
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| Me and the girls at Tunnel Arch |
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| Me and the girls at Pine Tree Arch |
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| Me and the girls hiking toward Landscape Arch |
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| Landscape Arch |
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| Our family at Landscape Arch |
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| Our girls with a neat tree |
After our last hike, we drove out of Arches and went to Susie's Branding Iron Restaurant in Moab. The restaurant was great. Everyone found something they liked to eat on the menu, which means that the "Young Buckaroos Menu" included Mac and Cheese. I ate a Swiss Burger, and I can't remember what Matt had--something with steak. We all left very satisfied, and then we went to check in at our hotel.
We stayed at the Rodeway Inn, which looks quite nice from the outside, but isn't quite as nice as some of the hotels Matt's dad has treated us to lately. I'm afraid we've become a bit entitled. I should correct myself, the girls thought our hotel was perfect, but I was a bit concerned about how the smoke detector was hanging from the ceiling. The wet spot on the carpet made me a bit nervous, too. At any rate, it was nice enough. Matt and I shared a king sized bed, and Kirsten and Reagan shared a queen sized bed.
The girls were in bed by seven, which was way too early for me and Matt to go to sleep. So, we turned on the TV with the hope that they would fall asleep watching Despicable Me. Our plan ended up backfiring because they were too interested in the movie to fall asleep. So, we ended up turning the lights out after the movie was over at nine o'clock. 9:00 was still way too early for me, but unfortunately, it was way too late for the girls. They ended up being pretty sleepy the next day.
Breakfast at Denny's the next morning was hilariously ridiculous. It was so busy. So, we didn't end up getting our food for about 45 minutes. Everyone was ravenous. Then, when we finally got our food, Kirsten spilled a bit of yogurt on her eggs, which caused her to burst into inconsolable tears. Reagan tried to comfort her by putting some yogurt on her own eggs, but nothing anyone could say brought her any relief from the horror of having yogurt touch her eggs. After a good five minutes of her crying, the man in the neighboring booth started laughing. I actually think he was trying to help because he seemed really friendly, but unfortunately, being laughed at doesn't make Kirsten feel embarrassed enough to stop her behavior. If anything, his laughter exacerbated the situation for her, but it was welcome relief for her parents. Good grief! We were all so hungry that we didn't even think of taking her out of the situation to help her calm down. All I could think was that I needed to eat my food as quickly as possible. In the end, I think Kirsten ended up eating all of her food because she was starving, too. And, no, we were not going to buy her more eggs.
After breakfast, we decided that more hiking was not an option. Imagine that! So, we went to The Moab Giants, which is a dinosaur museum. Our tickets included a 3D movie, which was neat since the girls had never seen a 3D movie before. There was also a 5D paleo-aquarium. We went into a room that was set up like an aquarium, but instead of having actual fish in fish tanks, there were various movie screens set up to look like fish tanks. Each "tank" had a different prehistoric marine animal. The last one had a giant shark, and they made it look like the shark was breaking the glass. When the shark would hit against the glass, the floor would shake and water sprayed at us out of the ceiling. All four of us said that was our favorite part of the dinosaur museum. It was scary, but fun!
The museum also had some fossil exhibits inside, and outside there was a Dinosaur trail with life-sized versions of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, the girls didn't get maximum enjoyment out of the Dinosaur trail since they were pretty tired, but despite the exhaustion, they loved the dinosaur dig out area.
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| At the excavation site. Reagan was so excited to find fossils! |
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| With a T-Rex |
After finishing at the museum around 2 o'clock, we got in the car and headed home. We got home around dinner time, which was perfect. We ate left over Thanksgiving dinner and gave the girls baths before bed.
Despite all of the activity, Kirsten managed to get better and was back in school on Tuesday. All's well that ends well, right?
