september 20th

I'll begin today's post with this picture of Steve and Katy. I sometimes don't know how I squeeze enough time with them out of the day (even when I have the whole day to spend with them) because I just love being around them that much! I love this picture of them because I think one of Katy's favorite places to be is right up there on Steve's shoulders, today was no exception!

So our trip was not long...but it sure was fun. Tuesday we had a lazy morning getting ready and we headed out later. Wednesday we went to Bryce Canyon and drove half of Highway 12. Thursday will be highlighted in this post, and Friday we moseyed on home.

Wednesday night we actually stayed in Escalante. What a ghost town. It was amazing to me to see how rural the highway really was. I think I kept expecting a McDonalds to pop up on the side of the road, but it never did. I guess in that way it was kind of nice, although I'm sure Katy would have appreciated that! Back to Escalante, not much going on in that town. We decided to go on a walk the previous evening, mostly to see all the abandoned houses and buildings. Actually I think the beauty in that town is what lies beyond it's borders. For instance, we would have loved to make the journey to hole in the rock. This is the place where the pioneers made there way through (now part of the Lake Powell area). They thought it would take them about 6 weeks to make it through, and it ended up taking them about 6 months (or there a bouts, sorry if my facts are not perfect). If you head down that trail, which is a dirt road, you have a whole day's adventure ahead of you. There are about a dozen hikes you could take into the slot canyons, not to mention hole in the rock it's self. So we will defiantly be going back there one day...we just couldn't justify a whole tank of gas, and didn't feel like a bumpy dirt road with the camper was a great idea. Also not on the menu this go around was Calf Creek Falls, just outside the city. We axed this idea when we learned the journey there round trip is 6 miles. We are at kind of a weird transition period with Katy because she is getting too big for the back pack carrier, but her little legs are not up for a 6 mile hike yet. So again, we'll be going back there to do that one day. I guess the bottom line is to go to Escalante for what the area has to offer, not the city.

Steve found a scenic back way that took us to Hell's Backbone Bridge. It was a fun relaxing drive for everyone. The bridge was cool, but a bit anticlimactic.....

.....Until Steve decided to get out and give me a heart attack! Look at that drop off!

So that made the drive worth it. That and all the beautiful scenery.

Katy woke up just as we were crossing the bridge and when we were on the other side wanted to get out and check things out.

Dad made things interesting for us by catching this little guy.

He was so cute, reminded me of my lizard Artie I had when I was a little kido. He was named after Saved By the Bell. Remember Slater had a lizard by that name, true story. Any how he didn't last too long, and after he passed away I learned that it's not good to handle lizards too much because the oil from our skin can clog there pores and it makes it hard for them to breathe? Does that sound crazy? Don't they breathe out of their noses? Well that is what I was told....so I hope this little guy is ok, because that is what I was thinking about later that day.

While we were on our scenic back way, we were perplexed as to where we would go next. We had everything planned up to that point. We were going to just finish up the highway and head home towards Capital Reef. While we were stopped two Rangers pulled up and stopped to take a look, they told us that we were really missing out if we didn't go back and see the part of highway 12 that we passed on our adventure. Well after that we had to go back...but first we drove up to Bolder, UT and ate at a cute little place the Burr Trail Grille. It was amazing. Steve was giving me the stink eye when we walked in because hippies were running the place, but we both had the most amazing food in a while. All organic I'm sure *wink* Steve was happy we stopped there after he opened his mouth and tasted that food. So check that place out if you are down that way.

Well during our lunch we decided that we might as well just head back and find a place to stay on the way. We could at least see what we missed, and see what we had again.

Thank you random Australian lady for taking our picture.

And thank you camera for taking a picture of me enjoying Hogsback. This was the portion of the highway that felt like we were driving right on the crest of the world.

We found this quaint little camping pad right outside of Bryce Canyon. Will seemed to enjoy it. Mostly I think he liked being out of his car seat...that was a big day of driving.

I was getting some rice cereal and baby food ready for this guy to eat...now he's really excited about being out of his car seat.

Then I just realized he was pretty happy because he had one of his favorite things above his head....

... a big ol' tree! He loves those things. Awww, my little hippie! Don't tell Steve his son is a tree hugger!

We decided to whip out my hammock. Want to hear a funny story. I purchased this beaut in Mexico back in the day before I even knew Steve. Growing up at girls camp every year they would hang up a hammock and me and my friend Ashley would just go over and hang out in the hammock for hours. Actually it probably was not that long because everyone was always fighting over that thing. Well I've had it all these years, and this is the first time I have ever used it. Still smelled like Mexico in fact!

Katy was in love. She brought out her blanket and her monkey.

There was no one there to have to fight over it with. Kept her entertained for a good hour, she could hardly get out to come and eat dinner she was having so much fun.

That or the fact that her head actually got caught in the thing. I was laughing when I took this because she was getting a little panicy at this point!

And good thing we strung up the lights so we could find our way back from that bathroom.

This was a good maiden voyage for us, we will be going back on this trip again one day when we can do some more serious hiking. What a beautiful place we live. I LOVE UTAH!