Spring Break: Goblin Valley Day Trip

Left at 9 in the morning…arrived home by 8 p.m. = 10 1/2 hour day trip to Goblin Valley.
3 1/2 hours driving…
3 1/2 hours Picnic & hiking…
3 1/2 hours driving

Forgive the billions of photos. I just liked so many for specific reasons.

Potato Rock discovered by Max.  This Idaho girl loved that!
Believe it or not, that was a hug… not a choke-hold Max was giving Truman.
Liza coloring on the long drive.  Darling chica! Her eyes!!!
(sidenote:  this potty-training 2-year-old was amazing.
She came home with a dry pull-up. True Story.
Of course, we had more than a few potty breaks for all 5 kiddos + prego mama)

(another sidenote: state park restrooms were not designed for a prego mama with sensitive smellers & gag reflex. Ugh.)

Abe started out feeling so tired from our long drive.  He soon found his energy and was a climbing adventurer!

Zuzu:  “Yelp mom.  Yelp.”
She couldn’t get up onto that small rock.  Tru came to show her how it was done, only he stepped on her pinky finger.
Tears & wailing.
Help from mom and all was well.  Hence, happy picture of Tru & Liza on Rock.

Loved Zuzu’s happy hair.
Max requested many pictures.  He likes to pose.

Tru tried to go anywhere Abe went.  He is a great little climber.
And when he doesn’t know how to get down, he’d just slide right off those rocks.  Yikes!
Luckily, he didn’t even get hurt.

Liza started to get paranoid about the sand on her shoes. Such is life hiking around sandstone.
Mostly it was because we had a 10-15 min wait session while Dad ran Max back to the picnic area to poop (sorry… such is life with lots of kids. this is a huge part of our life!)

Tru said his favorite parts of the hike were, “hiking up the rock mountain” (top right), climbing the turtle, and the fish. We also saw a cool Star Trek ship that Max steered for the fam. Imaginations at work!!!

Bottom Right:  See how far we’ve come from the parking lot!

Top Left:  Love this one of Tru & Max.  Max found his way up there… Tru followed.  It was a sweet, happy brother moment … they were friends!!!

Top Right:  Miss Hannah stayed pretty close to mom and Liza to help.  Not quite so many adventurous photos of her this trip.  Thanks for watching out for the girlies Hannah.

Bottom Left:  Hannah seeking shade.  When we arrived it was 65 and cloudy… when we left it was 80 and sunny.  It felt pretty warm.

Tru ran and ran around and climbed and climbed.  We only lost him once.  He wouldn’t respond to our calls because he was in a secret hideout.  Luckily it was only a few minutes so we didn’t panic.
Top Left:  Mom trying to get in a photo… 3 littles in the background hiding.

Top Right:  Finally caught one of those speedy lizards on camera.

Bottom Left:  Car ride home for Max. Lego people tower.  Max enjoying a blue dum-dum sucker.

Bottom Right:  The broken heart rock.  Really cool to see how hard sand gets over the bazillions of years.

Tru & Dad returning from a potty break.  About 10 minutes after leaving the visitor’s center restroom, Tru had an emergency #2.  Being far away from any bathroom, we opted for a behind-the-dune dump.  The tricky part was getting to and from without stepping in all the cow-pies.

Abe:  Wasn’t feeling 100%.  Next day… fever and stomach bug.  No bueno.  Glad he hung in there on the drive home.

Hannah:  Intense on her soduku workbook.  She quite enjoyed it.

Last rest-stop of the trip.  Spanish Fork Train Display.  Fun to balance on the railroad tracks.  You can see how chaotic it is to give instructions to 5 kids for a clever photoshoot of everyone balancing on the tracks.  Such is our life with lots of littles… often confusion which results in either laughter or tears (luckily this time it was laughter!).

p.s. the last time we went to Goblin Valley was when Max was a wee babe. We drove the 3 1/2 hour… it was pouring so we took a photo and had a picnic in the car… and drove the 3 1/2 hours home. We learned to double-check the weather before leaving the house! (I spy my favorite maternity pants… must have been a few months along with Tru when we took this trip!)