Moab

We went camping to Moab last week and I'm pretty sure Claire thought she had died and gone to Heaven. We got her a few new toys for the road, she how excited she already is?
Taking a nap with bunny, almost there. We scheduled most of her naps in the car since it was just too hot to sleep in the tent during the day.
Checking out the dirt first thing.
Oooo, these are some good rocks.

So happy.

It was a nice little break when the kids played in the pack-n-play. Claire loved hanging with Jane and Scotty.
How she got her bath. She gets to do everything outside!


Just chilaxin
She LOVES bike rides. This is a look of pure joy. I know, but she screamed every time we took her out.
We stopped at the farmer's market, but there were no farmers!
Heather, Chloe, Claire and I spent an afternoon down by the water. This was our set-up. The wind destroyed it later, but we had a good time while it lasted.
Mmmm, mud and fruit snacks (what I call her freeze dried fruit).
She was "swimming" and rolling through the dirt. This kid loves dirt.

The three of us went on the kayak trip from Hades. From the look on Claire's face, I think she knew what was coming.
Sure, it looks beautiful, but you should make sure there is a stopping place before heading out.
We headed down the river with instructions to Kassie that she drive down the road and pick us up in 30 min. We soon realized that we were going to have a hard time finding a place to dock. I saw something in the water that looked like a huge snake, but now we think it was an otter. After a while, we saw a little beach and stopped. I got out first, and sunk down about 2 feet. We looked around and realized there was no way to get to the road and also that we have landed in a mosquito haven. We quickly got back in and tried to get away as fast as possible.

A few minutes later we saw another beach and knew it might be our last chance for a while. This time, when I stepped out of the kayak, I sank up to my pelvis. I couldn't move, so Hyrum laid Claire down in the boat (her life jacket prevented her from moving) and pulled me out. My other leg sunk all the way in, so then we just had to crawl. Claire screamed while we dragged the kayak through the muck with us crawling along. Even on all fours, we still sunk in at least a foot.

We finally got to the other side of the sewage/mud pond that housed millions of mosquitoes, and I climbed up a hill then Hyrum handed me Claire. I walked up barefoot expecting Hyrum to pull up the kayak or at least grab our shoes. Nope. We get up to the road to wait for Kassie and luckily, Claire thinks it's hilarious as we slap/blow away all the bugs that are landing on each other and on her head. Kassie pulled up a few minutes later, perfect timing. As we walked to the car, we walked over huge puncturing thorns and glass. Really wanted my shoes at that moment. That sludge did not want to come off, but we had some bar soap and a bucket of water. Ah, good times.
Claire loved to wave at me when they were riding, and didn't even mind her sunglasses falling off. So sweet!



The kids at playgroup like to put rocks on the slides. Claire watched them, and decided that was pretty fun and followed suit. She carried that new found game over to this little seat.
One night we took this Hummer off road tour. Here Claire is by a fossil dinosaur print.







Claire was not happy and it was really bouncy so we tried to keep her head from moving around too much but she cried a lot. Eventually, the guide said we could just hold her (he'd been bringing his kids out since 6 weeks old) so Hyrum held her like this for a while.

You can see the trail we followed, and C's empty carseat



While changing her diaper, we discovered why she was so cranky. Her poor little bum was bright red with welts all over it. Sitting on her butt in the carseat probably hurt pretty bad. The day before, she had grabbed an empty pudding cup and licked her fingers and that's the only thing we can think of that might have cause it. Stupid allergies. It's almost completely healed a week later.
This is how she rode the rest of the tour (until we got back to the road of course). Claire fell asleep like this and I enjoyed the rest a lot more.
The night we were leaving we decided to get a hotel instead and get some new tires in the morning (Hyrum got a flat that day). After a nice long bath, Claire loved to play peek-a-boo with the mirror.

And with daddy in the cabinet.

What a great trip!
On our way home, we stopped by Gramma's house and she gave us this little chair that's more than 60 years old. Claire loves it.
Thanks Gramma!