Hello, Backwoodsman. Welcome to Moab!

Ever seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? If you haven't, you should get on that asap, and if you have, you should watch it again asap so that we can both have those darn songs stuck our minds together! We watched it on our most recent vacay, and it was a treat. Bless your beautiful hide...

Last weekend we went on a little adventure to Moab and Canyonlands National Park with our friends Charles & Heather Francis (& their little guy, Andy). We stuffed our new ride to the freakin' rafters and drove down Friday morning. Saturday we did some hiking, Sunday I was reminded how thankful I am not to be in a singles ward anymore, and Monday we ran the river in "duckies" - my personal favorite part of the trip.

Here are some of the highlights:

Richard's just gearing up for our first little hike. balance: check!

Not sure what these formations are called, but they were suhweet!

Have you ever seen our state's flower in the wild? I have.


Chuck was nice enough to let Rich wear that hat on our long hike (11 miles long!) so he didn't look like a lobster 5 minutes into our trip.

The gang.

Andy definitely worked the hardest, but Chuck was a close 2nd.

One of my favorite parts of the hike, mostly because it was in the shade.

Gimme shelter!

I was thrilled to find some shade at our destination.

I was sweating like Shaq by the time we reached the top!

Druid Arch.

So big.

So worth it.

Making our way back.

Laying around on the rocks above our campsite.

Sweet background, huh?

Our view from the other side.

Our camp was just below these rocks down on the left.

Before we braved the river in our 2-man, inflatable kayaks a.k.a. duckies.

I was so nervous I was feeling sick before we got in the water, but it ended up being the best part of the whole trip.

Rich & I shared a ducky, and it was so much fun. We laughed pretty much the entire time even when we nearly went overboard and he "tapped" me in the head with his oar...

and especially when he screamed like a little girl going over the rapids.

Thanks, Francis fam for a very memorable Memorial Day!

A couple nuggets from the trip:

Muddy Buddies are now called Dirty Friends

Would you rather... is the best game for long car rides

Husbands should be required to eat "estrogen bars" every hour, on the hour