Adventures in Moab

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of taking a trip down to Moab for a family reunion. I had never been to Moab before so I was excited for the adventure! The reunion was with my Mom's side of the family. We all stayed in a big lodge together and enjoyed a weekend of fun activities and catching up. We took a river trip, went on some hikes, shared some yummy meals and even met a few woodland creatures together. All in all we had a really fun time, and it was great to see everyone. I didn't get to snap pictures of all our adventures, but here are some moments I was able to document, enjoy!

On our first day in Moab Bryan and I met up with my parents and headed into Arches national Park. The park was breathtaking and I hope to go back one day to really explore it. We decided to hike up and see the icon of Utah. It's about time, I've only lived here for 5 years!!

Taking a break in the shade. It was hard to come by on this hike so we took full advantage of it when we got some.

We were pretty proud of ourselves for making it to the top (and by we I mean my mom and I, haha). Here we are with proof of our accomplishment!

We got a nice Japanese man to take the traditional picture of us under the famous arch. I bet you can guess who talked him into doing it :) tourist attractions are always a good place to practice Japanese. (Love you Dad)

On our second day in Moab we had the opportunity to do a sealing session at the Monticello temple with the whole fam. It was a very neat experience and we enjoyed our time at the temple.

Mater happened to be in town so we all stopped by to say hello to him!

I believe this picture was taken for Aubrey :) We missed you!!

After chatting it up with Mater, we spent our third day in Moab on a hike that we heard about from the locals. I'm so glad my mom did her investigating to find this hike, it was a lot of fun. We passed through a creek a bunch of times and ended up at a little waterfall.

Tim had an unfortunate accident on our first pass through the creek. RIP Tanaya's camera :( I didn't even know that I got a shot of this..

The hike ended at this freshwater spring. The water was cool and refreshing and we all opted to fill our water bottles up with the cold water.

We took the opportunity to eat some lunch by the spring/in the shade and then we headed back home.

On our way out of Moab the next day we stopped by to see a few more sights that we didn't want to miss. Newspaper rock was our first stop. And a successful stop it was. There was a man there selling handmade jewelry and we all helped out his business that day :)

After newspaper rock we headed into Canyonlands to see what we could see. Here Bryan is in front of the potholes. Apparently they were full of all kinds of organisms and ecosystems and things. Rod and Bryan read all about them at the visitors center and were eager to educate all of us :)

Anyway, as you can see it was a fun little weekend and we're so glad that we were able to go. It's always fun to get together with family that you don't see that often. Hopefully we get to see you all again soon!