The Reef

Over Memorial day weekend Shad and I headed down to Capitol Reef with our friends Jen and Jared. I'd like to think vacation explains the one real post you got last month. Really work has just been crazy. In typical vacation fashion, the rest of this post will be mostly pictures.

Here's me infront of a mountain looking really excited to be there. It's probably just the eupohira of not being at work.

 

Here's Shad and Jared looking not so excited to be infront of Chimney Rock in the park. They get a half star for effort.

 

Some pretty cactus flowers on the hike up to Hickman's Bridge. I was surprised by how many wildflowers were blooming in the park. I guess I've never been in this part of Utah in the spring time.

 

On our way up to Hickman's bridge.

 

It was just a little windy for the first few days we were there. Jen and I just figured we could pay for mircodermabrasion or go for a walk in the sand storms.

 

We were pretty lazy on this trip which isn't a good thing when Jared is with us - he's really high energy. While we were laying underneath the bridge he wandered off and scaled a few cliffs, using a dead tree to climb up at one point (not smart). Jared took this picture from the cliff just as we were starting to wonder why Jared had "been around the corner for an hour." Jen and I then made the executive decision to send Shad alone (because everyone knows when one member of your party is missing in the wilderness - you send another person alone to meet his fate at well) to track down Jared so we could hike down and go on another hike. After that we instituted the buddy system. Shad kept track of Jared and Jen and I kept track of each other.

 

Jen likes to take candid pictures of us hiking and always yells at me for waving in her pictures. I was so close to getting in a quick waving candid. Better luck next time.

 

See those holes in the rock behind us? The boys just had to see if they could climb out of them.

 

Here's Jen and I waiting for the boys to finsh attempting to get out of the holes.

 

These pictures aren't in order. After just getting them grouped into the sameish days, I was too lazy to reorder them. On our third day, we went out to Goblin Valley which was so much fun. So many people had their dogs which made me miss our puppy. Jen made friends with a Labrodoodle. She's so friendly.

 

After bumming around Goblin Valley for a few hours we decided to go hike the wild horse canyon trail just down the road.

 

Of course after hiking for a bit Jen and I found a nice ledge to take a nap on while the boys contiuned on to the end.

 

There were a few points where we had to think skinny but we all made it out okay.

 

Jen really likes to take pictures of the group where my face is really close to the camera and everyone else is a reasonable distance away...

 

 

Here I am getting yelled at for trying to wave in the picture.

 

 

Jen, Jared and Shad were all climbing the walls in Goblin Valley like little monkeys. I don't really have the upper arm strength to do those things. Jen helped by picking me up and placing me on a ledge awkwardly. I was lauging so hard I almost rolled right off.

 

 

Jared took this picture at our campsite and promptly said afterwards, "that was the worst picture ever, Jen looks like she's stripping and Allyson looks angry." So there you go. Worst picture ever.

 

On day two of our trip we went and hiked up to a lake in the mountains outside of the park. Once we got to the lake, jen and I found an ideal rock for a nap (I wasn't kidding when I said we were being lazy this trip.)

 

Shad and Jared joined us on the rock for a bit after they tried to catch trout in the stream with their bare hands. That was pretty entertaining to watch.

 

 

Then when we came home on Monday, Jen, Danielle and I made Danielle's goodbye cake. I talked her into letting us make her a Unicorn cake. I'm pretty impressed with the results, it actually looked like a unicorn.