Arches Day 2

After sleeping off our banana boats and lazing the morning away, we got ready for another round of arches:

I didn't really think anything could be better than those views from our hike to Double O Arch, but then we headed into Double Arch:

Wait for it . . .

 It gets bigger . . .

Look at the little ant people up inside:

 Brandon and Kate are in there:

 Let the climbing begin!

Up in the bowl:

Brandon and I took Elizabeth up in there after Kate and Will came down, even though they said it would be too hard for her. Elizabeth is pretty scrappy and made it with no problem. (Better than I did!) 

 Down in the cracks and crevices:

And of course, up into the arch itself:

  

The views from up inside were spectacular:

Isn't he cute?

Heading out:

Kate frequently borrows my FAVORITEST sweatshirt of all time--my hooded APS sweatshirt from nineteen summers ago! (I worked in a fish cannery up in Kodiak, Alaska with my college roommate and best friend. She and I and one other 19--year-old girl ran the kitchen up there, making and cleaning up three meals a day for all the people working in the cannery. Such an adventure.) 

Lunch break at the RV:

Then we walked "across the street" to another set of arches, Turret and Windows:

 Turret:

 The other side:

Windows. (I think it should be called "glasses" or "eyes with a lumpy nose," but hey.)

The back side:

One eye up close:

More gorgeous vistas:

   

Heading back out:

Rachael fanagled the Camelbak from Elizabeth after she got tired of carrying it:

 Could this child be any cuter?

My fav:

Come back tomorrow (or soon . . .) for DAY 3!

And go onto Deseret News and make a comment on my latest blog!  It was the #1 read blog yesterday for most of the day--woo hoo! (No wonder, I was talking about women and fat . . .)

Easterpalooza

**a brief commercial interruption from our Arches trip**

Just like Santa Claus and stockings at Christmas, we do the Easter bunny and baskets at Easter.  But over the last several years I have also been trying to develop some more meaningful traditions for our family at Easter just like we do at Christmas. (Christ's Passion is certainly as important if not more so than his birth, right?) What I like about Easter is that the pressure for gift giving is pretty much non-existent other than a cute little basket for your own kids, and besides an Easter egg hunt, there really aren't any extra activities going on like at Christmas. (Which is all great fun, but seriously exhausting!)

Here are some of my favorite resources and ideas:

This book is my staple. It has kid friendly activities for every day of Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday, as well as music suggestions, traditional Passover meal suggestions, and all kinds of stuff.  Love it.

This is a concise little article to get you going, and I think the author has a book you can buy too.

An animated movie for the younger ones. (This is another goodie. Gotta love Veggie Tales.)

The night before Easter cookies. 

The Easter story told through objects hidden in plastic easter eggs.

Several illustrated books to choose from, but I like this one for telling the Bible story accurately in a way young children can understand.

Last but not least, my friend Saren from The Power of Moms has spelled out her own family's simple traditions really easily on her blog which you can read about here.

Most of this stuff is from LDS people, so if you're one of those Evangelicals who doesn't think we're Christian then you might not like it - but it's really, really good! (Still trying to figure out how we're not Christian when we believe in Christ . . . anyone?)

I am going to really try to pull together a simple kid-friendly Passover meal tonight (I know, now the Jews are going what???) and spend a few minutes discussing the last supper, but this week is turning out to be a bit of a logistic nightmare with lots of extra stuff going on and SOCCER!! (I'm telling you, I am NOT a soccer mom! How do you people do the sports thing? It's all consuming. What do you do with the children not in sports? When do you eat dinner? Can you hear my frustration?)

And my favorite of the "fluff and stuff?"  This movie and this book. Oh, the childhood memories!

HAPPY EASTER!!

Rachael's 1st Easter: