Wonderful Weekend

Brad, Cora and I were able to get away for a couple days together for some much-needed family time. We went camping! Yes, the first night was cold. We were at 6500 feet elevation near Natural Bridges National Monument and it got down to the mid-30's in our tent. Cora slept as though she were in her own bed. She was in her own kid-sized sleeping bag and then inside an adult size flannel bag. We didn't hear a peep from her the whole night. She thought it was so exciting and special to sleep in her "eeping-bag" in and in the tent. She practiced sleeping in her sleeping bag a few times at home beforehand and did great so we were more comfortable taking her camping.

We did a unique hike that took us out to the ruins (although they are hardly ruined - mostly intact) of an Anasazi fortress. It's a mystery as to what happened to the Anasazi and fascinating to see their homes built in the side of a cliff and almost as if they left just a few years ago, not hundreds.

We also did a quick visit to Natural Bridges NM then headed down the road to Lake Powell. We camped there for the night and enjoyed a balmy 60 degrees in the tent! It was such a treat after the cold first night. We ended up having to cook all of our food over the campfire because we ran out of propane for the cookstove 5 minutes into cooking dinner the first night! Woops. We won't be making that mistake again. Thankfully we were able to prepare the rest of our food on the fire and heated enough water and kept it hot in our awesome thermos for oatmeal in the morning so we didn't have to restart the fire.

After a little exploring around Hite (a virtual ghost town...well, ghost marina - it seems there never was much of a town there) we started the drive home. We stopped in Green River, UT at their museum of river history (can't remember the official name) and saw the BEST museum video ever! It was so cool and well done! It told the story of Powell and his team of men who rafted the Green and Colorado rivers. Go see it if you're stopping through!

We truly had so much fun - it was a fabulous 3 days together. Brad and I were so proud of Cora, and amazed, at how well she did in the car for many hours, in the sleeping bag, and just plain entertaining herself with rocks, sticks and dirt. She entertained us a lot, too. We saw a bunny hopping around outside the ranger station at Hite and later that night while we were setting up the tent, Cora started hopping around on her hands and knees. I'd never seen her do it before and was curious what she was doing so I asked her. She said "Hopping! Bunny rabbit!" What a delight!

If you are Brad's facebook friend, be sure to check out his pictures of the trip. I haven't gotten them loaded yet, but he's quick! I'll get some up later.