Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands oh my

Todd and I tried out road biking for the first time around Moab last weekend. 
It was awesome!  I never fell off my bike or got stuck in the clip-in pedals. 
And it didn't hurt my back, as everything else seems to do...

Here I am, ever the photographer.  Notice the baby bump :) 

(Who am I kidding my stomach has always looked like that ha ha)

My camera was acting funny and only captured half of this photo.  At least it was the top half.


Todd got some good bouldering in at the Big Bend boulders.  Here he is on Circus Trick, which was more difficult to come down from than climb up.  He had to jump off the boulder because there was no other way down.


We biked through part of Arches and Canyonlands and camped in the "overflow" dirt patch with dozens of other tightly packed campers.    Canyonlands is amazing!



 

We drove home during an incredible sunset.  It made the drive go faster.

All in all it was a great trip. I love Moab!

Another Hammond Family Sleepover!

Once or twice a year we invite the Hammond nieces and nephews over for the night.  (We wish the Arizona Hammonds could come!!)

This time we let everyone paint again, which is always fun and really cool to see what they all come up with.

Somehow I only managed to take one picture all night.  I blame the pregnancy.

But there was food and paint everywhere, kids tripping on kids, furniture being pushed all over the place, drums being pounded, and yelling and laughing kids that trickled into the wee hours of the night.

This was serious fun. 

And the Hammond kids are all surprisingly clean- by the time they left there was hardly a drop of paint out of place.  (Thank you!! :)

Here is the one picture I took of the twins:

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Todd took a few with his phone:

I only made it to 12:30 AM before crashing. Todd was up past 2 AM, and I'm told others were up past 3.  We must be the coolest Aunt and Uncle ever! ha ha.  Let's see if their parents ever let them return after reading this post ;)

Here is Todd at 2:30 pm the following afternoon:

Till next time, Hammond nieces and nephews!

The Valley of Fire

I've been begging Todd to "take me away" for months now, and finally the weather, our schedules, and our sewer line cooperated and let us have the time.
Ever since I heard about the Valley of Fire by Vegas I've had it in mind, so we headed down there for the weekend.

The light from Vegas kept the horizon pink all night.

The roller-coaster ride into the park

The entire area is covered with red rock and slot canyons. 
I love this stuff.

3,000 year old petroglyphs

We got really hot hiking, so we drove to Lake Mead for a freezing swim.

Ever-the-climber Todd inspecting possible future routes

We stayed up late each night to take pictures of the stars (thanks Todd!)

Todd stands between two of the finest things in life: a Lamborghini and a '98 Honda Civic.

I was there too :)
I'm pretty bad at taking pictures of myself since I love being behind the camera so much.

Moe's Valley bouldering.  This was our first time here- we loved it!