We spent our spring break traveling through the desert with the kids.  Below is a pic of all my boys sitting next to me on the plane.

Our flight left pretty early from Seattle.  When we got to Salt Lake City we had a long drive to Moab.  The picture below shows you just how tired Haven was.  She was sleeping with her head crammed into the corner of the seat and car door.  She slept like that for hours.

Here is the house we rented and the view was remarkable.  Every room of the house had some sort of view of the red rocks surrounding us.  We LOVED it there.

While there we enjoyed visiting Arches National Park.

The kids saw a crack in a huge rock formation and tried to climb and reach it.  They managed to reach their goal.  Here they are hanging out inside the crack.  It was much bigger than they expected.

Just a great family photo op.  There was snow on the surrounding mountains which made for unique way to experience the desert.

We had fun seeing things in all the rock formations.  Here Haven found a wave in the red rock and she decided to go surfing.

Dressing Asher everyday was fun because it was summer weather.  We had never dressed him in shorts or t-shirts before the trip and it was fun to see his baby chub everyday.  We tried to take pictures of him like it was a baby fashion show.  Silly parents.

Can you find Xavier and Sage?

The Colorado River goes through Moab and there is a beautiful road you can drive and hop off to hike, visit campgrounds and play by the river.  My kids love spending time by rivers so this was a fun visit of rock throwing, racing sticks down the river, playing with other people's dogs, etc.  Asher missed out while sleeping in the car with Paul.

This is a big red sand dune that is always busy with people visiting, climbing, rolling, running, tumbling or falling down.  Can you find Xavier, Sage and Haven climbing to the top in the picture below?

 

 Here is a video of one of the kids running down the sand dune.  Follow the dust cloud.  We were there awhile and had to head back to the house afterward to clean off all the sand.  It got EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!

 

More red rock climbing.  The kids had so much fun climbing up and down the boulders they had holes in  their shorts from sliding down rocks.  We had to throw a couple pairs of shorts away once we left.

We hiked various trails that led to different arches in the park.  Being from the PNW it was interesting having to make sure Asher was covered from the sun all the time instead of the rain and cold (which really seems harmless compared to the sun).  Paul and I tried hard to have the kids take pictures of the two of us together.  It's hard to remember with the chaos of four kids.

This picture cracks me up.  I SO enjoyed the sunshine and warmth of Utah.  Give me an iced latte and I was soaking up contentment here.

This is just Asher at some point on the trip.  He looks so different than he did as a newborn.  He was such a trooper and an awesome traveler.  I think he's more patient than I am sometimes.

We took the kids quad riding for the first time.  It was a GREAT place to go.  There were mesas and arches in the distance and we were driving over red rocks and different colors of desert sand.  We had to take turns since the kids couldn't drive and we had to plan switching drivers around Asher feedings.  To say the kids LOVED this is an understatement.

From Moab we took a day trip to Grand Junction.  Paul's parents were visiting their parents so we planned to visit all together.  The kids got to meet their great grandparents on Paul's mom's side of the family for the first time.  It was a nice visit even though it was short.

 

 After having such a remarkable time in Moab we changed our plans and traveled to Durango Colorado.  We took a little side trip for the kds and visited four corners.  Along the way we stopped in a random town and the kids had fun learning about pioneers and how travelers moved west. 

Here is Haven at four corners.  She was so excited to go there because her teacher had been there before and talked about it in class.  Paul asked me what I remembered about four corners from being a kid.  I told him I remember it being in the middle of nowhere.  Guess what...it's still in the middle of NOWHERE!!!!

We rented bikes one day in Durango.  There was a trail that followed the river that went for miles and miles.  It was great family time.

The kids are just hanging out in our little house.  They kept travel journals and turned them into their teachers when they got back so there was always some focused quiet time.

Haven really bonded with Asher on the trip.  She helped him when he got fussy and he talked to her constantly.  Here is a little clip of them talking to each other.  After the trip Haven starting asking me to have another baby because Asher is so cute.  I'm glad she's enjoying him so much.  She was a HUGE help on the long car rides we took.  We drove almost 2000 miles and she would distract him successfully for hours.

The kids have been wanting to go on a train ride and they finally got to go on one.  The Durango rail.  Super cool trip.

 

 With all the warm weather the kids had summer treats.  Ice cream and fro yo were the favorites.

Just Paul and Asher hanging out.  Asher got his milkshake later.

We had one day of snow.  It was so random too.  One day we were putting on sun screen and flip flops and the next day it was snowing.  We ended up hiking for part of the day and then taking the kids to an indoor rec center.    I wish we had a rec center like this in Olympia.  The water was WARM.  There were water slides, a water playground a lazy river and more.

Sage and Xavier made it to the top of the climbing wall this time.  I had to bribe Sage with gum and have a conversation with him about using his mind to tell himself its okay to be that high.  It WORKED!!!

Look at me!!!!  Asher started this position on the trip.  He's ready to go!

Our last stop while traveling was to Zion.  What a beautiful canyon. 

This cafe was a fun dinner stop.  Our view was a treat and ohhhh...so warm to be sitting outside. 

More hiking in red rock canyons.  Everyone was so happy exploring.

More playing in the rocks.

Before we headed home we saw a basketball game in SLC.  The Utah Jaz game.  It was the kids first time going to a pro game of any kind.  They were so amped afterward.  Fun fun fun.