Days 12-15; Arches National Park and Aaron and Molly's wedding

Arches National Park is in Moab, which is southeastern part of Utah. Long ago, these rock formations were formed by water, and continue to form by wind and the weather. There are 18 miles of driving through the park to see the amazing formations as well as different hikes to more formations. Here is Mike standing in front of what he calls "The Three Wisemen" :
As we drove through the park, the kids got excited about the different images they saw in the rock. They would say, "Hey, that looks like Jabba the Hutt!" "That looks like a big lion!" etc.

David wanted to take some pictures with my camera, so he took these next few pictures:

And then he took a picture of himself:

Here I am saying, "OK David, give me my camera back, please":

And David said, "Take a picture of me!"

Here's Balanced Rock:

We hiked (1.5 miles round trip) to Landscape Arch, which wasn't a difficult hike, but with nearly 100 degree weather, lots of sun, and Mike and I carrying Brooke and David most the way, we were exhausted by the end:

We made it! The family with Landscape Arch in the background:

Mike up a sandy slope:

Some really cool formations:

A really short hike was to Sand Arch:

I thought this was a really neat formation (and in the shade!) but the sand is so deep, we ended up barefoot.

So many cool formations!

I really wanted to take the kids to Delicate Arch, but after learning that it's a strenuous 3-mile round trip hike, we decided against it. I don't remember it being that bad when I was last there 18-years ago, but I didn't have kids with me then. So we drove to a lower viewpoint and it certainly didn't have as powerful affect as I wanted:

Kind of wimpy, don't you think? Oh well, we'll do the hike next time.

The next day, Zach and I flew from Salt Lake City to Seattle for my little brother's wedding. Mike continued on to Vernal, UT with the trailer and 3 kids.

Aaron and Molly coming out of the Seattle Temple:

Zach at the temple:

Here's all the Terry family (plus one friend of Aaron's) that came to the temple:

My immediate family:
(standing) Luke, Kate, Ben, Mom, Dad, LaRene, Jonathan

(front row) Rusty, Ginger, Adam, Aaron

One more family shot for fun:

Just the boys:

And the girls:

Zach's eyes grew big when he saw the cupcake table at the reception:

Molly and Aaron's car:

Aaron's nickname has been "Airbo" and so Molly has now been lovingly dubbed "Mollybo":

Days 10-11 Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Four Corners, Mesa Verde

We continued along Route 66, which is one of the first highways between L.A. and Chicago. The current freeway goes along this route through Arizona so it was fun to see Route 66 signs along the way.
I can't believe how Flat and Dry Arizona is! Miles and miles of flatness with no vegetation. There was not much to see:

We reached the Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona. It wasn't what I would call a "forest" but after driving through Flat and Dry Arizona, I guess I was expecting too much.

Many, many years ago, this area use to be a swamp land and there was a forest. A big storm knocked the trees down and they were submerged in water. Mud, silt and volcanic ash filled the crevices of the trees and they were buried in the mud so quickly that they did not decay, but they became petrified. Over the years as the continental plates shifted, this area rose up, became dry, and eventually erosion has revealed these petrified logs.

Here we are walking through the Petrified Forest:

(David, Nicholas, Zach, and Mike)

Brooke standing on a petrified stump:

A hundred years ago or so, people were digging out the precious rocks in the wood (crystal, sapphire, quartz) because of the monetary value. So to protect the land, it became a National Park. Even now, each month a whole ton of "souvenirs" are stolen from this park.
You can see the beautiful colors in this stump:

One of the biggest logs we saw:

More stumps along the way:

As we drove another 25 miles through the Petrified Forest, we also drove through The Painted Desert. Beautiful, vibrant striped colors of rock hills:

We heard of some terrible fires in the southern part of Arizona and fortunately we didn't encounter any problems. As you can see the sky wasn't smoky at all.
We would drive a ways and say, "Wow! Look at that!" and then a few minutes later say the same thing!

And then we came across this beautiful red canyon on the side of the road! "Whoa! Where did this come from?! Stop! Take a picture!" was all we could say:

The next morning we arrived at Four Corners, where it's the only place in the USA where 4 states all meet:

The kids were really excited to be in 4 states all at once.

Here is Zach being in 4 states at once:

And Brooke:

The next day we didn't go far to get to Mesa Verde in SW Colorado. About 800 years ago, Native Americans built these homes right under some cliffs. We had to drive up to 7000 feet in elevation to get to them. There were about 100 people living in this dwelling:

Up close:

Mike, Nicholas, and Brooke:

Zach and Brooke:

We were allowed to climb down into this hole:

Down the hole is a small room:

The natives would grind corn with these rocks, like we are demonstrating. Unfortunately, it would also grind the rock into powder, which became apart of their diet. Inadvertantly eating the rock powder with their food caused a lot of tooth problems:

Nicholas, Zach, and me.

Days 7-9: Zach's Birthday and Grand Canyon

Day #7 was Zach's 8th birthday and Aunt Ginger was nice enough to make some yummy brownies and put some candles in them!
Then it was time to say goodbye to the cousins and get back on the road:

(standing) Nicholas, David, Robert, and Zach

(sitting) Sam, Brooke, Emily, and James

Sisters:

That night we stayed at a campground in Needles, CA. Driving across the desert of southern California is truly amazing. Coming from Oregon, any type of desert just baffles my mind. All the dry, flat, hot, nothingness. The only thing that keeps Needles alive is the Colorado River that flows through it. There really are no other towns for the several hours it took to get to Needles, CA which is on the border of Arizona.

And we saw our first saguaro cactus!

Just to show how tall it is, I had the kids stand next to it and the other cacti:

Then a few more hours of driving to The Grand Canyon:

We camped in Williams, AZ which is considered the entrance to The Grand Canyon. Mike and I were totally unprepared for the magnificence of this canyon.
The view was breathtaking! You can see people on the next viewpoint over:

And to think the Colorado River carved this masterpiece!

Zach gives it 2 thumbs up:

I love this picture of our family in front of this view:

At several viewpoints, there were no railings and you could actually go out on this ledge, which some daring people do:

Mike felt daring, and Zach was using my camera, so you can't tell he's on the ledge, but he is:

He did say it would be "funny" if he jumped off just to scare us, since there was another ledge jutting out 3 feet below it that we couldn't see. I don't think I could have forgiven him for the heart attack it would have given me!

Here you can barely see the Colorado River snaking through the bottom (towards the right):

We thought we could see it all in one day, and we could, but just couldn't get over how awesome The Grand Canyon is, so we had to go back up the next day too.
The campground we stayed at offered $5 pony rides that Brooke got really excited about: