holly alley

staycation - day 5

yew dell gardens

today was arden's dream vacation day - she wanted to go to england and visit a castle. so we found the closest nearby neighborhood castel and took off to check it out. turns out the castle is surrounded by a huge garden and we toured the grounds and checked it all out. the place is just gorgeous!! and arden loved the castle. and we discovered a secret garden and a row of trees called holly alley - it was a pretty fun day!! we ended up at macalisters deli for soup in a bread bowl.

now we're all sitting on the couch watching wall i - great flick - you should definately watch it if you haven't.

staycation - day 4

today was pajama day. when we all picked what our dream vacation would be one of the kids said staying at home in their pjs all day long and just hanging out... so that is what we did today - we stayed in our pjs and just hung out. we played cards and goofed around on the Wii and all took bubblebaths... it was a very fun and relaxing day!

staycation - day 3

natural arch state park

we thought that nothing would be able to top the day 1 high ropes course.....but today sure did!!!! we went to national arch state park and it was just spectacular!!!

we started off with a 3/4 mile trail that went straight up a cliff... we climbed and climbed and climbed and climbed some more!!! and when we finally got to the top we were walking across the top of the natural arch, which we hadnt gotten a look at yet so we really didnt realize how incredible it was...until we got around to lookout point and got a good look at the arch - we just couldnt believe that we had walked right across the top of that!!!! then we continued on to lovers leap which was another 3/4 mile hike to a cliff top spectacular view of the lodge and pool and lake where you could stay at the park...

then we wanted to head down something called devils gulch but it was just way way too dangerous - i still cant even believe that anybody could make it down devils gulch without getting killed... we didnt want to attempt it - so we headed back the same way we came and went back to the arch where we found some steps down to the bottom of the arch... AND we found something we had been looking for the whole day - fat man's squeeze! - we werent sure what it was - but when we came up to it - we knew right away that we had found it!! it was this fissure type thing in the rock - like an opening between two rock walls... and it was only about 14 " - 18" wide ... i figured it would just be this short part of the trail and it would open back up - but it went on and on and on and then turned into steps that started down and it still hadnt widened out - it was nuts!! and then finally we came out on the other side and we were right under the arch! oh my gosh were we excited!!! it was soo neat!!! we sat down for a 'foot rest' as brynn called it and just hung out under the arch for a while... before we headed down another 3/4 mile trail back to where we started....

then we headed to the lodge for dinner - a buffet of great food and even better dessert!!! we couldnt believe it when we added it all up to a 3 mile trip that brynn and sam had made the whole hike without a single complaint!!! the kids had enjoyed the entire day - looking around at the trees and the water and the blue skies and joking around with each other - it was just perfect!!! and we all agreed that THIS was the best day of staycation!!!