Busy Month

It is the last week in April and I am not sure where all the time has gone! This has been a busy month for us. James' cousin Stacey came to visit us from England for 10 days so we showed her the fun things that Utah had to offer. We picked the middle of April because the Britney Spears concert was on the 14th and Stacey is a big fan (as am I!). She got to spend Easter with us and have a pretty wild Easter egg hunt with 15 grandkids all searching for money in their eggs. Kate won the coveted 5 dollar bill and was so proud of herself. :) Sorry no pictures of that. So Tuesday we went to the Britney concert and had a fabulous time. She put on an amazing show. Of course she was lip synching the whole time, but the spectacle of it all was incredible. Circus performers, great dancing, things coming down from the ceiling, I could go on and on!

Us during the concert
The Pussycat Dolls were the opening act and they were great too! How do they dance with heels that high? Crazy!

Britney coming out of the cage

The next weekend we went down to Moab. James had never been before so I figured it would be a good time to kill two birds with one stone. I haven't been down there since highschool and had forgotten how amazing the scenery is down there. I feel so blessed to live in such a beautiful place and world.

" Balanced Rock"

We went down with Melanie, Carl and family and also Carl's brother Scott's family. They are all so awesome and so much fun to travel with. We camped just outside of Moab with a campground that had toilets and showers. My kind of camping! It still reminded me of how old I was sleeping on the ground with only a tiny foam pad to lay on. I couldn't have been a pioneer that is for sure!

We ate lunch at the coolest park area right by Devils Garden. It had these fun rocks to climb so the kids decided to eat their lunches on a rock.
Kate, Austin, Blake, Carter

Here are the girls before hiking in to see Landscape Arch

Wendy, Stephani, Melanie, Heather

Carl climbing a cool rock and making a cool face :)

Our family and Stacey by Landscape Arch-SOO beautiful!

a better view of Landscape Arch

Delicate Arch from the viewpoint. Our kids had had it after the hike to Landscape so we took the easy way to see Delicate. Carter was asleep in the car so I just stayed with him since I had already seen it, while James went to take a peek.

Preston, James, and Stacey

The next day we went to the Fiery Furnace. It was probably the coolest hike ever. There we so many amazing rock formations to climb over, under, or through. The weather was perfect at about 70 degrees but after hiking awhile it was nice to get a little shade. Here is one of the cool rocks gaps we hiked through. James had a tricky time trying to maneuver with Preston on his back! Love that backpack! Preston kept asking to "go hiking" the whole time because he had the luxury of seeing everything without having to do any work. It was nice to know he couldn't run off anywhere because we could have lost him so easily in there.

Finding some shade

Melanie, Stacey,Heather

We had so much fun having Stacey here with us. We also took her to shop at the Gateway in Salt Lake, Gardner Village, and the outlets in Park City (lots of shopping!) We went to the Olympic Park and hiked up to the ski jumps too. Killer hike for your thighs!! I also took her to East High to see where Highschool Musical was filmed because she is a big fan. I am quite the tour guide if I do say so myself! :) I am leaving again on Wednesday to go to Philadelphia with some friends for a girls trip. I can't wait! I'm sure I will have some fun stories to tell when I return...