Last Weekend

Last weekend my niece, Celeste, was baptised. Ross wasn't able to go and Mel was sick so I rode down with Jeff and Nathan on Friday. I always forget how long of a drive it is to get to Bluff and I think that's because there really isn't a lot to look at. When Jeff picked me up he dropped off his camping gear, Ross was going to meet us for camping Saturday. Right off the bat Nathan was showing me that he lost a tooth. He was very proud of that and periodically through out the weekend would ask Jeff to look and see if his new tooth was any bigger. We had hotel rooms for Friday night. Originally we would only have a place to stay for Friday night so we had decided to go to Goblin Valley to camp on Saturday night. Then at the beginning of the week we found out that we had rooms for both nights but decided to camp anyways, the others stayed the weekend in Bluff. Nathan, Jeff and I were put in one room since we were staying just one night. The rooms were actually nicer than I expected for Bluff. The beds were actually comfy, but very small. They were smaller than a double bed and very short, Jeff is shorter than Ross and his feet were hanging off the bed, so if Ross had been there a large chunk of his legs would hang off. It reminded me of the scene in "Fred Claus" where Vince Vaughn is sleeping in the elf bed. The baptism was at 11 on Sat so we had some time to just play around that morning before getting ready, Brandon had brought his Wii so it was fun to watch the little boys and my parents play. I was back in our room brushing my teeth and Jeff told me he had to show me something. He said in the night he felt like he got bit by something and on the edge of his and Nathan's bed, coming out of the blankets, was a big black spider, it was the size of a cough drop. Nasty. It really made me nervous to pull the blankets from my bed out. Later when we were taking stuff to the car I pulled out a grocery bag with bags of chips and inside was another big black spider, not as big but still creepy. I can understand spiders but not in a hotel room. I expect my hotel rooms to be bug and rodent free.

The baptism was kind of interesting. I haven't been to a baptism since my mission and those were usually for adults in stake centers. In Bluff they just have a branch so I thought the baptism would be in Blanding in a stake center but they did have a baptismal font in the branch building. The floor to the kitchen comes up and there is a font under there. Very small but it does the job. It was a pretty short service since Celeste was the only one getting baptized, which I was very much ok with. After the service there was a lunch. After the lunch we were getting ready to go, I was outside talking to Ross making sure he had everything we needed him to bring and letting him know we would probably be leaving sooner than expected. Most of the time I was talking to him I was walking around outside and Nathan was following me. Every step I took he would follow and give me a flat tire. I would turn around to chase him away and he would run behind me again and step on my heels. He is def my brother's son. Funny kid.

On the way to meet Ross we stopped in Moab to get food for breakfast then met Ross in Green River and then went on the Goblin Valley. We didn't actually camp in the camp ground, cost too much, we just went out by Little Crazy Horse and found an open spot where someone had already made a fire pit and set up camp. Its a nice place to camp but the wind was horrendous. I am so not a fan of the wind. I had just put on some chap stick and then got out of the car to set up the tent and with the wind and all of the sand my lips were caked with sand. After setting camp and weighing the tent down we went over to the park. Goblin Valley is a very unique place. Its down in this little valley and there are a lot of clusters of red rock and sandstone. When the sun starts to set and you are sitting up on the rim the shadows and formations look like goblins. Its a lot of fun to hike and climb on the rocks.

The sunset was amazing but the pictures don't do it justice.

On Sunday after we got camp cleaned up we decided to do Little Crazy Horse, some slot canyons that were right there. I did them years ago and they were pretty cool. Again the wind was horrible, it was whipping up the canyons pretty hard and all the sand was in the air again. We hiked together for a little while then Jeff and Nathan slowed down. We waited for them to catch up and when they finally did it was the funniest site. Nathan had been collecting rocks the whole way up and his pockets were so full of rocks his pants were falling down so he had to hike with one hand holding his pants up and he showed me another rock he was carrying in his other hand because it wouldn't fit in his pants. When the wind and sand got painful we decided it was time to turn around and head back.

On the way down when Ross and I got ahead of them we would wait a little for them to catch up. The last time we were waiting for them Nathan told me we could just go ahead and wait in the car that way we didn't get sand in our eyes and mouths, which was ok with me.

When we got out we headed to lunch and then home, the ride home was pretty uneventful, which was a good thing. We got a little rain and lots of wind but my parents who were actually about an hour behind us got pretty bad snow.