Arches Camping Trip

The first of February my brother, Eric and sister-in-law Elizabeth started talking about doing an Olsen family camping trip to the Arches in April. Brett loves to camp so he was in, Jaxson loves being outside so I figured he would love to camp and I didn't want to miss out on the family trip so I said yes too. Then Brett go his new job and the weekend we had booked our camp site for was Brett's weekend to work so sadly he wasn't able to go =( Brett was okay about us going without him so a camping we went. I'm not much of a camper but I had a great time and Jaxson he absolutely loved it. We rode with Uncle Eric and his family it was a full truck with the backseat full of kids, car seats, DVD's (how did anyone ever travel anywhere without these), toys and treats. We had lots of delicious meals. Uncle Greg spoiled us Saturday night and did dutch oven chicken, potatoes, biscuits and peach Carmel cobbler. Jaxson and I slept with Grandpa and Grandma in their tent. My dad had bought a heater before the trip so we were nice and warm the whole night. Eric and Elizabeth took us on hikes Saturday to see all the amazing arches and attractions. The picture don't the arches justice it was so beautiful. We had a campfire every night with lots of smores and marshmallows Jaxson loved watching and talking about the fire. Every night the fire mesmerized him into falling asleep. Jaxson and Brianna enjoyed spending almost 3 whole days together. They rode their bikes down our small hill by our camp, climbed rocks, played in the sand, enjoyed eating their meals together on Brianna's small table, explored our campground together and enjoyed jumping on the air mattresses. We had so much fun I would sign up to go gain. Thanks family for making everything so nice and fun. Here are some snapshots of our Arches Camping Trip:

We made it we're here! Jaxson, Abbie and Brianna Jaxson loved all the rocks that were around for him to climb.

We can home with bruised knees and legs.Uncle Greg helping Jaxson roast a marshmallow. Sadly it wasn't Greg weekend with his kids so there weren't able to come but Greg was a life savor. Not only did he cook us our delicious dutch oven meal (well actually he helped cooked a lot of things) but on Saturday he packed Jaxson on the long hike we went on which my back will be forever indebted to him. =) My little sport fanatic. Can't miss bating practice even if you are on a family camping trip.

Playing crazy 8's before we go hiking.

The first arch we hiked to--Landscape Arch. The whole camping gang!

Balancing Rock--so neat in person

LOVED this arch--Double Arch. It was gorgeous you hiked up into and it was just awesome to sit underneath it (once again the picture doesn't do it justice)


The famous--Delicate Arch that you see on Utah license plates. It was just so cool to be seeing it in person. You can hike closer but that hike will have to be done when the kids are older.


This arch is called-Sand Arch. It's a mini hike which was perfect since it was the last arch we went on Saturday. You walk into a sandy, shady spot and there is the arch. It was beautiful and so much fun for the kids. We all left with buckets full of sand in our shoes.

Our Easter

A week isn't' too late to blog about Easter right? Jaxson and I had a blast this Easter. Sadly Brett had to work so he missed a lot of the fun activities. We did get to do things together in the evenings. My brother Greg had his 3 kids in Vernal Wednesday night till Monday afternoon. My brother Dave was going to take his 4 kids to a baseball tournament Easter weekend but it got canceled so everyone was here to party. It was a fun filled Easter weekend from Wednesday night till Monday afternoon for us. We did things together from morning till it was time to go to bed. We loved all of it even with the freezing weather and horrible wind. Tuesday we found ourselves feeling lonely.

THURSDAY: We had a nice dinner at my parents house before my parents did their annual Grandpa and Grandma Easter Hunt. Every year each kid gets 12 eggs to find (they have their initial and a number from 1-12) they then trade it in for fancy prices. This year was fun because Jaxson was into finding his eggs to put in his basketball basket that Grandma and Grandpa gave him and he also liked getting and playing with his prizes this year.

FRIDAY:

We dyed Easter eggs at Grandpa and Grandma's so that we could do an Easter hunt at our picnic. Jaxson thought it was awesome dropping an eggs in colored water and "checking" it with his spoon. Growing up we always went on an Olsen family Easter Picnic at the Sandunes. I have lots of great Easter memories up there. I love that now I get to take my son and he gets to create his own Easter picnic memories.

Kole introduced Jaxson to the hills and how you climb them. Once Jaxson started he didn't want to stop.

Before we left we flew kites.

SATURDAY:

We went to the Naples Park Egg hunt. It was freezing but we scored some yummy candy. When Kole got to my parents house he dumped his candy to look at it and of coarse Jaxson had to do the same. The Easter Bunny was at the park and gave Kole and Jaxson a high 5 before the race started that was a big highlight of the hunt.

Saturday we hung out, had lunch at our house since my parents didn't have power, did Singstar with the kids, made homemade soups and donuts (lots of work but so unbelievably good) and when we came home that night the Easter Bunny had made his visit to Jaxson.

The Easter Bunny hid Jaxson's basket this year in his toy drawer. Of coarse the sport candies were the first things to take his eye.

The Easter Bunny left sport eggs this year for Jaxson to find. He loved running all around the living room finding basketball, football, baseball and soccer eggs.

March 16th Jaxson learned to count to 10 all by himself in one day it came so easily to him it blew my mind. This last week he started counting to 12. Wow! Hopefully counting and numbers will always comes easy to him that would be a huge blessing for him and me when it comes to counting and figuring that phe. =) After finding his Easter eggs from the Easter Bunny he had to count them.

SUNDAY: I didn't take any pictures Sunday but Jaxson and I watched LDS conference and then we had Easter dinner at my parents and went down to Brett's parents house later that night. Jaxson was spoiled and received lots of wonderful outside toys to play with at the Erickson's and more candy.

MONDAY: We took all the kids to the new Naples Park. We wanted to let them play for a while, have a picnic and then ride bikes to 7-11 for Slurpee's if only the weather would have went along with the plan. We ended up back at my mom's after almost an hour for our picnic. I then did a couple of Easter games with the kids. Jaxson and Kole got matching t-shirts at Christmas. On Monday they were finally able to wear them at the same time they were adorable "twinners". Who needs a little brother to match clothes with when you can do it with your cousin.=)