Moab to California

Chris handled another busy week in the office and really loves learning from dad. Instead of just going on fun hikes by myself while he works, I started to get some pre-season work hours in at the river company's warehouse. We both had some long days, but it feels good to be working hard and saving up for school.

On Tuesday was Utah's republican caucus, and despite Moab's dominant liberal population, we had a good turnout. Chris mentioned it was almost like a church function because he saw so many people from the stake. With the way absentee ballots work, neither Chris nor I had ever been to caucus, so it felt good to participate in the election process.

The line was out the door!

Early in the week we went climbing on Wall Street and brought Jacob along. That boy slayed the routes! We were so impressed with his ability to complete intermediate climbs - especially since it was only his second time climbing. After a year of not consistently climbing, it also felt good for us to come back and do better than we thought we would.

Jacob toproping Lacto Mangulation - 5.10b

Much to Matthew's disappointment, both he and Olivia were too small to fit any of the climbing gear we own and therefore were unable to join us on the climbing adventure. We tried making it up to them by taking them out for a hike on Wednesday. Chris told us of this secret hike in Arches that goes out to a giant tunnel arch. It's an amazing hike, and barely anybody knows of it as it's not listed in any of the Arches pamphlets and doesn't even have a trail marker by the road. We spent hours hiking, and bushwhacking, as Chris lead the way on this hike he himself had only done once before about 6 years ago. Well, we never actually found this mysterious and secret tunnel arch. Nonetheless we still had a lot of fun hiking, and the kids absolutely loved the sand hills. Even though we never found our intended destination, we had a blast on our journey.

Matthew's bouquet for me - watch out ladies!

No joke - the piles of sand in Olivia's shoes.

Friday morning Chris and I woke up early and hit the road for a full day's drive to Fortuna, California - the start of our week long "Chris's Mission Tour/Meet Dani's Grandpa Adventure."

We spent Easter weekend with a couple that Chris had baptized three years ago (Saturday marked 3 years to the day!) that had moved north after their baptism. They have two of the sweetest girls we know. We had the greatest morning just chatting with all of them at their home as they got caught up with Chris and I got to know them better. In the afternoon we attempted to go out to the beach, but a storm a couple days earlier had gotten rid of all the parking spots and it started to rain. Instead they took us on a tour of the Redwoods and the Avenue of the Giants. Standing next to those giant trees is an easy way to feel small! The father had grown up in the area and he was the best tour guide we could have asked for. We had a nice evening with the family at home. On Sunday we went to church with them and stayed long enough to open Easter baskets with the girls (They even made Chris and I an AWESOME Easter basket). After that we hit the road to spend the next couple of nights with my grandpa in Rancho Cordova.

Our Easter Basket :)

Exploring an old railroad trestle 

See the fish up there? That was the high water mark from the 1964 flood that took out entire towns in Humbolt County.

Drive-thru Tree!

Remember to pray and remember to play,

Mr. & Mrs. Andrew