Arches

After loading all of these pictures, I have decided that I probably should have broken it up into two segments, but too late now! I have to say that this was one of the coolest trips I have been on and I can't believe I waited 26 years to visit! If you get the chance it is pretty awesome!
Forewarning- there are a lot of pictures of arches!

Here is where we stayed, in little cabins that held a queen bed and a bunk... but not much more! It was perfect for us though cause we were out and about except when sleeping. Poor Devin thought we were staying in an condo he he he.
Our first hike was to Delicate Arch. "There is a rift between us that can't be fixed" is my title for this pic :)
Taking a break in the shade on our way to Delicate Arch. Oh, and yes it was planned that we wore our bright green Butler Family Reunion 2010 shirts.
Thomas, Cody and Devin holding the wall up so that we could walk by safely.

We climbed up to this overlook right before Delicate Arch and Thomas offered to take our picture.

Where is the arch?

Resting while at Delicate Arch

We could be on Utah's license plate! ha ha ha ha

My dad wasn't able to be in the first pic, so we took another one :)

Still energized and ready to have fun!

We found this cool cave type thing that you go down into and then crawl out of.

Just chillin under some BIG rocks...... no big deal.

Talk about tight spaces! We had to take off our backpacks just to crawl thru the hole.

We are in the fiery furnace and this was an arch that was just our size :)

Thomas can even hold it up with one finger!

Thomas just chillin on another little arch right by the previous one.

Our first slot canyon..... hope he makes it thru! (FYI that is Thomas )

The boys, climbing on any rock formation they could.

Here is skull arch. Pretty cool huh!

Still in the fiery furnace with these weird tree plant things and a cute boy or two in the pic. :)

Coming out of another little slot canyon, Thomas posing for the camera he he he he!

After about 3 hours in the fiery furnace, we weren't really sure how to get out so we started following a guided tour, but they were REALLY slow...... Thomas decided to nap :)

My mom sprained her ankle and my dad wouldn't let her walk alone for the rest of the trip! I thought it was so sweet!

The last arch in Fiery Furnace was Surprise Arch. You hike up this little canyon and wouldn't think anything else is there, but...... surprise! there it is! ha ha ha

Standing underneath Surprise Arch..... I don't know what I am doing.

The next day we went on a hike where there are a lot of different arches, this was Landscape Arch. My mom and dad missed the memo about the "white shirt day"

This is what we had to hike up because an arch had collapsed a few years earlier along the old trail, but it was pretty cool!

We saw about 3 of these snakes. I think they were harmless, but I could be wrong!

Further along the trail, we ended up on top of a spine of rock while the winds gusted at about 40 mph. This is my " go ahead wind, try and take me down!" face.... apparently I was the only one who was worried tho :)

Still on top of the windy spine, but I am much happier with Thomas by my side :)

Black Arch.... not much else to say

Here we are at Double Arch. Don't let go Devin! ha ha, j/k my mom turned the camera at an angle to get his cool effect.

When we arrived at the double arch, a storm was passing thru and the wind was blowing like crazy! Sand was blowing everywhere and it was cold! Luckily, the storm passed and we got to climb on top of the arch. I was very unnerved to be up there, it made my stomach churn, but it was worth the view!

This is Thomas on the middle of the arch. Notice the difference in the color of the rock compared to the earlier pictures, this was when it was windy and cold.

After the arch, we made our way to some old petroglyphs (I think). There were tonz! This was one of Thomas's favorites, I think because they are elk, or dear or something :)

This is a view of a plateau by the petroglyphs. I thought it was pretty.

Just after the petroglyphs we found this really cool mini slot canyon. It was just wide enough that Cody could climb it like this. Looks like climbing our door frames when we were little finally paid off!

At the end of the canyon it split into two smaller slots, hmm which path to choose?

Thomas sitting on/above the fork.

I chose the path less traveled..... ha ha, j/k but i seriously doubt many people would choose this path.... I just kept thinking "please don't let there be an earthquake!"

Once on top, we decided to eat lunch.

Then Cody spotted a lizard, and of course had to try and catch it. It took a few times but I managed to get these pics of him catching the lizard. Notice in this pic, the lizard is slightly turned, well it whipped around and latched onto Cody's finger. he he he

Here he is after Cody pried him off his finger (i didn't get a pic because Cody didn't let him bite him for very long)

And here is the finger after being bitten.... you can't see it very well, but the outline is the shape of the lizard's mouth. Ouch!

Here we are hiking back down that big hill that I had a picture of a while back.

We were exhausted and decided to visit our last arch, Sand Arch. The sand is soooo soft! Just like being on a beach!

Thomas, Cody and Devin.......just being who they are :)

Can you tell whose feet are whose? Its hard to tell, but Cody's is the left and a normal color, mine is in the middle and was completely red, and Thomas's is the right white one :)

That pretty much sums up our trip! Sorry for the picture overload, but there was just so much to show and tell! After all the craziness in May, we started June off on the "best foot" with a trip to the hospital! During the last week of May, Thomas had been up in Yellowstone with his dad and brother on a job and Thomas got food poisoning. He couldn't keep anything down which dehydrated him (uh oh #1), so he took some Tylenol PM to help him sleep, but it has benedryl in it (uh oh #2-benedryl dries you up) and then he slept for like 12 hours straight (uh oh #3) which dried him out even more and his pancreas had had it so in we went. Thankfully, we caught it early and he was only in there from a Friday to a Monday. He even had the hospitalist he had had two months ago so that was nice not to have to re-explain everything to him and his nurses were amazing! Plus, he got sick on my last day of school, which was just babysitting the kids while they signed yearbooks, so I got to leave early! This also meant I could stay with him constantly instead of having to run back and forth between work and hospital and home. The only bummer was that we missed a family campout up Cottonwood which would have been a much more pleasant way to begin our summer, but he is home, healthy and I will take that any day! Here is to a much less hectic summer!