A Breath taking vacation, part 2

 Day 3 started off with yogurt fruit cones and playing at camp.

Scott and Landon playing army men in the sand.

Alyse and Alaina picking ammo to throw at the army men. Landon playing hard.   A cute and squinty Lexi.

We headed to Canyon Lands National Park (Island in the Sky Area) and started with the Mesa Arch hike.

We took the stroller but regretted it and I carried Audrey and Scott carried the stroller.  Layla and Landon by the tallest trail marker we saw in our hiking.

Mesa Arch- incredible!

Our second hike was Grand View Point.  We hike around the top of the canyon.

Feeling like we are at the top of the world.

One of the 3 lizards we saw.  The view at the edge... Scott laid down at the very edge and took this picture looking to the side.

The trail follows mostly the east rim and then switches to the west and then ends at the south with panoramic views of canyon lands.  Audrey fell asleep and took a nap all the way back in Daddy's arms.

Ruby at the edge.  Lalya,, Landon, and Alaina seeing the view.

The view behind Alyse, Alaina, Landon, and Layla show the cliff we just hiked around.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at this overview and then watched the ravens eat any crumb we left on and under the table.

The Green River Overlook

Towers in the canyon lands.  Landon napping with an army man in each hand.

Our 3rd hike to Upheaval Dome.   3 little bears in the cave, 3 big bears on the cave!  Layla, Lexi, and Alaina on the rock "slide" as they called it.  It's the natural rock that makes a nice trail.

Family picture at the top!

This is whats over the edge behind us!

Scott and Audrey hiking back down.

There are 2 places in the park called "necks".  That means very narrow part!  Just wide enough for the road, barely.  There was a pull off just before where we stopped to see and I took these pictures... the view off the east side, the road, and the view off the right.

We drove the whole scenic drive and headed back to Dead Horse for the rest of the day.  We started off at the visitors center and did the nature hike with incredible views of the east rim.

And then we started the East rim hike to get geocache number 1.  It was on the Basin Overlook trail which Scott went down to get.  In the collage above, top right, Scott is at the edge of the overlook.  In the collage below, Scott is about half way back from the overlook.

Scott then took Landon and Audrey back to the car to drive to the other end and the rest of us finished the east rim hike and met Scott and the littles at the point.  The rim behind the girls is what the trail follows.

Big sister- little sister.

Dead horse also has a "neck" just wide enough for the road and a trail on each side. The girls going up the trail "neck."  It slanted down a little ways and then major cliff.

Alaina, a little timid to go up the "neck" trail.

We somehow got off the trail just south of the neck and couldn't find the trail markers again but headed south to the point, teasing Lexi our trail leader as we went.  

Layla loved to carry the camera and snap pictures from her point of view now and then.

A photo framed by a whole in the rock wall.

We met Scott, Landon, and Audrey at the point and then found the trail markers from the south end and went back to see the rest of the real trail.

We discovered where we went wrong and that it lacked trail markers so Lexi built one for others.

Scott being too brave at the edge.

Finding geocache number 2.

 Back at camp we got through a late and chilly/windy dinner of chili dogs and then spent the rest of the evening in the tent staying protected from the wind.  When Audrey went to sleep I took her back to the other tent with Alaina.  As Alaina and I were trying to get in bed, our tent was blowing into us.  I was trying to get the sleeping bags, which somehow the zipper of one ate into the other and got stuck, when our tent nearly collapsed on us.  Scott, who had been at the bathroom while I was trying to call for help, got the sleeping bags apart and the tent back up and added a tie down strap to secure it.  I got Alaina tucked into the other tent and then the tent collapsed again on me and so we took the pack-n-play, with Audrey asleep in it, to the other tent and managed to fit all 8 of our beds in there. Scott and I laid the other tent flat and put rocks on it so it wouldn't get damaged or blow away and then squeezed into our beds in the other tent.  That tent fits three air mattresses nice and snug.  The tent we found out, can fit 3 air mattresses and the pack-n-play very crammed.  The wind was wild.  The wind from inside the tent is very loud.  Lexi, Landon, and Layla were squeezed onto one air mattress.  We had to turn them around so the tent would blow in on their feet instead of their heads in the wind gusts.  Scott and I's air mattress  was  up at the foot onto another and we felt like we were laying upside down.  Scott went back out to put another tie down on the tent.  Scott then went back out to shut the door on the van.  Audrey and Landon were sound asleep, the rest of us were anything but sleepy between the wild wind and all the bed changes.  I went back and forth between praying that the seams on the tent wouldn't burst and the poles wouldn't break, and just giggling at our crazy adventures!  I reached up and held the top of the tent up off of us during a major gust of wind. It was crazy wind!  The wind started to die down around 2:30 and I finally dozed until Audrey woke up before 3:30 and would not go back to sleep in the pack-n-play and ended up in bed with Scott and I to save her screaming from waking up everyone else.  After she went to sleep I tried putting her back, but she woke up and wouldn't have it.  The rest of the night I tried to go to sleep and morning finally came!  It was a long night!