On Monday of our trip Ari had to work. Due to our last minute planning, he hadn't actually taken the week off. I used that time to take the kids to an Aviary in Salt Lake City. They LOVED it. Right when we walked in there was a peacock just roaming around.
The boys were so excited (as the big bird nerds they are) to see an Andean Condor in person.
They made me take each of their pictures with it. Can you tell it was sunny?
We loved the rainforest bird area, the eagles, the owls, and so many more.
In the afternoon I put Maya down for a nap and took the boys back to the pool.
She seems like the survived. She really loved this toy computer of Buby and buster's. Speaking of Buby and Buster, we didn't take any pictures with them because Karen was having a small medical procedure done the day we left, and we really didn't want the kids to give them anything.
On our last day in Utah, I spent the morning packing, and then in the afternoon we took the boys rafting.
Each of them said that this was their favorite part of the trip.
We were sad to leave, but I convinced Ari to take our time coming back and make two stops. On the drive we saw double rainbows!
We drove to Colorado Springs. The next morning we went to the Garden of the Gods.
We saw a deer almost immediately as soon as we started walking.
It was really beautiful there. I felt like it mixed the red rocks we already know and love from Utah (and clearly the neighboring states) with the mountains we usually expect in Colorado.
Zev saved up to pay for his hiking sticks. He really feels hiking is not complete without a hiking stick.
The little group of people is everyone in our family but me.
Zev wanted a picture again in this beautiful place.
The kids always insist that I make a panoramic whenever it looks like it could be an "iPad background." 😂
We found someone to take our family picture, which is always amazing. She was also good and took like 4 of them from different perspectives.
The boys wanted pictures in the spot after our family shot.
We took a little rest before starting our hike back down.
Though Maya pretty much always gets to rest.
I love this kid.
I found these two playing with each other before we left (which is currently a rare occurrence.) They were pretending to be a two headed shadow monster.
After our morning at the Garden of the Gods, we drove to Amarillo. We had a yummy taco dinner at a local hole in the wall and went to bed quickly.
The next day we were so excited to hike at Palo Duro Canyon. It is the second biggest canyon in the U.S. after the Grand Canyon. It is also a dessert and completely different than anywhere we had been in the past week.
We saw LOTS of cacti, grasshoppers, a lizard, and a bunny.
We didn't get to stay all day, but we definitely plan to go back. We had to get back to Dallas to return our rental car. When we got home, we found our house in a crazy state.
Overall we had a great trip, especially for one that we planned at the last minute just to leave for construction. Karen and Gregg were so nice to let us upend their life for a week in this crazy time, and it was so nice to get out of town to cooler temperatures and beautiful views.
