ATVing Steelbender

For those of you who don't know, there is a great off-road trail right by where the Clydes live in Moab. They also have ATVs so you can just get on and go. It's pretty popular for tripped out Jeeps to come on. One day Patrick and I decided to go on a little ride all by ourselves. There is about a 5 ft cliff that some Jeeps were winching up when we got there. There were by far the most Jeeps there that we had ever seen. This picture doesn't even show the ones that were lined up along the road all up the hill.


We wanted to get away from all that commotion so we went off on a side loop I had never been on. Then we thought we would see if we could climb up one of the random sandstone blobs. It was a really incredible view from the top.

Jared and Matisse kindly let us borrow their camera when they went back to CT but there wasn't much battery left. This last picture the camera took was meant to be because the sun came out right as the timer snapped the picture. Thanks Jared and Matisse!

Our Snowy Day

Since we had Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before Thanksgiving day we had time to go for a drive into the La Sals. It was not all that cold in Moab so I was surprised to find this frozen lake up in the mountains. It was even thick enough for us to walk on. Some random people came by while we were out on the ice. They first asked us if we had seen a bear half frozen in the ice that had been reported. There was no such bear. They then asked us if the ice was thick enough to walk on. We said, "Well, we are out here". Then they left. Oh yeah, we also had a 9 mm that we shot at the ice.

A little further down the road was a place that Kevin thought would have been good to have our wedding. It was really neat with the snow and fog because the cliff just dropped off into nothing like we were at the edge of the world.

Our Friends, the Anisons

We had some friends come over tonight and we showed them the super fun game of shoot the dart gun at the fan. Heidi was skeptical but, like everyone, was quickly converted after just one or two shots. Blake was so funny so I took a video of him. I was just thinking that it doesn't look good for what my blog will be like when I have kids that I am already putting videos of kids that aren't even mine!

The Ranch Again- Yes again, it's really fun

The Ranch is so beautiful. Here is the little broken down house that is there. It looks more broken up close.

Another view looking down the canyon towards I-70.

We were lucky enough to have some friends meet us there. Steve and Robby, Patrick's friends from high school, drove down with Steve's wife, Laura, and their adorable little girl, Alice. I don't have any good pictures of her.


This time we were a little earlier getting to the ranch so we could "shoot some guns". I think my favorite is the 9mm hand gun. But we had much bigger guns than usual this time. Kevin had borrowed some type of assault rifle (I'm sure the boys are rolling their eyes that I don't know what it's called) and Steve brought his deer hunting rifle. I love how nonchalantly they are holding the big guns.

Here Chase and I show how tough we are with big guns.

You can see in the background that Kevin never wastes a trip to the ranch. He has the excavator up there to...excavate.

The deer rifle was by far the most powerful gun I had ever shot, even more so than the assault rifle. Even snugged right up to your shoulder it hurt a little.



Chase and Ole Rue, the 22 hand gun, make quite a picture. He looks like the warden from Cool Hand Luke.

This is what we brought with us to shoot, red cream soda. That made for a couple graphic hits. You can see how totally destroyed the cans were with one hit from the assault rifle.
Kevin also took some time to spread seed while we were there. What a hard worker.

Steve also brought is 12 guage shot gun so we could shoot some skeet. That was really fun. It's easier than I thought it would be.


Chase had a little different technique than the rest of us were used to, more like an old codger, especially with that coat. He beat us all except Steve by hitting I think 8 in a row. I only got to 5. Patrick got 1 or 2. I have to make sure everyone knows I beat him.

We drove up the side canyon again and this time we got much further since most of us were in cars instead of freezing on ATVs. The view was incredible. I had no idea what we were missing last time. I think these are the La Sal mountains in the background. Either that or the Henrys.

Patrick and his highschool buddies.

What a great picture to end with.

Hummer Tour

When Patrick came to Moab with his Marketing class they went on a hummer tour. He said it was pretty cool so I wanted to do it too. It was a cold morning, threatening rain, but we braved the weather for the open top hummer tour. There are a couple of random kids in the back seat next to Daniel so don't spend too much time trying to figure out who they are.

This picture doesn't really do it justice. It was really amazingly steep. It was a route called Hell's Revenge near the very famous Lions Back that you may have seen on Youtube videos. You can see how well traveled it is from the black trail on the rock.

Our driver/guide was extra nice to us and took us out way further than the tours usually go. We were all the way to the Colorado River overlook. It was so beautiful. Across the river is all Arches National Park

This is not our best pose but we were under a lot of pressure with the guide and the other tourists watching us. I really felt the pressure to perform well.

On the way back we switched spots and Chase and I go to be in the back. It was even more fun! I especially liked making fun of the girl sitting next to me who was in pain with needing to use the bathroom but refused to use a bush.


When we got back on the road it was pretty cold because we were moving a lot faster. This was how Chase kept warm.

Around the Thanksgiving House

Jared and Matisse are just the cutest couple ever. They are so photogenic. It makes me jealous.
We technically had Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before because Jared and Matisse had to leave early. We, well the girls, got dressed up for dinner so we thought we should take some pictures. Apparently most of them were on Melody's camers since this is all I have. Still cute though.

Here is Chase with everyone's favorite quadruped.

This is Sunday morning in the kitchen. We each had a job to do to get ready for dinner. I had finished mine already. Don't I look proud?

First day in Utah - The Ranch

We went to Utah for Thanksgiving this year. Patrick was able to get the whole week off so we were there for 8 days. We flew into Grand Junction, CO and Kevin and Chase picked us up in the big pick-up with 5 ATVs on the trailer behind. Then we went straight to the place we like to call "The Ranch". Its up one of the canyons just north and a bit east of the I-70 turn off for Moab. Jared, Matisse, and Daniel all met us there and the fun began. You can see the trailer and one of the canyon walls in this photo.


We got on the ATVs and took a little tour of the place. This canyon used to contain a coal mine so some of the miners used to live here. This house was a bit past repair the the stones still looked brand new.
After checking out the sites on the 100 acres of the ranch itself, we headed up a side canyon. There were some more old miner buildings up there to climb on. Matisse tried to hard to get there for the picture. She made it on the next try but her hair looks so lovely flowing behind her that I put this picture in instead.


I thought we were supposed to pose for this picture. No one else did.

Another 15-20 very cold minutes later we came to an overlook that was beautiful. My fingers were so cold that it made taking pictures interesting. My fingers were numb actually so that I couldn't tell how hard or even if I was pushing the button. You can see that Matisse was taking drastic measures to try to stay warm.


My light colored hood blends in teh with sky making my head look tiny!

It was very dusty with us all following each other on ATVs. Patrick looked the funniest. On Daniel the dust had settled subtly in this invisible wrikles and he just looked like he had aged 10 years. It was eerie. I wish I had a picture of that.

I think this might be the only pictuer of just Jared and I from the whole vacation. So even though I look a little funny here it is. I love my brother!

Then we had to get all the way back down and it was very dark and cold. We all survived, though. What an exciting first day!

I'm walking along, minding my own business...

So I was out hiking the other day. I usually don't see many people out on the trail. This day however, I passed this guy with this really cute little dog. I don't know what kind is was but it looked sort of like this dog here.

It was a pretty cute little dog. As I walked passed his owner the dog jumped up on my leg, you know, just saying hello. Then it felt like the dog had stabbed me with 4 or 5 hypodermic needles. I know that sounds odd. I was quite surprised myself. I just kept walking so I didn't make a scene in front of the owner. After I was out of sight I stopped and rubbed my leg and let out a good, "OWWW!". The picture of the mark that was left doesn't really show it very well. It looked like a couple puncture wounds on the sides with a weird rash in the middle. I can only assume the dog bit me, or injected me with the flu vaccine. The mark is gone now which really makes the story less exciting, but oh well. It seemed like a strange incident to me.