On Sunday we left Moab and came to the Grand Junction area of Colorado! We’ve been zig zagging between Utah and Colorado a lot, huh!? And we’re going back to Utah again next week before we head north toward Idaho then Montana. But first we have such special visitors that we are SO excited about!

To end our Moab recaps, I just have some random additional things I wanted to share!

Moab really was a fun town. It’s very tourist-y but yet doesn’t feel like an overly touristy/hospitable town.

It was the first stop where we bought some T Shirts because a) they were very cheap haha but also b) this was one of RR’s fave places!

We loved how close we were to multiple parks and yet it was never too crowded anywhere we went.

We will remember Moab for Arches (here and here), Canyonlands (here and here), and the 4th of July (here)…. but also for the special family we met!

At the pool (where we spent a LOT of time since it was incredibly hot every day) the girls met the cutest 2 sisters from Switzerland. Their dad told us they didn’t know any English… but the girls (E especially) saw that as an opportunity not a hinderance! They played for HOURS for the 2 days the girls were at the park. Kindness, smiles, and laughter – these are part of the universal language! Isn’t that amazing? Also what’s universal are pool games haha.

They did all kinds of different jumps from the side, played tag (aka “catchya” to the Swiss girls), threw the ball, dove for rings, did handstands…. when we added in snacks and treats – it was a full day at the pool!

They were truly adorable. E loves to try to communicate through movement and sign (hence why she’s such a gifted dancer and wants to learn sign language) but now she says she wants to learn Swiss German and go to Switzerland! (I do too!). Swiss German is not a written language and it’s different than German so it was hard to find an app to help us with translation but we were able to find basic words. The Swiss girls loved hearing us mess up their language. They would repeat the words with the correct tonation and I just couldn’t copy them to make the same sounds. Haha

They could all be sisters!

We exchanged info so the girls could penpal! And we’re so glad we did because we got a message from the father that their RV was crashed into while it was parked in town. They needed to stay in a hotel then catch a ride to the airport to fly and get their new rental RV. B was able to drive him to the airport and we were so glad we could be of service. They are on a 5 week “holiday” in the states and we were so happy it all worked out and their vacation wasn’t interrupted too severely.

The next day we were at the pool (of course) and we were surprised to see them walking in! I was a bit confused but then saw they came bearing gifts of ice cream and M & M’s (how did they know us so well already!? Haha) as a thanks. Isn’t that so kind!? I hope to see them again someday!

Another amazing adventure we had was stargazing at arches. Our time in Marathon Texas (here and here) really got us inspired to love astronomy and we were excited to see how this night sky and time of year compared. We found a good spot by The Windows and waited for dark. Wow it’s so late here by the time the sunlight is completely gone ha!

You can see the north window lighted up in this one thanks to some fellow park visitors:

In these next two you’ll see Jupiter, the first sign of the “milky” of the Milky Way, and the first of SO many plane trails to cross our paths. This is a major difference between Marathon and here. There were NO planes in Marathon but here there was probably 3 visible at all times all throughout the night.

Stars through the South Window:

The bright moon and cars going by near Turrets Arch: 

The orange light is light pollution from Moab (which we also didn’t have in Marathon!) and the Milky Way above it:

Stars through the North Window:

 Night Night, Milky Way!

 

Oh I wish you all could have been there or even just see the pics right on the camera because they aren’t transferring to my phone and the blog well! The Milky Way was so cool!!!

On with the recap — like I mentioned in one of the other Moab posts, I really enjoyed running to the Colorado River in the mornings and loved it especially when E joined me:

 

The sun is so strong here. We wear hats almost all the time but the freckles and dryness are in full force! The kids get frustrated with how much I cake the sunblock on their noses but I just tell them to be thankful because MomMom used to make me wear diaper cream all over my nose 😊.  (Don’t worry peeps, their skin is all healed already!)

We really needed a break from the heat so we saw Toy Story 4 and loved it! We love Disney 😊.

Eventually the sun won in the fight with RR and his lips were burned so bad he spent many days inside catching up on books, doing his drone:

 

watching DVDs for school, and playing games with us. Can you guess who finally won a game!?!? Woohoooo!!

And who wasn’t happy about it:

But then RR put back on his cowboy hat and I haven’t beat him in anything since 😭.

I suggest that if a guy that looks like this asks you to play a game, just say no!

He seemed to be completely content with the break from the sun for a few days and the girls enjoyed the extra Daddy time.

B was the next victim of the sun. He keeps his head covered and is almost always in the shade but I think the sun and heat over the 4 day weekend really got to him. He felt awful when we got to Colorado on Sunday and kept getting worse until finally Wednesday night he felt better. This heat and sun is no joke! It’s not hot like NC but we can all feel the sun strength if we leave the shade. See – I’ve been telling him that not working a full time job is hard too 😂. I’m just teasing.

Thanks Moab for the great memories! Now we are enjoying Palisade CO and are so happy to have visitors!

Thanks for following, love to all.