I live in a national park.

In Canyonlands National Park.

Liesel is the only child for at least in hour in any direction. 

Our address includes "end of Hwy." 

So what do I do all day? 

I've been wondering the same thing.

I think Liesel has too.

But somehow our days seem to fill up. 

We definitely take in some beautiful scenery.

And despite my prego-waddle, just about every morning we get outside for a few hours.

Today it involved this:

A sweater! 

Although I'm feeling reluctant to let go of summer. 

 It also involved a hole. And sticking her finger in it. 

Finding a Juniper berry. Sounding adorable saying "juniper berry."

Wanting to wear her hood and rub her ears. 

 Was jazzed when mom busted out with a "Wheels on the bus" rendition. Check out that applause and sincere appreciation . . . with this kind of response maybe I could be the next Raffi?

 Here's home. 

 Our walks and outside time usually involve something illegal. Not only is L playing with a hallucinogenic plant, she also picked the Datura. And busted crust. And broke some rocks. And picked juniper berries . . . toddlers have no respect for rules. 

 Today also included the digging spot in the back yard, her hair bands and later macaroni/rice and measuring cups. Trying on big girl undies and stacking cans from the pantry. And one 30 minute video while I made dinner. Guilt ensued. 

Today also involved me on the elliptical reading an abandoned copy of Real Simple while Brian took Liesel on a bike ride and then put her to bed. 

Goodnight Needles. It's been a good day. 

dough baby

If Liesel is as affectionate with her soon-to-be-here baby sister as she is with bread dough, we're in luck. This is her asking to "hold da baby?" and in mid kiss. For some reason I mentioned that bread dough kind of feels like holding a baby (?) once and now she insists on holding it. Hopefully she won't try to pinch little pieces of the real baby to sneak a taste. 

Happy Weekend. Ours started tonight with a hike down the canyon, then B working on grad school and me watching chic-flick. Tomorrow we head up to the big city of Moab! 

Loma to Westwater on the Colorado River

 So for Leslie and I (and our men) life is about to get a little more difficult. . . adding another one to our brood will make overnights trickier (but not impossible. . . I've been trying to convince Brian). We figured with the addition of their new awesome boat, our days off lining up on Mon/Tues and a 30 mile section of river neither of us had ever done, it was a given that we pull an overnight river trip with the kiddos. 

It is SOOOO great to have the river do all the work. You can pile your gear as high as you want (debating on those massive thermarests with 3 in' memory foam? bring it. Liesel's mini tent? bring it. Steak? Cinnamon rolls? True Moo chocolate milk? bring it all.) and live in style. As Brian appropriately stated upon arriving at our killer campsite: "Backpacking is stupid." And after being on the river, it kinda feels that way. . . :)

Brian and Clay paddled the majority of the way to get us to our campsite in Black Rocks. I have to say that the geology and scenery of this area was more spectacular than I was picturing. Almost the entire route was in western Colorado except for the last few miles when we entered Utah. 

Both Owen and Liesel are really great about wearing their lifejackets. They both jumped in the water (which was pretty darn cold) several times and both took naps (and both preferred napping on papa not mama). 

Our hoagies & Leslie's killer biceps rowing us down the river. 

My two kids. One massive bump and a ball of energy. 

Our campsite was prime. You can barely see Brian on the cliff across from the boat in the photo on the left (below). We played around the rocks, all of took a swim and O and L spent some quality time getting sand up noses, in eyes and pretty much everywhere. 

 I can't get enough photos of this little one and her antics. Check out her dunking her head in and digging the sand. So cute!

The only really difficult part of the whole trip was keeping these two in check while trying to make dinner. Quite a feat. But they were both in bed by 7:15 and we stayed up eating cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk for another 3+ hours. After 5 days of isolation, being with friends was SOOO great.

Our camp the next morning. Clay even packed a pirate flag that he and B hoisted on a pole and up the rock the night before. 

 apple appetizers for breakfast . . . both of these kids were up way too early. 

 future river guide? 

 I would love to repeat this trip. 1000x. Huge props to the Allred's for letting us crash at their place the night before we launched, buying all the food,  having the gear and inviting us along on one of the coolest adventures of the year. I think all of us were smiling like this by the end. 

is there anyone out there?

Today Liesel and I walked to Visitor Center to get a little human interaction. Then spent most of our time obsessing over a stuffed mouse behind the glass and playing with the stuffed animals for sale.

Made a batch of cinnamon rolls to thank the maintenance folks down here for lending us a table, chairs and dressers.

Thus I was able to make cinnamon rolls since I had a table to roll the dough on.

And I got to peek at the newborn clothes and remind myself that this is really all going down in (nearly) 4 weeks.

Still no name for baby Hays #2. Both H names, but I think we'll have to see her face in (nearly) 4 weeks.

Speaking of which, last night in my dream the doc was there holding her as I was trying to explain I had absolutely no memory of pushing or L&D and that I must have blacked out. . . haha! I guess my mind is refusing to accept this all going down in (nearly) 4 weeks.

Watched Liesel run away from her "scary" Tinkerbell shoes with "pokey flowers"

Marveled at how she mentions daily the "dead bat crying"-- we haven't killed a bat (and had a dead bat outside) since our last month in the Tetons. But apparently it made an impression.

Wondered if our bouncer is going to make it to baby #2-- pretty sure L sits in and rocks that thing to the  floor.

Shrine Mountain Inn, Colorado

This weekend we went to Alex and Michelle's wedding in Vail, CO.

You can see photos of their wedding HERE.

We worked with A&M at Rocky Mountain in 2009. Michelle was my fellow backcountry ranger and we spent many nights (and days digging privy holes) in the backcountry reading  the NewYorker and Harry Potter out loud. We got to know Alex better when we teamed up in 2010 for our ski trip to Jackson, WY (we crashed at their place for several days) and since then it seems like we've seen them a couple times a year here in Moab to climb at Indian Creek. They are an awesome couple. 

 B and I had an awesome time talking with our old friends, hanging out at 11,000ft and bustin' out our killer moves on the dance floor. . . which brings me to ask: is there anything more awkward than a pregnant lady dancing some hip-hop? no, for real?

Loved the claw-foot porcelin tub, the flood of natural light and relaxing after a terrible night of sleep. So did Liesel. But judging from her little baby snores, I think she slept pretty well. 

simply complicated

This beautiful sunrise greeted us as we unzipped the tent Tuesday morning. The sun is directly inside of the north window in Arches Nat'l Park. Liesel woke up at 6am which is a typical routine for camping and I was grateful. It had been a while since I had watched the sunrise. Our spontaneous camping trip was more of a necessity than a vacation. We decided to bring everything up to Moab on Labor Day so we could play in town and then run errands on Tuesday (B was off and things were open). It worked out pretty well (says the pregnant woman who should have brought 4 more pillows. . .)

So we've noticed something lately. Our lives are either VERY simple (think no people, cars, noise, stores . . .) or VERY complicated (think driving 1.5hrs for milk, remembering enough diapers to get through 5hr church ordeal, camping to avoid long drives, bringing a cooler to transport your dairy, etc). Tuesday, while it had it's complicated moments, was a very very good day. 

We were able to make it to an early doctor's appointment after eating the usual at McD's and later toured the hospital. It made me so. so. so. excited for our little girls arrival in 6 weeks! It made it so real. You would think watching her roll around in my massive stomach would be real enough, but picturing us in the hospital with two kids was a great feeling.

 I didn't get photos of our pb&j lunch at the park, swimming at the pool (swimming a mile felt amazing!!!), hanging with our buds Heidi and Skyler or stuffing our car full of more boxes from our storage unit. 

 The simple part of our life involves a lot of me and L time. We hang out, I cook, I clean, I walk. She talks, she makes mess, she looks for lizards, digs in the dirt, and can be heard saying 

"mommy, sit down" several times a day. 

OR: "hungry-- food to eat?"

while carrying toys, crayons, diapers, clothes, carrots etc to different parts of the house.