Arches National Park ; day 1

This whole summer has flown by, but the business of this season is culminating with a family vacation. On Tuesday the 28th Curtis picked up Dane Wilson, a friend he met at college, from the airport and we celebrated our 2009 swim season with a team banquet. The rest of the week we prep-ed for our big 2 week trip (cooking, cleaning, washing, ect). Friday night Curtis, Dane, Marissa, and I drove up to Aztec, NM to visit the Skeens one last time before Curtis hits the books again. Saturday found the four of us in the truck and Mother Dear, Daddy, and the three boys in the Excursion pulling the camper. We met up in Montecello, UT, made sandwiches, grabbed some chips, and hit the road again. That night we stayed at a camp ground in Arches National Park (Moab, UT). here is the first installment of pictures from our trip:

Emily Allen, Marissa, and Hobbs- getting ready at the house before the banquet

The table was so bright and cheerful I wanted to share it--there were real goldfish in the center-piece fish bowl!

Arches:

walking up the trail

One thing I'm really excited about is what I found at the Ranger Station : a set of scrapbook pages with the beautiful scenery and a few other embellishments (I found one for Yellowstone too!).