Back to Life…Back to Reality

Chris Paiton and I have gone our first, official, family vacation, since Chris has started Law school 2 years ago. Well I guess we can’t call it an official family vacation, because during part of it, Chris and I dumped Paiton off with grandma and grandpa Christensen, while we went to Moab with my parents (the Anderson’s). It was fun being able to do whatever we wanted to do without worrying about her wellbeing, but at the same time, we missed her terribly. It all worked out okay though and she wasn’t to upset with us for leaving her. I think she had just as much fun as we did.
We drove to Moab Wednesday afternoon. Once we were there, we drove around and looked at some of the sites in downtown Moab. On Thursday we woke up relatively early (by my standards…) and rented a Jeep. We had originally planned to rent it for only ½ day, but when my mom and dad came back to the hotel to pick us up they informed us they had rented it for the whole day. We ended up going on a trail called ”Fins and Things”, and “Baby Lions Back” I hope I am getting the numbers right, but The Fins and Things was rated 3 or 4 on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most difficult. My mom and dad let Chris drive the jeep the whole time. He was in HEAVEN!!! Chris and I have never done anything like that before (other than with 4-wheelers or motorcycles), and it was sooo much fun. Chris and I told my mom and dad that we probably would never have done anything like that before. When they first told me that they wanted to rent a jeep, all I could think of was the guy I used to date who was waaayyy into the whole 4X4 thing. Anyway, I wasn’t really looking forward to the whole jeep thing, but now I really like it (as long as I am not driving).
So we drove on the trail called Fins and Things and it took around 4 hours. It was really scary sometimes, but I did like it. I even liked it enough that I would do it again when I grow up. We all decided that it is better to rent a jeep versus beating up on your own vehicle though. Luckily we were safe and we didn’t have to worry about anything. The best part of the whole thing was Chris driving. He is kinda dramatic… well it was really funny when my dad would act nervous, or if he really was nervous, Chris would go CRAZY!!! Any time my dad was nervous (not very often, but every once in a while) he either grabs the “O crap handle”, or he braces himself against the floor boards, well if Chris saw my dad do anything like that, he would be hilariously scared. I guess I just don’t know enough about it, but I think there were times I should have been scared, but I just figured my mom and dad wouldn’t take us to anything that would/could kill us.
Then on Friday, we went down the river. We had a blast and totally want to go on the river again. There was some big drama right at the beginning of the day. We got to the tag-a-long (the river guide company we were going down the river with) around ten-to-seven. My mom went to check in, but there was a huge line, so we decided that we would run to the bathroom and then go back and check in. When we went back they told us that the bus to take us to the river was gone. We ended up speeding through the canyon, driving dangerously fast trying to catch up to the bus. Later we found out the bus had to stop at some ranch on the way up, and we passed the it. We ended up beating the bus to the river, then we found some random guys camping on the river, and paid them to drive our car to Cisco, that ghost town right before the river. I think I was more anxious and stressed from missing the bus, and the car ride, than I was actually floating down the river. After we floated down the river we packed up and drove to Richfield, where my mom and dad dropped us off at Chris’ parents house.
So spent that first night in Richfield, then the next morning we went to Fishlake and rented a pontoon boat. Fishing was probably the best part of the whole “Richfield trip”, because Paiton caught her first fish. It was only a perch, but she still did most of it by herself. It was awesome!! I never thought I would enjoy helping kids fish. I didn’t even drop a hook in the water until after lunch. Even then I think I caught 5 or 6 perch and 1 trout. It was one of the most fun fishing trips I have done in a long time. We started dropping in a bare hook, and we couldn’t get the fish off fast enough.
On Sunday we went to church at Fishlake Lodge, and you just can’t beat church on the lake. The view was AWESOME!!!Then after church, Chris’ cousin had his baby blessed. It was a great weekend. Oh yeah, did I mention that we stayed in one of the big cabins right on the lake. Ya know the ones right next door to the lodge, it was one of those.
This was Chris’ first real vacation since we have been in school. We have been blessed enough to get to come home quite a bit, but it hasn’t ever been a real vacation, it’s just been flying home to do normal stuff, not fly home to go on an actual vacation.
All and all we have had a really good vacation, and now we are headed back to Salt Lake so we can get on a plane with a squirmy 2 year old.
I just thought of something else… While we were in Moab, there was some big biker gang called “the Banditos” coming into town. I don’t really know anything about them, but people told us they were comparable to the Hell’s Angels. There were a couple that we saw, that seemed quite hard, but there wasn’t any trouble while we were there. Anyway, while we were cool maxin’ relaxin’ (people watching on main street Moab) my dad and Chris saw a scrawny guy driving a scooter/moped type apparatus. Anyway, my dad piped up to Chris and said something like “here comes our first Bandito”. (This moped had a flame sticker and the number 34 on the side) Chris then replied “Yeah, it’s the 34 flamer” And on top of that Chris could never remember the actual name of the biker gang, so he continually (the whole time we were there) called them the bambinos. Anyway the whole time we were there anytime we saw any kind of motorcycle dad and Chris would comment on the flamer 34 bambino. I know it may not sound very funny to you, because you weren’t there, but it was SOOOOO FREAKIN’ FUNNY!!!