Living An Intentional Life
Only one more day of school, and I can hardly wait. Summer vacation has taken on a whole new meaning now that I am working at k and n’s school!
Last month k played the violin with her class in a mini-recital. They had one trimester each of keyboard, voice and violin. It is nice to see that some sort of music education is still being offered in school.
k was disappointed that the teacher did not let them use the bow during the performance; they only “plucked”. Maybe next year!
Before May slips away, I guess better post about Mother’s Day.
As you can see, we ate well!
We had reservations, which I highly recommend. It is nice that Costco sells discounted gift cards, too. D and my dad planned it, but D is terrible at keeping things surprises. I am so grateful for my mom and to be a mom to k and n!
On April 30, we rejoiced as we witnessed k’s baptism at our church. The pastor who baptized her also married us thirteen years ago!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BThXJZKFGeU/?taken-by=derek.cal
PC: Glen Tagami
k made the decision to be baptized along with four other girls in her Sunday School class (one of them could not make it that day). We are so blessed to have the support of our Wintersburg family and pray that she will continue to walk with the Lord all the days of her life!
Last month n’s Cub Scout den had a field to Fullerton Arboretum on the Cal State Fullerton campus.
We split up into two groups and went on a tour led by volunteers.
Broccoli!
Artichokes!
There were turtles and a koi fish in the pond.
Afterwards we stopped by Mr. Katsu, which is just down the street. Love that cute mustachioed cat character!
The restaurant is quite small. We placed our order to go.
We shared an original pork tonkatsu sandwich (and brought some home for D). This was SO good! n said it was the best sandwich ever, which is high praise from someone who usually does not care too much about food. We will have to return to try the potato puffs.
After camping for two nights, it was a relief to be back in a hotel with hot showers and soft beds. We spent our final night at Towneplace Suites in Henderson, which we had stayed at before. It is a nice stopping point without having to deal with all of the Vegas craziness.
After washing up we treated ourselves to dinner at Sushi Café. Ahh Asian food, how we missed you so! The shrimp tempura monster roll was yummy (basically a sushi burrito).
I’m 99% sure this place is run by Koreans. When we first arrived there was no one else there, but by the time we left they were having difficulty keeping up with their customers, a lot of whom were for take-out/delivery.
For dessert we went to Hi-Coffee Café. We picked up a mango bar and guava cake and brought it back to our room to enjoy with the complimentary coffee and hot chocolate from the hotel. Both were delicious!
We spent the night in Moab at ACT Campground. There was a moment of panic when I tried to check-in and the person at the front desk said he did not have any record of our reservation. He eventually did find it, and fortunately there was still a campsite for us. Unfortunately, it was down a little hill from where we parked our car, which made it somewhat difficult to pack up quickly the next morning. Despite the lost reservation, I would still recommend this place due to the nice shower facilities and community kitchen.
After packing up, we returned to Arches National Park in order to hike to Delicate Arch. This is probably the most famous arch, which is featured on the Utah license plate. I think this may have also been the first hike that our family has been on with a “difficult” rating.
There was definitely some climbing involved!
Silly n trying to climb under a tiny “arch”.
We ended up following some hikers on a wrong detour that made our hike a little more difficult than it had to be.
Eventually we made it to this cliff. This hike is exciting because you cannot see the arch until you round this corner.
Too bad the sun was on the wrong side of the arch for pictures. I am glad we did the hike early in the morning for the cooler weather though.
D and the kids are to the right under the arch.
I kind of like this candid photo of k next to the arch.
After our hike we returned to the visitors center so the kids could be sworn in as junior rangers. Then it was time for our long car ride back to Henderson, Nevada.
We hopped back in the car again for a quick drive to Arches National Park.
Loved the picture window in the visitors center that highlighted the surrounding beauty.
n
n made an arch from his piece of dried mango.
Our first stop was Balanced Rock.
There is a trail that encircles the whole rock so you can see it from all angles. n wrote that this was his favorite place in the park in his junior ranger booklet.
It was fairly windy, as demonstrated by D.
Our next stop was Double Arches since the Windows Section parking was full.
This is where k “hit the wall”, so to speak. Miraculously, n was eventually able to bring her back around.
Working hard on his jr. ranger booklet. k wrote this was her favorite place in the park.
That’s D, fourth from the left.
We did not move our car, so we had a bit of extra hiking to see the North and South Window Arches.
We also took a detour to see Turret Arch.
Being this was our third park of the day, we were understandably tired. We drove to Moab, which is just outside of the park and ate dinner at Milt’s Stop & Eat.
There was a long line outside to order.
The food took a long time to come out and n was getting hangry.
We ordered onion rings, the kids had chicken tenders and hot dogs, and D and I both ordered chicken sandwiches with bacon and blue cheese.
Oh, and we also shared a large raspberry milkshake, of which we neglected to take a picture. So good!
On our way out of Canyonlands, we passed some cattle.
Dead Horse State Park is not too far away. We had to pay the $15 entrance fee since it is a state park, and not a national park and k’s 4th grade pass did not apply.
None of the national parks we visited this trip had any food available. I was thankful that my research showed that this state park had a Pony Expresso stand just outside the visitor center. We ordered two roast beef sandwiches and supplemented with our own drinks and chips. We were looking for a picnic table when k pointed out some tables on the second story balcony of the visitor center.
The sandwiches were just ok…the bread was way to thick so the kids and I opted for open faced sandwiches.
We did not do any hiking here, but we did drive to the overlook where Thelma and Louise drove off the cliff.
It was neat to see this horseshoe in the Colorado River.
It’s so nice that n still smiles on demand.
In hindsight, this was probably not the safest resting place for n.
This is the point where I made D take pictures of me since there is no photographic evidence that I was in Capitol Reef!
These ATVs were everywhere. I can see how they would be fun to ride in this desert environment. Even though it is “only” a state park, Deadhorse was a worthwhile stop on our itinerary…especially since it was essentially on the way to our next destination, Arches National Park.
We packed up our camp early and quickly and drove to Canyonlands National Park, which is about three hours from Torrey.
We saw some wild turkeys on our way out through Capitol Reef.
I made use of the provided tripod and our camera’s timer to take this family photo. We visited the Island in the Sky section of the park, which is the most accessible.
The kids were laughing at the squatty potty sign…and there actually was one next to the pit toilet. I’m not sure why anyone would use that given the choice!
We watched the video in the visitors center but I let the kids skip the junior ranger program since our time here was very limited.
We did do the .7 mile hike to Mesa Arch, though. (The only reason why I was able to take a picture of the arch without people is because there was a somewhat pushy European tourist right next to us who yelled for everyone to clear out so he could take a picture!)
The view beyond the arch is was what impressed me the most. This picture does not capture how spectacular it was!
D and his girls.
Five years ago in April, we went to Zion and Bryce. This year we tackled the rest of the “Mighty 5” national parks in Utah: Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches.
As we drove along from Las Vegas to Utah, we lost an hour crossing a time zone, but we gained views like this:
We stopped in at Austin’s Chuckwagon Deli in Torrey, Utah to pick up sandwiches for lunch.
A little more driving…
We split our pastrami sandwich and a chicken melt in front of the visitor center with this view:
The kids started on their junior range booklets before we watched the movie at the visitors’ center.
After watching the introductory movie, we drove along the scenic drive to the Gifford House. Capitol Reef is a unique national park in that they have preserved some of the historical buildings to show how people lived on the land.
I was relieved to see that there were still pies left in the pie cabinet. We opted for mixed berry. We also tried two small cups of homemade ice cream for $1 each; 1 strawberry and 1 vanilla.
I am pretty sure that I enjoyed the pie the most. As I grow older I find myself becoming more of a pie person than a cake person.
Our only hike in Capitol Reef was the Hickman Bridge Trail.
The trail is 1.8 miles RT and starts out along the Fremont River.
We were not sure what these “burnt” rocks were, but they looked like charcoal.
The weather was not too hot, but this shady resting spot was still nice.
There’s the bridge. Because there is rock right behind it, it is difficult to photograph.
View from the other side.
On our way back D spotted this little guy. He was only a few inches, but I zoomed in so he looks bigger.
On our drive back to the Visitors Center we stopped to see some petroglyphs.
During the summer you can pick your own fruit in the fruit orchards! That would have been fun, but I am glad we visited in the spring for cooler weather.
This was the Mormon settlers’ schoolhouse. Can you imagine?
Double-checking their junior ranger packets.
Because they were “severely under-staffed”, there was a group swearing-in ceremony.
We did the quick trip back to the town of Torrey to check into the Thousand Lakes Campground. When we pulled in D commented that it was not very “luxe”. Umm…I am not sure what he expected for $25! The tent sites were super close to each other, but the privacy walls were appreciated and we conveniently parked our car right next to our site.
I usually prefer to camp inside of the national parks we visit, but Capitol Reef’s campsite was first come, first serve. Since we did not arrive early in the day, I did not want to risk it after our debacle at Great Basin.
There was some nice scenery with the red rocks in the background.
Dinner was at nearby Red Cliff Restaurant. This place needs a serious makeover, but the service was very friendly and the pizza was good.
We devoured one large combination pizza. D said we needed to consume a lot of calories so we could keep warm at night. Mission accomplished!
There was a small playground where the kids were able to play. There was only one toilet and sink for the women, but there was a portable heater in the bathroom, so that was nice. The overnight low was around 40 degrees. The elevation was 6,800 feet, but it did not seem to affect any of us, so that was a relief.