Lemurs, Kangaroos and Monkeys

We visited Roos 'n More zoo in Moapa. This is one of our favorite places, and I highly recommend it. It's a private zoo that gives private tours allowing you to hold, pet and feed many of their animals.

Asher is very interested in snakes, so I was not surprised that he held one and let it wrap around his head! Journey was not so bold, but she pet one when I held it for her.

We saw a 3 day old lemur briefly before his mom pulled him back into her nest. Then found out what the fox says...he says, "eeeap, eeeap" when you rub his backside, as we all witnessed.

One thing you probably don't know about me, I loooooove zebras. Petting and feeding this one is always so exciting for me.

This 2-hump camel is so friendly, and look how little Asher was last time we were there....

We took a walk thru the kangaroo enclosure to see not only the kangaroos, but wallabies and cavies. 

At the end of the tour, our guide brought out some babies for us 

to meet: a monkey, porcupine and kangaroo. I was in heaven!

a curious little monkey

Volcanos at Snow Canyon

First of all I'm sad that we just now discovered this amazing place only 1.5hrs from Vegas! Snow Canyon State Park is just outside of St George in Southern Utah. Our first day we hiked about 4 miles along the Butterfly trail and Lava flow trail to the lava caves. I'm fairly certain that I saw a gila monster along the trail, but he ran off when he saw us, so I didn't get a great look at him. We did come across a 5ft snake crossing the road (we were in the truck!). Rattlesnakes are out right now at the park!

 

A nice couple from Holland took this picture for us. When I took theirs in return, Asher actually posed holding hands with them, ha! When we later returned to our campsite, it turns out they were camped right next to us! The kids invited them over to our campfire and we enjoyed a nice night with them. Another great part of camping, meeting people from all over the world!

After seeing all the lava rocks, I was on a mission to find the volcano. I did and I climbed it! It was a strenuous climb, the trail less than a foot wide at parts with a steep drop-off and steady wind, but it did have a nice view of the area from the top. HOWEVER when I reached the top, the wind seriously kicked up to dangerous levels with gusting. I'm not even joking when I say I was on my knees praying to God to help me get down safely! For a few seconds I even entertained the idea of staying put and waiting for rescue! I do wish I had better conditions because there was a trail around the whole rim of the volcano that I would have liked to hike.

On the trail heading back, I came across a message from the kids:

When I reached the truck I found they were having their own little tailgate picnic while waiting for me to return.

The next day we spent the morning on the sand dunes. I LOVE sand dunes! The ones in Death Valley are my favorite, but they require a serious hike to get to the best ones. Here, they aren't as big, but it's a super short hike from the parking area, so that makes it nice. I only took a few photos as the sand has claimed 2 of my cameras, so I'm extra cautious now!

They spent much of the rest of the day playing in the sand at our campsite. Not a bad spot!

Our friend Andy, aka "Double A", lives in St George. He's the one who told us about Snow Canyon. He joined us at our campfire and we made plans for a big hike on our last day. It was a 5 mile hike up Red Mountain to an overlook that gave us an amazing view of the entire canyon and surrounding areas. The kids normally hike well, but this time they preferred to be carried. Journey loves Double A and fortunately he ended up carrying her most of the way.

Now back to Vegas to wrap things up......

Zion National Park...and snow?

Our first destination was Zion National Park in southern Utah. It's such a beautiful place, it's no surprise that it's one of the most visited national parks.

Our first morning, we hopped aboard the shuttle and hiked the Kayenta trail. Right after crossing the bridge, a deer ran thru the river and stopped in front of us for a couple minutes before continuing his run upstream. Here's a picture of him-

Here's a few pictures from our hike. Somehow the kids managed to snag hiking sticks from a couple on the trail.

 We played at the river's edge for awhile. Asher LOVES throwing rocks, so he could have stayed all day. Luckily I found the river runs right behind our campground, so we spent lots of time there playing with rocks and caterpillars.

 As we were eating dinner, I asked the kids what their favorite part was....and they said "the bus" (shuttle), ah, of course. Ha!

Journey was winking at the guy behind us....Oh boy!

Ragnar @Zion- the 120mile trail race....to the extreme! 

We went to watch Daddy compete in the Ragnar as part of an 8 person team. The runners all tent camp in an area referred to as "the village" and the race runs around the clock for a day and a half. The kids and I had planned to camp with Daddy, until a friend talked us out of it. And yah..... here's his tent!

The temp dropped below freezing and SIX inches of snow fell on them (they were at a much higher altitude than our campground)! This actually made the race, part of which was on a very narrow cliff, extremely dangerous and that morning they ended up canceling the race and actually calling in search and rescue for help locating missing runners. One of which was our friend, Tom. His 8 mile run started at 4:30am and would normally take a little over 2 hours; he was gone for 4 hours! They feared the worst, but turns out he was helping other runners who wanted to give up and would have needed rescued. Keep in mind they were wearing running clothes, no coats or anything, so hypothermia was a serious concern! Eventually all of the runners were accounted for and everyone headed home for hot showers!

For once in 3 years of driving to Zion, the kids were actually awake as we approached Fort Zion, so we pulled in and explored their little town, fed the animals and posed for photos.

 

Day 1- The Adventure Begins

Well, the day has finally come. After months of preparation, selling and giving away our things, we have hit the road as full-time RVers! Woohoo! Clearing out our house was a MUCH bigger task than we had anticipated, and to be honest, there are still some things in the garage, but we have one more day at the end of the month to finish. For now, we are just looking forward to catching our breath with friends in Utah for the next week.

Bye, bye house...

I have to admit, I did shed a tear as we pulled away, and I was the only one. The kids have known this was coming and for the last week, when I did the countdown with them, Asher's response has always been "NOW!" I had to laugh this morning when he woke me before 6, I told him today is finally the day we hit the road, right after we finish packing up. He of course said, "no now!" They were all too happy to say bye, bye to the house.

*just to clarify, I'm very excited, this is just an emotional day, well, and I'm running on very little sleep for the past 3 days.

And the adventure begins!

The countdown has begun...

We've been kind of casually getting rid of things, but it's time to kick it into gear.

In only 3 short weeks from today we will be fully moved into the RV and spending our first night together as full-time RVers!

There's so much left to do: downsize our 2000sqft house into our new 300sqft home, one last clear-it-all-out garage sale, put in at least 40 more hours at my paying gig, in addition to running the kids to horseback riding, playgrounds and trying to keep them from UNPACKING what I've just packed, all while my husband is at work!

Ok, he's actually doing a lot of work too. He's been making improvements to design our RV to be as comfortable as possible by securing internet access, installing solar so we can boondock (live without power hookups), etc. He has also been doing pretty much all of the selling of our belongings, for some reason dealing with that aspect has seemed overwhelming to me so far. Although I did just sell ALL of my cloth diapers last night to one woman and made nearly 300 BUCKS, woo-hoo!

So with so little time left, you're probably wondering what I'm doing wasting it on a blog post about how little time I have left. Me too!  (back to work….)