Memorial Day Weekend at the Ranch

We headed to Ranch for Memorial Day with the Malmborg and our friends, the Strongs. The boys went to Donkey Reservoir and Cole caught his first fish!

We drove out to Goblin Valley and thought we'd take advantage of this cutoff, but after wading through a sand dune covering the road, we thought better of it and returned to the asphalt!

Goblin Valley was a wonderful playground for the kids. The trick is getting there when it's not summer. But after experiencing painful dust storm there, we learned that spring is not the best time either! The kids still had a blast.

Trace hid from the wind inside this cave.

As we were reloading into the car after a stop at the Capitol Reef visitors center, Clint found this baby kangaroo rat under his gas pedal! We have no idea how it got there. Clint gave it to the park ranger.

Sunday night the Dietleins invited us over for a fireside. Allen conducted and asked everyone to tell what was going on in their families. Then he asked  the fathers of each family to bear their testimonies. It was inspired of Allen, in a family of bold females. Sherry shared that as she sat in church that morning and watched the Hales, Brians and Dietleins file in, she felt she could hear her dad say, "All the houses are empty, because my family is at church." We are seeing a lot more of the extended family now that the Brians have their own house. Maybe the Phil Hales needs to build a 13-bedroom house :)

The boys were the only kids there and they were amazingly quiet.