SE Utah

While it is wonderful being home, Kevin and I have had kind of a hard time adjusting to not traveling the world on the weekends. We both started to feel, well, bored. Not to mention that we really missed those long hours spent in the car together and whole days of nothing but each other and a new adventure - I know, pretty mushy. We decided while we were gone that we never wanted to just settle, we always want to be doing new things and going new places. So, a few weekends ago, we went on a "walk-a-bout" to the stores near our apartment and bought 2 big maps - one of the world and one of the U.S. On the world map, we marked off all the places we have been so far and a few places we would like to visit this year. On the U.S. map, we drew routes - routes to any place we might want to go within an 11-hour driving radius. I know, we're a little spoiled. My mom was making fun of us - "oh, they have to go on a vacation.." but you try traveling that much for almost a year and then going to nothing. We can't quit cold-turkey, we need a patch - a Utah patch.

This weekend, we decided to begin. We took off on Friday right after work and began the 5 hour drive to SE Utah. We stayed in a run-down, cheap hotel in the tiny town of Monticello. Free breakfast, free internet - man we love being in the U.S. In the morning, we drove the additional 2 hours to the 4 Corners Monument. It was a great time a year to go to all of these places, since it was nice weather with no crowds. We had plenty of time to run around the states, make silly poses and find ways to be in 4 states at once. We added a cool dream-catcher Christmas ornament to our collection and continued on our journey.







Mexican hat is one of the many structures found in the area. I love how all of the names of these are so completely obvious - can't you see the guy in the Mexican hat? Ole!


It was another 1 1/2 to our main focus of the trip - Monument Valley. Neither of us had ever been there before, and I can't believe we have lived so close to such an incredible place. I still cannot quite figure out how these huge structures can shoot up out of the earth the way they do. The park is located entirely on a Navajo Reservation, so it was a little more protected and they encouraged you to go with a guided tour in a big truck over the dirt roads. However, this is not the Hillyard way, and we toughed it out in our new car. It reminded us of some of the lava roads we traversed in Hawaii - only this time our vehicle functioned infinitely better!


This road is also famous for being featured in the movie Forest Gump.




One of the best benefits of being on a Navajo reservation? The Navajo Tacos!! I am still craving them...




The Window


Camel - I love whoever named these!


3 Sisters


Sadly, no. I did not get this scrape by climbing some gnarly rock. I fell off the treadmill machine. Don't ask.






We returned that night to our awesome hotel for some respite, and after church in Monticello (the ward there is incredibly large for such a small town) we continued up to Moab and Arches National Park. This was my first time here and I absolutely loved it! It was a perfect day and there was almost no one there. We wish we would have had more time, we had to skip a few of the hikes, but we will definitely be back.




We also met a cute retired couple here. They offered to take a picture for us and then completely opened up about their lives to us (for some reason, this happens to us all the time). They spend about 80% of the year traveling, taking pictures of baby wolves in Montana, exploring the ice in Antarctica and touring Africa. Let's just say they gave us some ideas.




This one we had completely to ourselves. Kevin was like a little kid - climbing and jumping and doing tricks in the soft sand. Super fun!







We had such a great weekend, it was so refreshing. I can't wait to go somewhere new again!!