Day 6/7- Grammy Q's and Home Again

After rafting, we stopped in Glenwood Springs for some ice cream! We could have easily spent another 6 hours checking out this sweet mountain town that the kids don't rememeber visiting before (but they have!). 

The back of Noah's new rafting shirt says, "if you can read this, pull me back in!" upside down. 

 I tried to catch some of the beauty of the Colorado River on our way down the canyon. Pictures never do it justice.

We stopped at Grammy Q's house for the night, which always takes us on an epic walk down memory lane. Jason was digging Grandma and Grandpa Miller pics this time around. These are Grammy Q's parents, Dawna and Bill. 

High school Jason! 

Baby Auntie Emily! Which means Jason is about Emma's age (14) in this picture. 

Baby Jason in Grammy Q's arms. 

This is Provo Canyon in Utah, probably in 2005. Just a bunch of baddies hiking in jeans.

Jason snuck this treasure home and absolutely shocked me with it- 

Grammy Q loved giving Leah a hug!

We could have spent another week here too! 

A quick 10 hours later, we were back in the land of blue skies, white clouds, green corn and nary a wildfire in sight. 

Just a cute pup that was thrilled that we were home, 

and a giant tree that decided to end it's life while we were gone. So sad. 

I have decided that there is always an unknown sacrifice to our house that we have to make when we go on vacation (see many, many previous posts of dead plants, water-logged ceilings, smashed mailboxes, etc.). This was an exceptionally sad sacrifice, with mixed reports from neighbors on whether a bad storm or just a rotten core was the cause of death. 

One perk of leaving and coming back is that the wildlife always gets more comfortable coming up to the house while we're away. Look at these sweet babies! 

And this officially concludes our epic Utah Vacation 2026! We were so glad to take the time out of our summer to explore and enjoy a part of Utah that we rarely get to visit. We came home with lots of happy memories made!

Day 6- Whitewater Rafting

 We gave the kids lots of options for excursions on this trip, and the final one that we landed on was white water rafting down the Colorado River! We went rafting with Uncle Aaron back in 2022 and loved it, so we were confident that this would be a hit!

Adam and Noah were the brave boys in the front, and Emma and I enjoyed a bit of a shield from the cold water by the father and the other father in the raft. 

Adam and Noah definitely took the most water, thanks boys! 

We had an expert guide, and thankfully we stayed upright and in the raft the whole time, even when there were Rocky Mountain rocks all around us. 

Ahh, refreshing! 

Look at that syncronized paddling!

These are the faces of boys that would love to live closer to this kind of adventure. 

The majority of the float looked like this- clear water, blue skies, gorgeous mountain views but no rapids. We all decided we would like to do more rapids and less floating next time, wherever that may be. 

Ultimately, we decided the rafting was a little underwhelming, while the slickrock 4x4 adventure in Moab was a little overwhelming, so it all equaled out to one epic Rocky Mountain adventure! 

Day 6- Canyonlands

 Somewhere in the evening hours of day 5, we realized that in order to meet our new lifelong goal of hitting up The Big 5, we needed to get up extra early in order to get to Canyonlands before heading to our afternoon excursion in Colorado. 

No one was thrilled about getting up so early, but memories aren't made when we're sleeping in! The-vacation-memory-maximizer in me was in full force, but it sure would have been nice to be traveling by RV this morning. 

Wow, the smoke really made for an other-worldly adventure!

 Even with a tinge of wildfire smoke, the crisp and still early morning mountain air was intoxicating. 

We shared the trail with maybe three other hikers on our way out. It was silent (except for our noisy bunch) and absolutely breathtaking. This hike gets the prize for the suprising underdog of the trip and one we are most glad we didn't skip. It was incredible. 

The smoke made it hard to tell where the canyonlands ended and the clouds began. It all seemed to stretch on forever.

This rock has haunted my nightmares since we've been back. This configuration accurately depicts our family, although Noah assures me he would have been brave enough to hop onto it if I hadn't freaked out so much when Adam did. Sheer. Drop. Off. My palms are sweaty just thinking about it. 

Thank you to the patient solo hiker who offered to take our picture, seen here in shadow. I wonder how many brave but unsafe solo hikers just disappear in these parks every year. 

A heart and a babe!

This morning completed our Utah's Big 5 journey! Epic and unexpected, we all left with the desire to spend more time in these national parks soon! As much as we love living in Iowa, we really, really love remembering that there is a vast and varied and incredible world all around us. 

Also, this sums up some of our hikes accurately- in case I forget some day, this little boy is saying, "come over. It's a suprise! Do you like surprises?" Ha!