On Friday morning we all slept in until around 8:00 and then made our traditional Harrison family breakfast burritos which always seem to taste better when camping. Afterwards all 12 of us piled into Liesa’s new suburban for a day out hiking and exploring with the kids.
Our first stop was to see the Dinosaur footprint. Because I’ve been to see the footprint about 100 million times in my life, I opted to do some climbing and attempted to conquer the mountain. It was pretty easy for the most part until I hit a really steep area that I didn’t dare climb without ropes. I even enlisted Adam’s help to find a way around the steep part, but even Adam (who is my rock climbing expert) didn’t dare scale over that part without ropes. So back down the mountain we went. Beautiful view from where we were though as seen below. I sure do love living in this part of the world.
Next we went to a new place we discovered last time we were here called Ruin Arch. It is actually RIGHT off the main drag coming into the Wedge and easily seen from the road (if you know what you are looking for). Funny enough though in the 30 years we’ve been coming to the Wedge, none of us knew about this little beauty. And it literally is like a 20 minute hike up from the road. Such an awesome place with lots of cool formations. The kids all loved it! Mom and Dad unfortunately didn’t dare brave the steep slopes though – but loved seeing our pictures afterwards.
We even found an old Indian hut while we were up exploring! Cool!
Ruin Arch! Isn’t she a beaut?
Dawson pointing out some carvings in the sand stone.
Pretty sure this isn’t Indian made though. Looks too recent.
We think these carvings are more authentic though. So awesome to find!
The older boys and I did a bit more exploring while everyone else had snack time and found some more pictographs in another cavern nearby. Brans and Kyle are pointing them out to you in the below picture.
Brans mimicking the pictograph behind him.
Brans next to the Arch
One of the favorite memories from the trip was driving back to the campsite for lunch. Adalynn and the other kids were all in the back of the suburban and Papa was driving. All the windows were down and Adalynn was literally GIDDY with joy having the wind blow in her face and getting to hang out with her brothers and cousins in the back. She was smiling ear to ear and just kept saying, “Papa go faster!” She was like a puppy with its head out the window and just seemed to love going fast and having the wind in her face. It was adorable and had us all laughing like crazy. The below picture is actually on a different drive, but still captures a little bit of the happiness we saw in Adalynns face as Papa drove us home from our hike.
Later that afternoon we went on another drive to try to find some old caves that apparently had been built to house the President should a bomb threat occur. The caves were found to be unstable though when bombs were purposely dropped on them and so the site was closed down. We unfortunately never did find the caves, but we did get to see some great pictures of the top of the Wedge.
That evening we had Tinfoil dinners planned for our evening meal and so I put Adam in charge of making us a roaring fire so we’d have some nice coals ready by the time I got the food ready. The boys all LOVED getting to help make the fire and had fun putting in tumble weeds to make it HUGE!
One of the ongoing jokes in my family is that we never have any sort of family trip occur without something really random, crazy, or weird happening to us. We’ve had trips where we were evacuated for forest fires. We’ve had trips where 3 flash floods came through our camp site. We’ve had trips where all of us got sick and spent a week puking in the toilet. Trips where propane tanks were dragging behind my Dad’s truck causing great panic in those following him. Trips where wind gusts overturned my brothers truck and trailer, trips to Lake Powell where boats caught on fire, and tents and jet ski’s got blown across roads, gullies, and lakes. Or the trip where we saw a tired driver wrap his car around a tree. Or the trip to Cali when we got not one but 4 flat tires! Crazy adventures just seem to accompany us wherever we go and whenever we are together. It’s just something we’ve all come to laugh at. 🙂
So it wasn’t completely unexpected when this trip too came with its share of random craziness and now most of us will remember 2014’s Spring Break as “The Attack of the Cacti!” You see in the 30 years we’ve been coming to the Wedge we’ve never once had a problem with the many many Cacti in the area. But because we are special and because every Harrison family trip needs something crazy to happen – it was the Cacti’s turn to be our nemesis. And boy oh boy did it come through for us on creating another crazy adventure when almost every child who came on the trip ended up falling into a big garden of Cacti. Six of the Seven kids if I remember right, and even I stepped in some as well but luckily didn’t get pricked. Is that not completely random or what? Yeah, we thought so too.
It all started when Dawson literally fell into a big bunch of Cacti within the first MINUTE of arrival at our camp site and had so many Cacti stuck in his hands and arms that it took both my Mom and I over an hour to get them all out. We probably removed over 100+ needles from Dawsons poor hand – all the while with Dawson screaming bloody murder the entire time. Not the best way to start out a vacation for sure. Poor fella.
Harry was next and actually became the brunt of MANY jokes during our trip because he actually SAT on a Cacti when my Mom suggested he stop and tie his shoe. She didn’t realize that he would just plop down right where he was when she made the suggestion (hey at least he is really quick to obey, right?) but the poor dear ended up getting over 50 Cacti needles stuck in his butt! Yep, you read that right. Right in the Tooshy!
I ended up having to pick out needles from Harry’s pants, then had to pull down his pants and underwear when he said his bum was still hurting, where I found many many more needles in his little bum and legs. Then we also discovered that he had a bunch of Cacti needles in his hand too. It seriously looked so painful and Harry screamed bloody murder with the removal of each needle. At the same time though it was so so funny to the rest of us and Harry became the source of much laughter and jokes afterwards. My Dad was the worst and teased him unmercifully with things like. “Hey Harry, if you are looking for a chair, there is some good Cacti over there.” Harry took it really well though and would just give everyone a funny “you are so not funny” look when people teased him. 🙂
Adalynn was next and fell into a bunch when she and I went looking for fire wood and got some in her hands. Funny enough she barely even wimpered when we removed the cacti from her hands, a BIG difference from her brothers. That girl is one tough cookie.
Collin and Aly also had their turns with the Cacti, and I think even Kyle did. We all kept telling Brans his turn was next, but luckily he never did have a run in with the dreaded Cacti. We had to laugh though because in 30 years of coming to the Wedge we’ve never once had someone fall into Cacti. So to have all but ONE of the kids this trip fall into it was pretty comical. It didn’t seem to keep the kids from having a good time though.
Another one of the kids favorite activities on the trip was Lizard catching! And boy did those boys catch some good ones! Liesa and I had to laugh though when all the sudden we started hearing phrases like, “Hey Sarah just bit me” or “Liesa is really calm. I think she likes humans.” It ended up that the kids decided to name the first two lizards after Liesa and I. We hope its because they love and admire us, and not because they think we look like lizards. 😉
Here is a picture of “Sarah” the lizard biting Kyles finger. She was quite the aggressive and feisty lizard and super hyper and jumpy. Liesa the lizard on the other hand WAS really calm and didn’t even run away if you sat her down in the sand. She would just sit on your shoulder or on your hand, but actually would only freak out when she thought you were going to put her down. Then shed run back up your arm and away from the bin the kids were storing her in. It was quite funny and cool that she loved humans so much.
That night the kids had “sleep overs” when Kyle and Harry asked to trade. Harry ended up sleeping in the suburban with Collin so that Kyle could come and sleep in the trailer with Brans. They loved having more cousin time! I love this shot of Dawson and Adalynn snug as bugs in their sleeping bags. So cute!
Saturday morning was going home day so we kept things pretty simple. We had leftover breakfast burritos and poptarts for breakfast and then spent the morning breaking camp so that we could all participate in the Easter Egg Hunt Nana had planned for the kids. Liesa and I were able to go and hide all the eggs and then sent the kids out with little bags to find their eggs. They all loved it and it was a great memory to end the day on. Thanks Nana and Papa!
Collin posing for the picture with his arm around a pretend Dawson who refused to come and be in the picture with him. Collin was an absolute riot and said some of the funniest things while camping. One night while singing camp fire songs he acted all sentimental and wiped a tear from his eye saying, “that was so beautiful!” He had us all cracking up all week! Love that kid!
We ended out adventure by eating a quick lunch on the tail gate of the truck and trailer and snacking on our Easter Candy.
Another wonderful and Memorable trip to the Wedge! We sure do love all the many years of amazing memories in this place. Thanks Mom and Dad and Liesa for the fun Spring Break weekend.
We love you guys!
