a Rainy-day Adventure

ad⋅ven⋅ture  [ad-ven-cher]  –noun

1. an exciting or very unusual experience.
2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.

This week I had the realization that part of my role as madre is to help make the best of less-than-stellar events. I don't want my kids thinking nothing ever goes wrong in life, but I do want to try to teach them to make lemonade out of lemons (something I'm always learning and working on as well).

So with that thought in my mind, our family headed off on a day trip to Green River and Goblin Valley on Saturday. We checked the weather which indicated Scattered Thunderstorms but still in the mid-60s.

Turns out the scattered thunderstorms turned into constant rain, rain, rain, all day long.

We were to meet Aunt Julie at Green River and do some hiking and river viewing and such. Well, she ended up being stuck at her campsite because the road was washed out from all the rain.

So we forged onward and headed down to Goblin Valley for a picnic and maybe some hiking if it wasn't too wet. Well, it was wet!

Despite the rain, we saw some really cool views. When we got out of the car, Abe said, "Wow, it's the Wild West."

We had our picnic in the car due to soggy conditions even under covered areas. "Have you ever had a picnic in the car kids? How cool is that!" Max thought it was funny to sit in a different seat and eat his sandwich.

This video shows how funny Max is becoming by saying, "Me" to anything the kids want.


During our picnic we had entertainment by Hannah and Abe.

Abe sang Peanut Butter and Jelly:


Hannah made up a silly song about our Goblin Valley experience:


Then we headed out to view the Goblins from a safe/clean distance (those people who went down and hiked among the Goblins were so super muddy). It's really interesting to read about the the eroded sandstone rock formations.

We headed back to Green River to see if we could meet up with Julie. She ended up being rained in until Sunday afternoon. So, instead, we stopped at the River Museum to let the kids get out a few wiggles. Then we were on our way back home.

It was a much quicker trip with more driving (4 hrs each way) and less walking than we would have preferred. We hoped to run around for an hour, but ended up with about 5 minutes. We planned on sunshine and sunburns and ended up a little soggy and a little chilled.

But we still had fun.

Abe said his favorite part was seeing the goblins. During our picnic he kept saying, "I am having too much fun." (in a sincere voice too! which made me laugh)

Hannah said her favorite part was seeing the Green River, having a picnic in the car, and reading her Magic Treehouse book.

By the end of the day, Hannah ended up with a stylin' outfit with leggings to stay warm. It was quite the 80's Jazzercise look with leggings, shorts, socks, and tennis shoes. I let her use our old camera to take some photos. She ended up with 32 photos. Here are the best ones:

Max's favorite part had to be when we drove over the off-the-road-grated-road-bumps. He laughed every time. He was also glad for the DVD we set up which was an occasional diversion for him.

My favorites: seeing Goblin Valley, Temple Rock, and all the interesting rock layers in the mountains (some purplish/pinkish tints). Plus, the Spanish Fork canyon was so beautiful. It was so green with lovely trees. The windmills at the mouth of the canyon were cool too. We drove through the city of Price (my maiden name is Price), and passed the sign for the city of Sunnyside.  I liked when we turned off the movie and played name-that-tune. Then we all (well - the girls!) sang the song we had just  guessed.

I love, love, love rain and am grateful for every single drop we get here in Utah, it's just interesting timing that we got dumped on in the desert. We ended up with different activities than we hoped, but made some funny memories as a family.