Sand Dune Weekend With The Man.

This post was originally written and posted on April 13, 2008.

It's not very often I get to run off and be with out The Circus.

Which, generally, is fine.

They're my girls and I'm glad to be their mom. It's something I will always be glad I did, despite how things went with my ex-husband.

But... this weekend I got to run away... kidless.

It was amazing.

Relaxing.

 If I felt like taking a nap... I did.

Of course, with two and a half days of playing and riding four wheelers, the only pictures we took were sitting in the trailer.

West (boyfriend of two months) invited me to go to the sand dunes with him and his group of friends. Neither of us took our kids.

I'll have to admit that at times I felt lost because I didn't know what to do with myself. (West admitted to feeling the same with out his kids), but it was such a great trip.

I learned a couple of things that were very important for me to learn.

I don't think I'll ever know how exactly deep the way my ex-husband acted towards me is embedded in what I think and how I react.

I got nervous when time came to sit around the campfire with all of West's friends... bad things happened when I did this with my ex-husband.

It wasn't fun, being either the attention he put to other girls and the pushing me onto his friends or the starting of the verbal abuse.  Campfires became a time of dreaded anticipation for me.

Going out with West and his friends... the campfire was actually fun. I laughed and talked and generally enjoyed the time there. West was completely content to be with me, and in no way willing to "share" me with anyone else.

What a strange concept.

I was completely at ease with him.

Another thing I learned is that he isn't going to tear down everything I try to do that I'm not good at. I didn't want him riding on the back of the four wheeler while I drove, it made me nervous having him there and I didn't want to know what he would say about it. I knew it was something he's extremely good at, but I'm not at all. I was afraid he'd get exasperated by my lack of skill and with the decisions I would make as I drove.

He wasn't like that at all.

He was so supportive.

 I don't even think I realized my ex-husband made me that nervous until I faced that situation with someone else and those feelings were suddenly there.

I told West how I felt and that I wasn't comfortable with him being on behind me while I drove. But he didn't let me get away with feeling that way. He climbed on and said he didn't care, I was still driving, and managed to put me at ease.

This entire weekend with him ranks at the top of my favorite memories list now.

What ever happens between West and me, I'm glad for the time with him. He's a great guy, with great kids, and he's great with my girls.

It's a good place to be right now.

West's dad came down on Saturday. After dinner West went outside and I sat at the table with his dad, Mike, talking. He told me dating stories and we laughed.

He cares a lot about West.

He's a sweet man.

I'm thankful for his being so friendly with me.

Jacob City Mine

I'm so far behind.  I'm just going to take the most recent pictures I have and work backwards from there until I get them all caught up.

Last Saturday we ended up with only Jayme and Sean.  

The Man decided it was high time we pull out the razors and give the kids some "driving lessons" out on the dirt trails.  

Plus, he just likes to find excuses to ride.

Which is okay with me.  I like to have an excuse to hang out with him all day.

West wanted to find the Jacob City loop.  There were old mines and there was supposed to be a ghost town, but being a pretty "public" area, there wasn't much left of actual buildings from people destroying them. Though we did find remnants of mining areas.  

And we found a few entrances for a mine or two.

The mine shafts that went straight down were far too deep of a hole for my liking.  I wouldn't go near them.  It gives my stomach butterflies just looking at this picture.

We let Jayme and Sean have their turn behind the wheel so they can start learning the ropes to driving and also to riding. 

We're usually a desert type folk and when we need to get out and away we usually flee south to Sand Hollow or Moab for the weekend.  Riding in a mountain setting was off our norm but I loved the change of pace and scenery. 

 At one point in the ride I had a little hitch hiker join me.

And she stuck around for a good few minutes, just enjoying the ride and, I'm sure, the company.

 We had a picnic lunch in the shade on some old cement foundation of some sort or other and called it day.

We rode back to the truck, loaded up the machines in the trailer and climbed inside.

I pulled down the visor mirror...

Do I have any dirt on my face?

A sure sign of a good time.

Nailed it.

If you're interested in visiting the Jacob City area you can get there from Stockton.  Head east on Silver Ave. and it will take straight up to the trailhead.  There's a loop trail there, or you can continue up the dirt past the trailhead to where the road forks.  Take the right that inclines down and that will take you to the sites pictured above.  You don't even need four-wheel drive to do it.  Though the road is only wide enough for one vehicle at a time so if you're not on a four wheeler of some sort you may want to park on the dirt road before heading down fork and just hoof it.  It's not that far of a walk from that point.

Boy Did I Ever Catch It

It snowed.

Boy did it ever snow.

I heard it begin as a freezing rain early in the wee morning hours yesterday.  As I usually do when it rains hard enough to wake me up, I snuggled down deeper into my covers and smiled, and enjoyed the sound of the rain pelting on my roof until I fell asleep again.

By the time my alarm went off that rain had turned to snow, freezing the wet world into a sheet of ice and then covering it with snow.

The Man stayed home as bad weather often dictates for him.

I braved the slick roads and falling snow for work, but my boss let us leave early as to avoid rush hour in the conditions.

I'm thankful for that.

Getting home early, and having a husband who'd spent the whole day cooped up inside and bursting to do something, we checked out the listings at the dollar theater which is only a block away.

The new Percy Jackson starts in 10 minutes.

Perfect.

Kids where filing in the door, just coming home from school and we were shoving the backpacks away and telling them to get in the car.

In confused bewilderment they did as they were told, and then were happy they did.

The movie wasn't enough to get the cooped up feeling out of West.  After dinner he pulled the razor out and started giving rides to the kids up and down the snowy street.

I stepped out to catch the moment.

Boy did I ever catch it.


He's lucky I love him.

Riding in Bear River National Park.

After waking up at 3:30 on Monday morning for Girl's Camp (here) and running full tilt for the entire week on only 4 or 5 hours of sleep each night, I was exhausted by Friday.

But come Friday The Man was ready to go riding in Wyoming with Uncle Tim and Aunt Shirsten.  And me being the glutton for punishment that I am, didn't want to miss out on the fun.

So I came home from camp, unloaded the girls' stuff from the trailer, took some girls home, unloaded my stuff and my girls' stuff at our house, and with two hours to spare I showered, repacked, and loaded up the girls to meet their dad in Wyoming and we'd meet up with Uncle Tim and Aunt Shirsten.

Running away with The Man is one of my very favorite things to do.  Even if it is just to Evanston.

We bummed around Evanston by our twosome for the evening, doing nothing in particular but enjoying the conversation and being out together.  I'd missed him while I was at camp.

The next morning dawned and we headed over to where Uncle Tim and Aunt Shirsten were staying with friends, and then we headed to Bear River National Park for some riding.

This is honestly what I think of when I think of Wyoming, and it cracked me up when it happened on our way to find the trails.

We found the spot we wanted to ride in and Shirsten mentions that as they had been riding yesterday it was cold and threatened rain all day, but it didn't ever storm.

Which opened up joking about Joe's Valley (here) and knocking on wood that we wouldn't get caught in another storm.

And the gray clouds hovered, and it was a bit cold.  But then the sun would come out in a glorious burst and warm us up, only to cycle back to gray clouds and cold.

We stopped at a creek for a picnic lunch (Shirsten always packs the best food) and we watched a shepherd trying to round up some stray lambs near us.

And then it hit.

The gray clouds burst open in a quick rain and then a hard hail.

And we scrambled to pack up the food in the weather.

And we started racing back to the trucks while being pelted by marble sized hail.

 

I'm hoping this doesn't become a habit while riding with Tim and Shirst, but looking at the budding track record, I think I need to stuff some rain ponchos in the glove box.

Return to Moab.

I'm back from a blog sabbatical.

Sometimes there's just too much going on and things need to be set aside for moment.

Now that that's been said and done, it's time to catch up.

But isn't that the way it is for all families?

A few weekends ago The Man and I ran away to Moab.

The Man loves toys with engines, and he's pretty good at riding those toys.

When you live with The Man you have to put up with trips that involve these toys.

But when you live with me you have to put up with, "Hold on!  That's so cool and I need a picture!"

Combine those two and you get a blog with picture overload. 68 to be exact and you better believe that's after I cut a whole bunch out.

Two stories before I begin throwing pictures at you:

Our first morning we decided to head into town for breakfast because if it's one thing we love to do it's a breakfast date.  We were still waiting for Uncle Tim and Aunt Shirsten to pull in (best camping/riding buddies ever) and were in no particular hurry so The Man meandered to the end of Baby Lion's Back and found the worlds largest mud puddle.

See how deep we're getting into it?

And then suddenly the water starts rushing into the floor boards.

Which was kind of funny at first but then I realized that my purse was on the floor, and that it was now starting to float, and the water was fast approaching the height of my seat.

In the razor rebuild West installed harness seatbelts instead of regular seatbelts.  You know, the kind that go over both shoulders and attach across the chest.  So when I noticed my purse was starting to swim I jerked forward to grab it out of the water, but couldn't move.  My body jammed against the firm hold of the harness and I was getting no where fast.

I'm frantically telling West to back up and scrambling to grab my floating purse with my feet to lift it up to where I could reach it with my hands.

But tell you what, the view on top of Baby Lion's Back is pretty cool.  Even if it is little.

On another day West was flying down a sand whoop trail.  You know, the trail that rolls up and down... and your man is hitting the gas hoping to catch air when you come back up...

Maybe that's just my man, but I really don't think so.  Some of you ladies out there know what I'm talking about.

A bit like this...  but our whoops were a bit bigger

{pic source}

So we're flying down this whoop trail that's soft sand.

And we come down whoop and hit the bottom before going up another whoop when suddenly all I can see is sand.  Just nothing but sand coming straight at me.

It's like someone took a large shovel full of sand and just tossed the whole scoop straight into my face.

When we came down the whoop the front bumper dug into the sand and lifted a giant scoop up into the air, which we then drove into.

The Man thought it was funny.

Until he looked over at me and saw the expression on my face.

He couldn't tell if I was disgusted or mad, but either way he hit the brakes and came to a stop with a "sorry baby."

Guys, the sand was everywhere.

It was caked to the inside of my sunglasses lenses.  It was in my ears and you could build a sandcastle with the amount of sand that was caked in my hair.

My teeth were gritty and the inside of my nose was gooped with it.

It was down my shirt, and covering my lap.

Just for the record, I opted to laugh it off.

But I was a bit disgusted.

Also, when I take pictures, I like to take them from behind The Man when he doesn't know I'm doing it.

Otherwise I get pictures like this:

After our ride on Metal Masher and our side stop on Gemini Bridges, we were headed back to the truck and trailer when we came across a cyclist with a broken pedal.

"How much farther?" He called.

He'd just moved to Colorado from the east coast and it was his first time visiting Moab.

"A few miles still."

He visibly slumped.

So we loaded his bike on the roof of the razor and he climbed up on back for a lift to his car.  He'd lost his buddy somewhere a long the way and he had all the water so he was hoping his friend was okay.

We found that friend a couple miles down the road.  He was red and exhausted.  We gave him a gatorade and our passenger, Kevin, promised to come back and get him with the truck.

Turns out his truck wasn't at the parking lot at the trailhead, but 10 miles down the highway at the outskirts of town where they had started.

Pay it forward, Kevin.  We've had help when we've needed it.  Help others when you can.

The Man had two goals on this trip.

To conquer Mickey's Hot Tub and The Elevator.

He accomplished both.  (But not without me boldly declaring "let me out!" before he tried each one).

Mickey's Hot Tub:

The Escalator:

I do love this man.

West and Aunt Shirsten

We stopped for shakes in honor of Grandpa Dick who 1. loves shakes and 2. Milt being a family name through him.

Uncle Tim