MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND - FRIDAY & SATURDAY

I was so excited when work was over on Friday!  Three Day Weekend!!  YEAH!  I was so ready for it!  The previous two weeks were filled with sickness in our household:  my vertigo and my oldest's stomach flu, all ON TOP of the normal daily routine - work, cooking, cleaning, laundry.

SO. READY. FOR. A. BREAK!

We weren't really sure what we were going to do for the weekend, but we had some ideas...I had some ideas.  What we did know was that on Friday night Chris was taking my little one to see World Wrestling Entertainment, live and in person.  In January, my oldest daughter got to go see Justin Bieber in concert.  My little one did not go, and she was a bit sad. We told her she could pick something she wanted to go and see...she immediately said she wanted to go with Daddy to WWE.

I kid you not, it was one of the proudest moments of my husband's life.  He is a HUGE WWE fan!  Having his daughter ask to go to an event - well, it was clearly a highlight of his life!  Not two weeks after the J Biebs concert WWE announced that they were coming to SLC and my husband IMMEDIATELY purchased tickets.

Friday, the day finally arrived!  Chris and the little one were off for a Daddy/Daughter date.  They stopped at Black Bear Diner for dinner and then headed over to the show.  They had such a fun evening!

While Chris and the little one were off at WWE, I took my oldest daughter out for sushi (her choice - my proud moment).  She had just come through a nasty bout of stomach flu and I was REALLY nervous to take her for sushi, but she was insistent - so off we went.  We enjoyed our dinner at 'Blue Fish'.  I had the spicy tuna roll, she had the california roll.  After dinner, we headed home to snuggle and watch movies together.  We watched 'Courageous' (man, what a good movie) and 'Moondance Alexander'.  It was a very relaxed evening - and we both really enjoyed ourselves!

Friday was a fantastic start to our weekend!

When we woke up on Saturday, we still weren't sure what we were going to do.  I REALLY wanted to go to Moab, Utah - I just couldn't get it out of my mind.  I wanted to hike to Delicate Arch - a hike I hadn't done in at least 16 years, because of my weight.   It is classified as a strenuous hike because of the length and elevation gain.  I didn't even know if I could do it, but I REALLY wanted to try - I am nowhere near the weight I was when I hiked it before, but I have come a long way and wanted to give it a try.

Even though I really wanted to go, I was still hesitant because Moab is PACKED on Memorial Day weekend.  PACKED.  I really didn't think there was ANY WAY we could find a camping site, and even if we did, did we really want to fight the crowds??   We waffled back and forth, back and forth about it.  Finally Chris stepped in and made the decision.

Moab it would be - come hell or high water.

We headed out at about 11:00 AM.  It was late in the day and that meant our chances of getting any BLM camp sites were pretty much gone...but we were determined to try.  We had a disaster recovery plan in case it didn't work out - we would head over to Grand Junction and visit Chris' parents.  My kids were pretty much rooting for camp site failure once they knew what our alternate plan was - they are both grandma and grandpa's girls!!

On our way down we made a stop in Price, UT to pick up some supplies - that was pretty much a tragedy, but I won't go into that.  Long story short, we didn't get out of Price for 3 hours, putting us WAY behind schedule, and that meant we wouldn't get to Moab until almost 6:00.

UGLY.  Chances of a camp site fading away quickly.

When we finally got to Moab and started looking for a site, our fears were confirmed - absolutely no camp sites to be found AND the closest hotel with any vacancy was 55 miles away in Monticello.  We were feeling a bit defeated, but, we weren't ready to give up.  We decided to check RV campgrounds - not our ideal camping experience, but seriously, we were there to enjoy Moab - the camping was secondary to this trip.  The first RV park was a bust, but the second one had opened up a section of the park for overflow tent camping and they still had some availability.  We IMMEDIATELY took it!

YES!!  We were in!

We set up camp (did I mention this was our first camping trip as a married couple...oh yeah, first camping trip married!!!)...

...not too shabby for our first time out!!

After we had everything set up, we decided to take the chicken way out for dinner.  It was getting late and we had no desire to try and cook, so we headed into Moab to get some dinner.

We ended up eating at a place called Pasta Jay's.  We were all really hungry - it had been SEVERAL hours since we ate - so, anything was going to taste good.  I didn't have high hopes for a pasta joint - I'm not always a pasta fan, but they had pizza and both my kids wanted it.  I was at the point where ANY FOOD would do, so Pasta Jay's it was.  When my meal came I had to admit it looked good.  I was FLOORED when the marinara sauce at this place ended up being THE BEST I had ever eaten!  It was SO DANG GOOD.  Even my husband, who typically hates marinara, loved it.  We ended up buying a jar of it to take home with us!

If you are ever in Moab, UT - try Pasta Jay's.  You will not be disappointed!

After dinner we headed back to camp to get a good night's sleep. We had a big day in store for us on Sunday.  We were getting up early to make our attempt at the Delicate Arch hike!

OH BOY...I was terrified we wouldn't make it up - terrified my body wouldn't tolerate the hike - but I was determined to try.  STAY TUNED!