Day 1 To Salt Lake City,Utah

It's nice to finally made it passed the security checkpoint. Only 1 casualty....my Peter Pan peanut butter jar. I am addicted to peanut butter and I have it anywhere I go. I packed it in my carry on and was confiscated because it's like a gel. Oh well. We ate dinner before boarding the plane because they only serve drinks now. We also have to pay $15 per checked in luggage. I almost forgot that we're only allowed 50 lbs per checked in item , international is 70 lbs. Always good to check the carrier's website. It was also cool that we only paid $30 total for our airfare because of AA's Frequent Flier mileage and Thank You Points from Citibank. Up in the plane, it was nice to see the sunset.

Day 2 Temple Square at Salt Lake City

This is the Assembly Hall

We toured the Temple Square and had a wonderful free tour by the LDS member. They were good and the LDS had an amazing history.

We heard an organ recital at the world famous Mormon Tabernacle and it was awesome. The girls loved listening to the organ pipes. The recital was 30 minutes. We also went to the genealogy center and was able to find out info about my great granparents. Wish we have more time to research more about my family history. The services are also free.

This is the LDS Temple. It took 40 years to built this church. Only LDS members are allowed to enter here. It's mainly used for weddings, conferences or a place for peace.

Day 2 Drive to Moab

This is our drive on the way to Moab. Ok, we live in the midwest and driving in the snow is not a big deal but on a winding, cliffside road?.. I was a trainwrecked. We've seen car accidents along the way. Bill was ready good. He made us safe. My husband, I am proud to say that he had drove some of the scariest roads in America and Ireland too.

Day 3 Canyonlands and Dead Horse Trail

Dead Horse Trail

Mesa Arch

Desert Tree

This is the first hike we took. It was the Neck Springs Trail which is going down the canyon. It's isolated and we're the only ones on the trail. There were rocks piled on top of each other called "rock cairns" and it's the "only" marking for the trail. We hiked down for 1 hour and decided to go back up because I got spooked when Bill mentioned that there were animals here somewhere because there's dried poops all over.

It's funny how I have winter coat on and my husband in T-shirt and my kids in light sweater. I can take the hot weather but I hate to be cold. Bottomline is, dress in layers and bring lots of water. This time of the year that we went, the weather they said is unusually cold here (we actually liked it, I can't imagine how hot it can get in the summertime) . As we're driving, we even experienced hail for a short time.

This is what my kids love. We went to get a Junior Ranger book at each park (available at the visitor's center) which they have to answer and after our visit, they present it to the ranger and they get a badge and a certificate with the park's stamp. The rangers were excellent. They were so good teaching and asking the kids what they've learned.

Day 4 Arches National Park

Welcome to Mars! Except there's actually life forms here. I feel like I am in another world looking at all these rock formations. The bottom picture is the Fiery Furnace which we want to explore next time. It's like a giant maze and you need a permit to go inside there. The tour is about 3-4 hours long and you can book a tour with the ranger which sells out right away or you can pay for a private company led tour . We'll do this next time. The one on the very top is the Balancing Rock and Park Ave. in the middle .

This is the Landscape Arch. The arch is very thin and some say that this may collapse in a few years. A 60 foot long rock slab already peeled on its right side a few years ago. We stopped hiking here and didn't continued on to see the other arches in the Devil's Garden because the kids are tired already. We did the 3 hr. hike to the Delicate Arch this morning and have hike a total of 4.5 miles in the last 5 hrs.