Llama, Llama, Ana, Josie, Dad and Mamma!

JOSIE SAYS:

Llamas are so cute in real life! The pictures do not capture the cuteness of a llama. Our hike with llamas was fun but the llamas were eating every single peace of grass! But they also ate flowers, weeds and all sorts of plants! We had a guide that told us about the wild flowers and my llama kept eating all the demonstrations that we found. Llamas have half of the cuteness in the world. Fennec foxes have the other half.

ANA SAYS:

She was amazed to learn that where we are now (Capitol Reef, UT) was under the Pacific Ocean 250 million years ago- until the underground plates pushed it a mile up- but she wants to go over to the fire by the tee pees at our resort right now and so she'll write more tomorrow. :)

MATT SAYS:

We learned lots about the geography of the land and how the crypto crust feeds the vegetation with nitrogen. I was amazed to learn that a corn husk can last over 700 years in the desert because there are no microorganisms/ organic matter to decompose it. No matter how many pictures you see, it doesn't do this area justice- you have to see it yourself. Loving having the time with my family.

THERESA SAYS:

OK, by now you figured out that we went on a guided hike with llamas today. :) <SEE PICTURES in the GALLERY tab!>

Here's a little about how we got here... arrived VERY late Sun night, Mon: toured Salt Lake City, especially the Mormon Temple and grounds (really beautiful) and headed to the Adobe office in Utah for a fun lunch and office tour with my "Adobe family" based in UT, including many spouses and kids. So nice! Then we took the 3.5 hour drive southeast to Capitol Reef country... what an AMAZING drive! Everything is so BIG... and, surprisingly- GREEN! This area is normally very dry and brown/ red at this time of year but record snowfall in the mountains and plenty of rain have made for some stunning landscapes-> hulking red rocks- some look like fortress walls- surrounded by green trees and plains. In the background, the Henry and Boulder mountain ranges (whose peaks top 11,000 feet!) still have snow! A few notable things about our drive down routes 50 and 24: a.) We saw a storm coming from MILES away. The sky was black and we watched ourselves drive right into it- almost 30 minutes later. b.) Before we got into the storm, the temperature was 73 degrees, within minutes of crossing through, the temperature dropped to 54. c.) We passed through a large expanse (10+ minutes of driving) that had a wildfire two years ago. It was desolate but somehow still beautiful- all the trees were jet black but then many were sprouting green leaves- just on the tips. Really cool.

OK, one last thing: The word around the resort is that the best place for dinner around here is this little dive that serves Pizza AND Indian Food. Apparently is was featured on Diners & Dives (Guy Fiere)... of course we had to go! Ana loved the pizza (us, not so much) but the Indian food was terrific! What a find in the middle of nowhere! OK- need to join the kids before they have too many s'mores! XO Oh, shoot- one last comment... for perspective, we are at 6,500 feet- the red peaks in the pictures you'll see in the gallery are 8,500+!!! They don't look it, but they are HUGE!