Different ways of looking at a weekend

Imagine that you were strapped to a seat, unable to free yourself. Your only access to food and water depended solely on your captors' whims, and entertainment is slim to nonexistent. Your pleas to be released are ignored. This goes on for an interminable amount of time. It may, for all you know, go on forever.

Torture, you call it? My two-year-old would agree. Parents, though, call this a vacation.

We went to Moab last weekend. It's a four and a half hour drive. Nathan was capable of being good for only about half of that time. We went through a lot of snacks. The books we got from the library to take with us I now have memorized. And we had a lot of crying and "I'm done!"

But we made it. And we even had a little fun in between the torturous drives and too-long hikes.

We had a family reunion in Moab, so we figured, why not? I've been needing a vacation. I forgot that vacations with kids aren't really vacations.

We went to Arches and saw the sights. We did the requisite Delicate Arch hike.

We got to play with very fun cousins, who put up with us for the most part.

We had a great time at Sandy Arch. It started to rain just as we were making the short walk to the canyon. So as we started to run to the shelter of the cliffs, everyone started streaming out of the canyon, running for the shelter of their cars. Foolish people. Don't they know it only rains for about five minutes in the desert? Once the rain stopped we had the arch all to ourselves to play in the lovely piles of sand that give the arch its name. Nathan had a great time inching down the hill on his bum and calling it "sliding."

And we even stayed (mostly) dry through the crummy weather. Nathan had a great time climbing mountains and playing with all the kids. One day we stopped for lunch in Arches and Nathan started playing on a nearby rock. He climbed it for a while, and then he sat down and said "Sit the potty." and then pretty soon, "Flush it!" He has sat on the potty exactly twice. It's good to know he's got an imagination. None of the other kids wanted to play on that rock once it got named the Potty Rock.

Clara is less of an adventurer. Turns out she likes warm bottles and clean diapers, thank you very much. The campground had warm water, so that wasn't a problem, while we were out doing things we had to get creative. But she did have fun. Clara didn't smile until she was over two months, so when we played with her she would just look at us seriously. We used to joke that our solemn baby was looking at us disapprovingly, thinking that she was so much more mature than her silly parents. She smiles a lot now, but doesn't laugh much. It turns out though, that we're just not that funny. My cousin Paige caught her in a silly mood and had her giggling like I've never heard before.

So we made it, without any sunburns or major injuries. And we even had some fun. And I call that success.