Last December, we hit 6 years of marriage. We hadn’t been out for our anniversary since before the Great Jacobs Depression of 2018, so we made arrangements to sneak away somewhere local for a night.

But then life happened. I can’t remember exactly what it was… I do remember our eldest getting food poisoning of all things on CHRISTMAS. (She was miserable for days… that poor little girl. 😦 ) And then our 3 year old son decided right then and there that he would be potty trained, regardless of whatever our schedules dictated!

Anyway, we ended up pushing the anniversary getaway further and further ahead. And then Covid happened, and nobody was getting what they wanted after that!

BUT THEN the school administration gods granted us Fall Break for an entire week. I knew this was our shot to make a break for it. Fortunately, my awesome mother-in-law was on board with it, and she took the kiddos for a couple days while Taylor and I explored Southern Utah for the first time.

Our drive there was quite the adventure. We first stopped in Helper, Utah, because they promised us the “tallest miner in the state”. WHO COULD RESIST? NOT US!

We found the minor next to the little old library.

Come to think of it, maybe the minor is actually an iron clad Paul Bunion?

Libraries are the best. We should all pay taxes to libraries. And exclusive member fees. And gift librarians with as much chocolate milk and Mena Massoud as they want.

Here’s why I love them so much. 1) They have bathrooms and cold drinking water. 2) They have books. SO MANY BOOKS. And sometimes those books are for sale. 3) Sometimes those little old libraries are run by little old ladies who won’t accept cash for the books and insists you keep the books AND your money to “Go buy yourself a drink, honey.” I cannot handle this kind of generosity.

The rest of our drive was also eventful. After Helper, Taylor missed our exit to Moab, Utah, but didn’t notice it until we were in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Parked in Grand Junction surrounded that looked kinda like Utah’s mountains but not quite, my heart hammed in my chest. Anxiety clouded my lungs, chanting to my body/mind/soul that we were LATE. Late for what, exactly, was a mystery but definitely not the point because my brain was losing it like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. (Anxiety illness really is quite a beast!)

Fortunately, my therapist’s advice of deep breathing and grounding myself with verbal affirmations helped a ton. I said things like “We are okay. We are safe. We don’t have to see the Canyonlands today. I’ve always wanted to see Colorado. Okay, that’s a lie, I don’t even know where Colorado is, but I love adventures. I love Taylor. We are celebrating our marriage.”

Honestly, I’m not sure where Taylor was during this process. He kinda blacked out of my peripheral vision for a wild minute. For all I know, he was napping in the backseat or finishing off the incredible pumpkin spice donuts we picked up from Payson, Utah.

Anyway, thanks to therapy and candy, I was able to wind down somewhat and enjoy a nice dinner with my husband at a local hole-in-the-wall favorite:

(Ma’am, this is a Chili’s.)

We jumped back on the freeway, immensely glad to be kid-free for the drive, because we now had a 3 hour delay on top of reaching the bottom of Utah. Taylor had to take the wheel for the rest of the drive, because I was suffering minor anxiety attacks behind the wheel. (Something about staring at the expansive earth swallowing sky going fastfastfastfastfast on the freeway just didn’t sit well with me.)

Interesting anxiety help though: I was able to completely calm down by reading funny blog posts out loud. Pinpointing all my attention on vocalizing the storytelling reset my emotions in the best way possible. Just a little idea for my fellow sufferees.

12 hours later we arrived at our 5-hours-from-home destination: Blanding, Utah.

the only view of Blanding we had since it was like 11:30 PM when we arrived

The next morning, we ducked out quickly to get a head start on sightseeing. The first stop was a hike to Anasazi Native American ruins at the House on Fire.

I’m going to puff my chest here for a minute. I am really proud of this. I’ve been recovering from an ankle and wrist injury for the past couple of months. My cast was taken off just before the trip, but I couldn’t shake the boot yet. But this queen wasn’t gonna cancel this trip again. Not after the food poisoning and poop smeared in carpet. So I prepped my foot and hiked this sucker.

(Fair review here: it’s actually a pretty mild hike. I’m not at all in shape and walked it just fine… in a walking boot! A lot of elderly retirees were there, socially distanced, too.)

We eventually made it to these incredible, incredible homes left by ancient people. They were quite a bit smaller than we expected.

(Don’t worry, we didn’t touch the rocks 🙂 Just looked closely and left them alone!)

The surrounding rocks were also quite interesting and stole my spotlight for prettiest attraction at Mule Canyon.

Eventually the sun grew hot enough that it was time to move on. We stopped at a local pottery shop and brought home this treasure that made my heart sing. (I’ll share the story behind the bear another time.)

And then it was on to Newspaper Rock.

Again, this site was smaller than expected. But wow. Look at all these drawings that have lasted a casual 2000 years.

I literally have so much irreverent respect for pioneer JEAN chiseling her name at the top there .

By accident, we found this little river and trail that seemed to call to us. We parked and ventured out into the forest. Fall time in the national parks is gorgeous.

I slipped my wedding ring into Taylor’s palm, citing that it was “just the most perfect place for a proposal, don’t you think?”

He waited for a few minutes, and then got down on one knee, and proposed to me all over again. I was actually NERVOUS and giddy and excited, waiting for that proposal to come around again. He was smiling so big when he asked me by my full name to marry him again.

My response to him then was as disappointing and dumb as it was the first time around. “Yeah, I’ll do that.” I outwardly cringed so hard that I had to put on another walking boot just to make the drive home.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to actually see the Canyonlands, so we started our trip back home. Fortunately, there are some pretty rad roadside attractions along the way. Like this magnificent arch.

The Wilson Arch is honestly so, so, so big. I can’t get my head around how bit it is. Arches are amazing! We tried some depth shots for clarity and it clearly didn’t work, but my pose looked fabulous so the picture stays.

After that, it was straight home to our dear sleeping tots, exhausted and recharged all at the same time, and happy to be married.