Miss Manda Pants: MOAB! (and randoms)

Every year, my 4X4 group of friends, officially named T.A.Z.E.R. (Team Awesome Zombie Emergency Response), participates in the jeep safari in Moab over Easter weekend. They invited me a couple months ago but it's sort of been up in the air. I decided basically last minute that I'd go because I needed a weekend full of sunshine, relaxing, working out, and just getting my mind off of things in life. I'm so glad I went. It was literally just what I needed. I left right after work on Friday, and got in Moab in time to watch some of the group win prizes (pretty dang good prizes) in a raffle. We made our way back to camp, in the dark. I made my friend Alex drive my corolla up the path since I had never really taken it anything up like that. I just want to say how dang proud I am of my corolla! She made it up some pretty steep, and rocky stuff! We had a fire that night and got ready for bed. The next morning I woke up to one of the most gorgeous sunrises ever. I had no idea that the canyon we were camping in was so stunning (but then again, isn't everything in Moab stunning?). We headed in to town for some breakfast and to just explore the city a little. After breakfast, we decided to try our hands at the arches hike. It said strenuous as the difficulty level, however there was only one tiny portion that was slightly difficult. In fact, I wanted to keep going, I didn't want our hike to end. Arches is really incredible to look at. But the sad thing? It was crazy busy, there was a LINE to take your picture under it, and my cell phone had perfect reception up there. Weird. Anyways. After arches we went to tour a local winery and I ended up buying a bottle (yum). We wandered around downtown Moab a little longer, got souvenirs, and just enjoyed the warm sun. We headed back to camp, ate dinner, and just talked around the fire until I could barely hold my head up. (it was only 11 btw, Moab is exhausting!) Everyone had been there since about Tuesday or Wednesday so they were all pretty beat and wanted to head home first thing Sunday morning. I decided that since I brought my bike that I wanted to try my hand at some of the trails. I was slightly nervous because I had never mountain biked in Moab and the movie "127 hours" scared the crap out of me. So I made my plan. I picked a beginner trail that hooked onto an intermediate trail. All in all, it was just over 10 miles. I sent a message Gabby just in case I got stuck under a boulder, then she'd know about where I was to send help (maybe a little extreme I know). The ride was incredible. Exhilarating. I guess the way that I went ended up being a little more technically difficult then it should have been, but that just adds to the experience! I snapped some really great pictures, and had some fantastic alone time. I was going to head back to town after the ride to eat, but I just wanted to get home by that point. I smelled bad, I was tired, and I missed my puppies! I got home around 4 or 5 that night, didn't even have the energy to shower, so I took a bath, and proceeded to melt into my couch. I'm stoked for my summer activities (let's face it, I enjoy summer a whole lot more). So that was my Easter weekend. Pretty much fantastic. The thing I love about Moab is that everywhere you look, it is a beautiful site, one that could easily be on a postcard. I can't wait to go back down!