What do you do in the middle of a pandemic when you have a million things to do?

...you go to Moab to visit Arches National Park. Because you can.

It's true. I am knee deep in numerous house projects as we prepare to list our home on the market in the next two weeks, and it's Week #6 of my 8-week consolidated summer semester so I'm also buried in school work. And then of course there's the COVID-19 pandemic that keeps me up nights checking to see if I am still breathing and if my body temperature is normal.

Good times.

Nevertheless, when the family started talking about a weekend trip to Moab, I was all in. When it came time to actually go, I was less enthusiastic. "I have so much to do here," I thought. "How can I leave town for three days?" But we'd already booked the AirBnb, so off we went. As timing would have it, our backyard sod, which was scheduled to be laid two weeks ago, was pushed back to yesterday (thank you, again, COVID virus), so that meant our two dogs couldn't be outside while we were away. Ack! I hired two cute kids from our ward to care for them, which involved coming over multiple times during the weekend to let them out, along with the regular task of giving them food and water. Thank you so much, Braiden and Ella. You rock!

Though the timing of this trip couldn't have been worse, now that we're back, I'm so glad we went. I've lived in Utah nine years, and before yesterday, I'd never been to Moab or climbed on the crazy cool red rocks in the park there. We really had such a fun morning, while it was still cool enough to enjoy it. Here's the proof:

So if you have the chance to get out of town and hang out in nature with your family, even if you're up to your eyeballs in other stuff you need to do, I say, go! Do it. The rest will take care of itself. I've been online doing school stuff ever since we got home, and now it's time to water the new sod and take the dogs out on leashes for walks and bathroom breaks. Cuz, you know, the sod needs to be watered twice daily for 30-40 minutes, and the dogs still can't be on the new sod, not for 2.5 weeks. That means these two mostly outside dogs are now full-on house dogs. They seem to be loving it thus far:

Me? Absolutely. I love taking dogs out on leashes multiple times every day for the next 2.5 weeks. Can't wait.

But then yesterday, I got to stand under this giant arch on top of the world, and it was awesome. So there's that.

P.S. It should be noted that Eli and Amanda and Gerald were also with us. We just weren't ever all in the park at the same time, so they escaped pictures. But we had four of our five kids with us, which was fabulous.