A Moab Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day was a lot of firsts for all of us this year. It was our first time to really hang out with my dear friend, Kristen’s family since we lost her to cancer last fall, their first Mother’s Day without her and possibly their first camping trip without her, and Erik and his family’s first time on bikes off road with his crew. It was so special and hard and perfect all wrapped up in another magical Moab weekend.

In Austria 6 months ago with an 8 hour time difference and somewhere around Christmastime Justin was on his computer booking our group site in Moab for Mother’s Day weekend. We locked in the weekend with some of our favorite people as soon as we returned to Durango in March, marking the calendar for Moab on Mother’s Day to head to the dessert with bikes in tow. Our four caught a ride at the famous Slickrock Trail practice loop on our way in to Moab before meeting the rest of the group at a beautiful group site along the Colorado River. Jeremy followed us over from Durango and Erik came in from Denver to spin tires in the dirt.

With the exception of Teddy, the 2 year old, everyone was on two wheels. The kids were awesome and even at 6 months preggers, Erik’s wife (also named Kristen) managed to get a loop in on a mountain bike. Let’s just say, it’s a good thing we had the baby seat on the back just in case! Mountain biking in Moab is a bumpy venture.

Despite some of the kids having just met, they all got a long beautifully. Ryan was a champ looking out for the littles, comforting them when they fell. Patrick and Ryan both vied for Karlee’s affection, Morgan entertained us with her constant Moana impersonations and who couldn’t love squishy rolly polly Teddie with his middle school vocabulary. And as if it wasn’t already perfect, we had Jeremy’s mom, Brenda, who served as the perfect campground Nana playing and talking with all of the kids as if they were her own. She is a gem!

We had sea princesses, sand castles, demonstrations of erosion, marshmallows, skinned knees, cactus spines, capri suns, Milt’s Milk shakes, creek baths, crawdad rodeos, bike rides, hikes, sand dune jumps, road rash, endos, mud fights, and a totally relaxing weekend. The kids all rode hard, crashed hard, played hard and loved hard. It was so fun. And I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weekend.