On the road again! This time in a minivan, heading from the Mountain West to the southwest and then back to Texas. We’ve been in Utah since August for Logan’s work, and I am so excited to be heading back home!

Park City had its first real snowfall last night. I wonder if I would have liked the place more if we were there during ski season?

We’d planned to be on the road by 11, but we underestimated the amount of stuff we’d managed to accumulate in the four months here. Thankfully Ami was (mostly) patient while we packed, thanks to Doc McStuffins.

Stuff. I really think the minivan could have handled twice this much. I’m pretty sure toys burst into being around the toddler, because I don’t remember buying or receiving half this stuff.

We rolled out of Park City just before noon. Our first destination was the Radha Krishna Temple just south of Spanish Fork, Utah. We’d found out about it only last night, and were really curious to check out a Hare Krishna temple in deepest Utah.

Plus, they have a vegetarian lunch buffet, and an African Grey parrot who eats with the regulars and is a fan of peanut butter, and a macaw, and a bunch of llamas.

The lunch was not bad. Ami stuck to the rice, because toddler.

After eating, we headed upstairs to look at the temple itself. It’s a peaceful place, with a wonderful view. Then, we walked outside and downhill to say hello to the llamas!

We’d brought a bag of carrots, so the llamas were pretty excited to see us. The llama on the left in this picture was definitely acting like the dominant pack member today; it chased off multiple other llamas, and when one got too close, it spat a mouthful of chewed carrot out, coating its companion in orange flecks. One of us took to trying to distract it so the other two could go feed the shyer llamas their own carrots.

Our carrot supply exhausted, we climbed back into the minivan to continue our drive. Two hours down the road, in Green River, we stopped at Chow Hound for some ice cream. Yes, it was under 40 degrees outside. And?

We arrived in Moab just after 6 and settled into our hotel. The town seems pretty quiet this time of year, which we discovered when our first dinner choice was closed.

Tomorrow, we will spend the day exploring Arches National Park. Temperatures are supposed to be in the low 40s, so we will see what that means for hiking with a toddler.

Observation: It definitely feels a little sad to be exploring Utah on the day that Trump was up in Salt Lake City announcing that two of Utah’s national monuments were going to be greatly reduced in size.