Vacation to Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef

Did you know that 4th graders get a free national park pass? Did you know we have an awesome 4th grader in our family? Thanks to Makayla we decided to visit Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon for fall break. 

We loaded up our family with lots of snacks and headed to Capitol Reef. 

Clearly Makayla was not loving the drive. Just kidding. We made her take a Dramamine and it made her a little tired. 

We stayed at the Capitol Reef Resort. They have campfire spots so we relaxed there first thing. 

We decided to go on a short hike that night.

Poor Caden was jumping on some rocks and fell. He got scratched up pretty good. 

We ate dinner at the Mexican restaurant then had s'mores by the fire. 

The next day we went on a longer hike. We stopped at the arch for lunch.

I was so proud of our kids. We hiked really far and up some pretty steep areas and they did such a good job and didn't complain at all... ok, there was some complaining along the way, but there was a lot of laughing and fun.

This is my favorite story of the whole trip. There weren't a lot of restaurants around, so we ended up eating at the hotel for dinner. They didn't have great kid menu choices, and we have a pretty picky kid (Caden). It had been a long day of hiking and we were all hangry. We asked the kids what they wanted and Makayla and Brynnli both ordered off the kids menu. We asked Caden what he wanted and he said so seriously, "I guess I'll just have the braised short ribs." The braised short ribs were the most expensive thing on the menu $19. So we started laughing and I said, "Buddy, that's kind of expensive" so he goes, "What? Ok fine you want me to order the cheapest thing on the menu? Fine, I'll just order the.... Bud Light, is that what you want me to get?" I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face. I told him he couldn't order a Bud Light because it was alcohol. We ended up ordering him the braised short ribs. They were huge and he ate them all. He loved them. 

Makayla's hamburger, on the other hand was very small. 

We left the restaurant, spent some time in the hot tub, and ate s'mores by the campfire and thought everything was fine. 

At the campfire, Caden told me he didn't feel very good and he had a stomach ache. I thought he had too many S'mores, so we headed back to our room. 

Well that's when our long night started. Poor Caden may have had food poisoning because the poor thing was up every 20 min in the bathroom not knowing which end it was coming out of. He had super bad stomach cramps and about 2:00 in the morning we started looking at how close the nearest hospital was and thought our trip was over. Finally after a few hours, Caden was able to throw up and he finally fell asleep. 

In the morning we were very cautious, and he seemed to be ok. Fingers crossed we started the next leg of our trip. We headed along the scenic byway 12 and stopped at a few places along the way. 

One of our favorite places was Devil's Garden. There were the biggest rocks that we were able to climb on and play. 

We finally arrived at Ruby's Inn, where we would be the next two nights. We had a few hours before our show, so we walked around and explored. 

Our show was a band that sang country songs through the years. We loved it!

The next day we explored Bryce Canyon. I had never been to Bryce Canyon and the only word I can come up with was breathtaking. Our world is amazing, and I love that we can show our kids just a small part of it. 

Makayla lost her tooth along the way. And the tooth fairy even came that night on our vacation. 

We took a wrong turn and ended up going up Wall Street, but I'm so glad we did. It was the steepest hike, but had the most amazing view. If you want to know what kind of shape I am in, I thought I wasn't going to make it up, but Makayla and Caden ended up running up almost the whole thing. 

See how steep that is? We climbed that!!!

Bryce Canyon really is amazing and I would totally go back there again. 

Do you want to know the kids' favorite part? Swimming. We spent the night and the next morning swimming. 

My favorite part of this picture? Makayla's laugh. Her laugh is so genuine, happy, and contagious. 

Cookies and milk for dessert. 

After a fun few days of vacation, we were headed home. 

But not before stopping in Richfield and spying on our first house and the cool tree behind it. 

I really loved this vacation. We had so much fun driving in the car, singing songs, laughing, and spending time together. Even on vacation, corona has taught us to slow down and enjoy the things around us. Normally we would go on a trip to Disneyland, or somewhere more exotic, but this trip was simple, fun, and very much needed. I love this family and all of our fun adventures together. Let's go again!
 

Brynnli has Bell's Palsy

So do you want to know one of the scariest moment of my life? Brynnli was playing with the neighbor girls and she came downstairs crying because her toy broke. Well I looked at her and the right side of her face was drooping. I said, "What is wrong with your face?" and I even got mad at her because I thought she was being silly, but she really couldn't move her mouth. I took her downstairs to Tyler and showed him and he was just as nervous as I was. We thought she was having a stroke and we were terrified. I called the doctor's office and they said I could leave a message with the nurse and she would call me back, but we didn't want to wait, so Tyler took her to the emergency room. The other kids had friends over, so I stayed home until the parents could come pick up their kids and my parents could come over to watch Caden. Then I rushed to the hospital. 

Tyler said when they got to the hospital, the doctors checked her out and were sure she didn't have a stroke, but instead had Bell's Palsy. 

Basically the right side of her face is temporally paralyzed. They don't really know what it's caused from, but most likely a virus. The doctor said it is unusual to see Bell's Palsy in kids, so she consulted with the neurologist, who said that although it is uncommon, it does happen in kids and to treat it with steroids. 

While we waited in the room, they gave Brynnli lots of toys and things to play with. Brynnli said she wanted to go back there again because it was so fun. FYI... It was not fun for me and Tyler. 

To pass the time we called Grandma Terry and Grandpa Craig to tell them all about it. 

After a few hours we were back home. 

The doctors said what we had to be concerned with is that her eye wouldn't close all the way, so we have to give her eye drops every hour and tape her eye shut at night. 

After 4 days I thought I could see a little improvement. 

Brynnli hated taping her eye shut every night, but having baby get her eye taped shut helped too. 

After one month her smile is almost back. You can still see the drooping slightly, but it is improving everyday. 

The progress during the month: 

 Her smile may not ever fully get back to where it was, but Brynnli's smile is beautiful no matter what. We are just so relieved it was not a stroke. Thank goodness for small miracles!

September Happenings

September here and here's a few things we have been up to: 

After the toilet paper fiasco of the early pandemic days, and the looming uncertainty of the upcoming election, Tyler and I decided to update our food storage and financials. I spent so much money on groceries this month, but we are well stocked for whatever the future holds (even if we have to pay a small amount of gold for a loaf of bread... inside joke for Tyler).

We headed up to Hanna Land for Labor Day. The Jones family joined us, but Terry and Craig stayed home because now that the kids are in school they don't want to get exposed to any germs. I think they just didn't want to be exposed to Jerm. Ha ha!!

So funny story, Brynnli was hanging out by the trailer and she told us she saw a bat or a mouse or something. We all went out to look and there was this small animal hanging on the tree. It wasn't moving, so we thought it might be a dead bat. We inched closer and closer, until it flopped on the ground. We all screamed, and Tyler let out the loudest, girl shriek I have ever heard. The kids ran away and we started laughing so hard. We didn't know what to do with this dead, or maybe alive bat, when all of a sudden it hopped off the ground and flew into the tree. We screamed (Tyler shrieked again) and we laughed harder. Can you see it hanging upside down in the tree? 

Aside from the bat fiasco, we had a great time floating down the river, and playing all weekend long with our family. 

Can you believe we are still in school? I thought we would only make it a week or two before they schools would be shut down again because of Covid, but not yet. I am so relieved. The kids seem to thrive in school, and I love that they are able to go still. On Fridays the kids don't have school, but they will occasionally have to go in for small group work with the teacher. This particular Friday the girls were at a friend's house playing, so we went on a lunch date with Caden. 

Aunt Karen was cleaning out her closets and found this mosaic toy she thought our kids would love. She was right. 

Have you seen this beauty? Tyler and I were looking for something to accent our bar-b-q arbor and to try to cover up our neighbor's window. We went to Craig's work and they gave us all these flowers for free. They have blossomed so well and I love looking out the window and looking at these flowers while I do dishes. 

 Makyla was the Student of the week in her class and she got to make a poster. 

Sometimes in the morning I come out and see Caden sleeping on the couch. 

We had an early birthday celebration for Grandpa Craig and Brynnli. 

Yep... Truth. So here's a selfie on a good makeup day so you don't forget who plans all the family fun. 

Hey did I tell you I have a job now? I decided to be a substitute teacher. I was thinking about how hard it can be to be a teacher, then add in all the stress of the pandemic. I wanted to do something to help the teachers out, but I'm not able to go back to work regularly yet, so I thought subbing would be the perfect solution. I love it! I work about once a week and it's perfect because I can choose what day I work and where. I usually just do middle schools and high schools, but it has been the perfect job for me right now. 

Tyler has to get the kids ready for school on the days I work, and I usually try to check in with him in the mornings to see how things are going. He sent me this cute picture of the kids as they were heading out. 

So Makayla had to do a report on a county and she was assigned Box Elder County. We decided to take a day trip up north to see the Golden Spike. 

How cool are we going on an educational field trip? The Golden Spike is the joining of the railroads. It is the spot that marks the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad that happened in Promotory, Utah on May 10, 1869.

Is it sad that we had to explain what this was? The kids had no idea this was how people had to make calls back in the day. 

During her research on Box Elder County, Makayla learned about the Spiral Jetty and wanted to visit it. The Spiral Jetty is a man made sculpture in the Great Salt Lake. Kind of weird, but fun to visit. 

Guess what happened on September 30? After 13 months, Makayla finally got her braces off!! Here's the before: 

And the gorgeous after!! Seriously her teeth look so good!

This was Makayla 13 months ago before her braces... quite the difference!

At the end of September there were 73,042 cases in Utah and 459 deaths. Worldwide there are over 34 million cases of Corona (25 million have recovered) and 1 million have died.