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!