Vail

For my birthday this year the one thing that I wanted and needed was a trip with just my husband. The last time we went on a vacation together was about a year after we were married.

We got both set of grandparents lined up to stay with the kids. Our only problem was finding some place to go. After several days of searching and searching on the Internet we settled on Vail, Colorado. (Being in the mountains sounded better than sitting on a beach. Maybe when we lose weight we will do the beach thing.) It is about a 6 1/2 hour drive. We figured if we drove then we could save the money from airfare and rental car and get a nicer hotel. (We will always be cheap, no matter how much money we make!)

The rain got in the way of a lot of our plans, but we had fun anyway. There was a river that ran behind the resort and had a walking trail along side of it. We walked the mile and a half up to the village and wandered around a lot. We stumbled upon an ice skating rink and decided to go ice skating. That pretty much prevented us from walking very well the rest of the trip.

The rain would come out of nowhere. We got trapped on a covered bridge for about 20 minutes while we waited out a sudden down pour and very loud thunder storm.

It was so nice to be able to be spontaneous. We found a movie theater and decided to go watch a movie. I loved being able to talk to Aaron - uninterrupted! When plans changed because of the rain - no one cried. I don't think I heard someone cry for three days straight!

I really missed my kids. They had a great time with their grandparents (thank you again!) It was good for me to miss Grant. He drives me to the point of insanity, so it is good to remember how much I love the little devil. He wouldn't look at me or come to me on Sunday when we got back. It broke my heart. He has never spent much time away from me. He spent the day yesterday pretty much crying the whole time. It is good to be home, even though reality hits you in the face like a tons of bricks the second you walk in the door.

Payson Lake

We went with Aaron's family camping to Payson Lake this past weekend. We have never taken our kids camping before so this was definitely a first. When we planned this trip back in February I thought Grant would be walking by now. It made it more interesting having him crawling everywhere. He didn't have a very good time.
Payson Lake is a better lake to play in, so the kids actually got to get their swimming suits on and play in the water. Which is nice when you are camping to wash some of the dirt off. The campground didn't have the flushing toilets like I was led to believe. My girls handled it really well though.

We went up Thursday after work and came home Saturday morning, so we were really only there one day. After swimming in the lake my family headed back to Payson so Aaron could try to find a Internet connection somewhere to check on something for work. We got a few supplies at the grocery store and headed back. While we were down there we saw smoke coming off of the mountain and several firetrucks headed that way. In the 30 minutes we were in Payson it was obvious this was a large wildfire. We wondered if we were going to be able to get back, but it was far enough from the road that we were able to keep going.

On the way back up to the lake we pass Aaron's brothers heading down to get a shake. We tell one of them about the fire and then keep going. We get back to the camp where Aaron's parents and my 4 year old niece had stayed behind to get dinner started. We get a call a few minutes later from his brother saying that they had closed the road and they couldn't get back up. A few minutes later they call again and say that a police officer told them that they were going to evacuate the entire canyon, including Payson Lake. Those of us at the campground create a quick evacuation plan. We start deflating everything, we take the dutch ovens off of the fire, we are rolling up sleeping bags. We have to get as much as we can - including my niece into our van and the truck. We were all packed tight getting there, so we weren't going to be able to take everything. My children are freaking out, Whitney was crying she was so scared. We had to stop and have a prayer to help her calm down and know that everything was going to be OK. About 10 minutes later we get another call saying that they were letting his brothers through and that they were not going to evacuate more than the scout camp closer to the fire. So then the question was - do we still leave or do we stay there for the night? We decide to finish making dinner and then pack up and leave.

After everyone was back together we decided that we would stick to the original plan and stay the night and leave the next morning. We really were not that close to the fire, and weren't in a lot of danger there. In crisis situations like that information changes every minute. No one really knows what is going on or what is going to happen. It was probably just one police officer that thought they would evacuate the canyon when in fact they probably never intended to. The next morning the road was still closed so we had to drive out through Nephi. An extra hour and half of driving, but it was a very scenic route home.

Despite a few crazy moments in our vacations we had a great time with both families. My children loved being with their cousins. It would have been nice to not have the trips so close together, but then again, once you have the stuff out, you just as well get it all over with. I literally washed clothes from the first trip and put them back into the suitcases. I left most of the stuff in my living room and repacked everything for the next one. Now I have the fun time of doing laundry all day tomorrow to try and get the camp fire smell off of everything. The fun continues. :)

Panguitch Lake

I'm trying to figure out how to not make a travel log insanely boring. I can't figure it out. The advent of digital pictures sure makes it a lot more fun to go and be able to just take as many pictures as you want and not have to worry about the cost of film and processing them. We took approximately 250 pictures between our two trips, I shared a few of the highlights in the slide show.
The first trip was to Panguitch Lake a week ago. We went with my side of the family. I have been pondering this thought - At what point in your life does it change from a vacation with my family to a family reunion? We still call it a family vacation - I think reunions are boring and for old people.

We did a random search on the Internet back in February and found a cabin at Panguitch Lake. We are not a boater family, so the lake wasn't a big deal to us, just a nice view. The location of Panguitch was what drew us there. In fact we had to stop by the lake the last night so that I could actually go down and touch the water. Aaron went fishing with Cassidy and Whitney so those three had been down there but the rest of us hadn't.

We went over to Bryce Canyon one day and went on a short hike - it is a lot harder to hike with little kids. Scares me to death. We didn't make it down to the bottom of this hike, if I didn't have my kids with me it would have been fun to keep going. The black dots in this picture are my brother, and brother-in-law with two of his kids.
The next day we went over to Navajo Lake and to Cascade Falls. We went on an "EASY" hike to the falls. I emphasis easy because that is what my sister said it was before we started. I would really hate to think of what a hard hike would be. (She has been fired of any and all planning of hikes in the future) Now, I am very afraid of heights, always have been. I have very vivid memories of going up into the mountains with my family and sitting on the floor of the truck so I didn't have to look out the window. Obviously this was a long time ago before seat belts were the cool thing to do. I also remember my mom (also terrified of heights) screaming at my dad (Not scared of heights) because he liked to drive his truck on these hills that pretty much put the truck vertical in my opinion. I remember clinging to the side of a mountain when we were hiking once because of a cliff on the other side.

Anyway - you can get the idea. I don't like heights (or maybe it is just gravity I am afraid of!) We get a little way in and there is a sign that says "Trail Closed." Now isn't it funny how peer pressure works even as an adult. My first thought is - turn back. But hey everyone else is going on. There are a lot of people there, no one else is turning back, everyone is simply ignoring this sign. We talk to several people, and say was it hard? How long is it? Is it safe for little children to go on it? Now I would like to say that all of these random strangers are liers. Not only am I terrified of heights, but I am holding my 3 year old daughter's hand and trying to pretend like it is all fine and keeping her from walking off the side of the mountain. To summarize a little here, the path went along the top of the mountain with approximately 10,000 foot drop on the one side. Most of the trail was washed out - hence the trail closed sign - so there was only space enough for one person to walk at a time, so it is holding your child's hand in front of you while you walk. We finally get to the point where we can see the waterfall and my mom and I agree that this is far enough for us. Aaron, my dad, Cassidy (who didn't have her glasses yet and can't see) and Whitney decide to go on. My mom and I stay with Lindsey and Grant and some stranger lady who also chickened out at the same point and waited. Well the area we were waiting in was about three feet from the cliff and Grant was not liking sitting in his Grant pack waiting. There is no way I will take him out, so I strap Grant onto my back and my mom and I head back with Lindsey. I made my poor mom hold Lindsey's hand and try to walk back through the hike. (Thanks mom for not letting my daughter die) I seriously am still having nightmares about this experience. To almost everyone else on this hike it wasn't a big deal - like the 20 year old girls who said "I did it in my flip flops" - but when it is suddenly not just your own life, but four small children, it changes your perspective - and also the scared of heights thing played into it a little.

Summer Vacations

Summer Fun

Today is the first day of summer vacation. I've decided that I could either dread the next 11 weeks, or I could make it a really fun summer. I have a two things in my favor this summer that I don't think I've had in a long time. I am not pregnant and I don't have a newborn!
Here is my plan. I am going to try and do at least one fun thing each day. I don't want to come up with something new and creative every day. So, I will have different days of each week that we do the same thing:
Example:
Monday could be library day. There are 18 different libraries in the SLCLS. We could visit a new library each week. There are some really fun libraries around here. My kids love going to the library and checking out books. It would be fun for the kids to see a map and check off each library that we visit. Plus it is free.
Tuesday could be Thanksgiving Point day. We could go to different places at Thanksgiving Point. They have the farm, the dinosaur museum, the childrens gardens, the main gardens, the free gardens. Plus they have activities all the time that we could get involved in. By the time you go to each one it would be fun to go to them again. Plus it is free with our membership.
Wednesday could be park day. There are so many neighborhood parks in this area. We could easily find a new park to go to each week. Plus it is free.
Thursday could be a lot of different things. Like this Thursday we are going to Horton Hears a Who at the dollar theatre. We could go to the zoo, temple square, gateway, Tracy Aveary, Wheeler Farm, we could have arts&crafts day etc.
Friday could be a water day. We could go to the Splash Park, we could set up our swimming pool, or sprinklers, or slip-n-slide if I buy one. I don't think I could manage going to a swimming pool with my kids. We will also do swimming lessons this summer. Most of this should be free as well.
These are just my random ideas that I have been thinking about today. I had to write them down or I would forget them. Hopefully if we do this it would help us so the kids have something to look forward to. It would help them so they aren't just watching TV or playing the Wii all day. It gets them doing stuff together. It gets us opportunities to do stuff with other people. If anyone is ever bored, give us a call and I will let you know what we are doing that day. Also I would love ideas of what we could go do.