Spring Break...er...um...Winter Break 2.0

 Friday we booked out of Kemmerer as soon as school got out. It was blizzarding and windy and cold. While we were gone, they got another 18 plus inches of snow. It's been a long winter so was good to get out of the snow and cold for a bit for spring break! I brought some hobby boxes for each of the kids and filled them with activities and books. Then they had something to write/draw/play on.  It worked pretty well. We drove to Grand Junction the first night to stay at the Marriott. The kids were excited there was a Book of Mormon in the hotel drawer along with the Bible. At one hotel, Sydnie kept pulling out the Bible and said "I'm going to read the scriptures." I took the three youngers to swim at the pool, which is always a highlight for them. Dave and the older two watched a movie. Then we slept to get ready for our big adventures! 

Saturday was April Fool's and General Conference Saturday!  We started things off at Canyon View Park in Grand Junction. We saw the new temple site,  are donuts for breakfast and played at the park for a long time, which was so cool. Then we headed to Colorado National Monument. This trip is made possible by Coverton, who is a 4th grader and got his national parks pass. So all of our destinations we didn't have to pay entry, yay! The views were awesome and impressive! We listened to General Conference in the car and it was awesome and inspiring! I didn't really plan much for April Fool's. But throughout the day, the kids would prank each other with random things like throwing veggies at each other in the park and saying "April Fool's". Cal sent some text messages to Grandmas Sue and Di saying "Emma is in the ER!" Grandma Di called right away to check in and got a good laugh after the initial worry rubbed off. Grandma Sue messaged as soon as she got it and Cal messaged "April Foaaals!" They kept coming up with April Fool's sceranios all day and kept on laughing  After a lunch in the Moab park, we headed to Arches National Park. We were able to go to the Visitor Center for a bit and then got to see the main attractions on our list. Windows arch, Balanced Rock, Pothole, Skyline and of course the Delicate Arch and Double Arch were all so neat. The kids were troopers and did lots of hiking. Cov got a little scared of the heights and Lucy wasn't feeling well but everyone pushed through. "This is so amazing!" They kept saying. Sydnie, Cov and I climbed up to Double Arch at sunset and got to see the most amazing view! I wish I'd brought my camera. It was a breath taking moment. Then we headed out of the park at dark and went to get some dinner at Moab Diner. Dave and I first came to some of these places with friends while we were in college before we were married. We came to this diner and it is as good now as it was then. It was a nice way to end our day! Then we checked into the hotel (the priciest one of our trip) and crashed.  

Sunday, we started things out early in Dead Horse Point. We got out and checked out the visitor center and read about the history and area. Then we walked along some look out points and trails. There were some great vistas there. We got back in the car and went to Canyonlands. That elicited some oohs and ahhs from the kids, the views were amazing. We listened to conference as we drove around and paused things for a bit to see some sites we wanted to. We ate some lunch while we finished watching the morning session of conference. We hiked to Mesa Arch, which was probably the highlight there. We also enjoy hiking Grand View Point. We listened to most of the afternoon session of Conference as we drove over to Goblin Valley. I was most excited to take the kids here because of how magical I thought it was growing up. They were impressed and loved climbing and hiking and telling each other what they thought different "goblins" looked like (baked potato, mushroom, eagle were some of their favorite). They found "slides" and a throne to sit on. Like a giant playground. It was a bit windy though the later it got and so after while they got sick of the sand in their eyes and mouths so we left. So we headed to Hanksville to stay the night where we enjoyed playing many rounds of UNO and watching some AFV on the TV. 

Monday, we woke early again and the kids got a kick out of the convenience store in the rock where we grabbed a few things. We drove to Capitol Reef, which wasn't far. We saw some amazing petroglyphs. We went on a couple hikes, our favorites were the tanks and Mormon pioneer registrar. We went on a scenic drive to see the Capitol Dome and other landmarks. We stopped at the Gifford House and got some fruit pies, as the orchards there have grown fruit for many. We could stay weeks at each place but had to pick the places and things we really wanted to do. Next, we made the drive through Escalate Grand Staircase. It was pretty but the roads got a little narrow and they were up high, it was wild. Then we were able to go to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was snowy and windy and cold (poor Californians) but we were used to that so it wasn't a huge deal. Unfortunately, visibility wasn't good and some of the roads were closed, but we got to see Sunset and Sunrise points with all of the amazing hodoos. We loved Fairyland Point, Bryce Point and Paria view.  And the visitor center, which we always drop by for a bit, was pretty awesome. Then we drove to our hotel in Kanab to spend the night, where we enjoyed some burgers and fries and soaking in the hot tub at the hotel. 

Tuesday, we made the drive out to Horseshoe bend in Arizona. We hiked out to the lookout point. It was pretty cool! We went to the Grand Escalate Staircase visitor center. Got another Jr. Ranger book and badge there. Then we had lunch at a pizza buffet which was pretty good. All of the other restaurants we wanted to try were closed on Tuesdays. Then we drove the other direction to the Pink Coral Sand dunes. It was freezing and snowing and blowing. We wanted to go to do the sledding you can do there, but the sand was so hard from the weather. So we walked around and went to see some viewpoints and checked out the visitor center and didn't make it long because it was miserable. We drove back to Kanab and drove around. Dave has been saying for a long time he's wanted to move there and the kids all liked it and said they'd be fine with that. It is a fun town. I went out shopping with Emma and Cal for the evening while Dave napped and the other kids watched a movie at the hotel. 

Wednesday was a day in Zions National Park. It didn't take long at all to get there from Kanab. It was very beautiful! We (Dave) loved the tunnel so much we went through 3 times. We started at the Visitor Center and had to take the shuttles around the park which the kids thought was fun and they had lots of neat information and great bus tour guides narrating. Our favorite hikes were the Narrows (but lots of it was closed because of the weather) and the Emerald Pools where we got to go under a neat waterfall. Cov was great at finding all the animals and spotted lizards, big horn sheep, squirrels, deer and birds. We had some snow chunks break off the rock by us and hit hard and that was pretty cool. We were able to see more probably since leaves weren't quite growing on the trees yet so that was kind of nice. We also got to go to the Lodge, and that was fun. Sydnie never had to be picked up at all during any of the hikes and did it all on her own, so that was awesome! Someday some of the kids want to go back to some of these places and do the harder hikes or bringing their own kids someday so that was sweet. We drove to St. George and visited the St. George temple visitor center, and went to the Red Hills Desert garden, and got some dinner. Then we went to our hotel in Hurricane and did some swimming at the pool and hot tub. It was a nice family suite and we really liked it! 

Thursday was Dave's birthday. Happy 41st  birthday!! Dave and I woke up early as we just don't sleep well when we are not in our own bed. The kids woke up and couldn't wait to give Dave his present. We got him a new luggage carry on suitcase and a fun tag and we all made cards for him. We went to get breakfast at the hotel and headed for Las Vegas. The kids had lots of anticipation for this as they'd never been. We got to the downtown strip area and drove down, taking a picture of the welcome sign, then got out and shopped and did some sight seeing. It was all overwhelming for the kids! All the sounds, crazy people, lights and traffic was about too much. But we enjoyed ourselves and did more of the family friendly stuff. The kids really liked Circus Circus and the arcade and circus style games. Lucy even got a stuffed animal at one. We watched some shows, juggling and acrobats and such. Then we left as there was too much smoke in the air and it was killing us all. We hit some crazy traffic and were gridlocked for a while in the late afternoon. We met up with my Uncle Dave for dinner at Wahlburgers. My Aunt Suz and Christie got stuck in a worse jam and we only got to see them for a few minutes. So that's why we have two empty seats at our table. But it was worth it to see them for a bit and get some hugs! They were off to the Golden Knights hockey game and we went to the America's Got Talent All Stars Live show. We don't do much TV but love love this one and the show was amazing. They had Covey's favorite Light Balance group, Deadly Games danger act, comedian, aerialist, rapping magician, a drumming group, the Silhouettes, a ventriloquist, and the amazing Kodi Lee (totally cried during that one). It was an amazing night and we all enjoyed it and didn't want it to end. We saw a couple more things and enjoyed seeing Vegas lit up at night but had some snuggles with Dad and all fell asleep quickly. 

Saturday we were going to do some other things in Las Vegas - see a few more things and go to Hoover Dam but the kids were ready to get out of there. They had enough fun at Sin City, haha! So we got breakfast at McDonald's (we take turns choosing where to go out to eat and Sydnie has been asking the whole time if we could go there so she was jazzed it was finally her turn! We drove all the way to Bountiful with only two stops. Our littles do pretty well in the car after all of this rural living. Although right after leaving Kemmerer, Sydnie had an all out tantrum and was throwing markers and screaming for 15 minutes so we were worried. But overall they did awesome for so much time spent in the car. 

5 states and 5 National Parks in one trip plus some state parks and monuments, plus Las Vegas. Bam! Getting some bucket list items done! And of course we got many pressed pennies to remember our trip by. We started this our first "real" trip when we went to South Dakota. It's been fun to see our pressed Penny collection grow over the years and it's a great way to deter the kids from wanting other souvenirs that are more expensive and take up more space. They all love looking at our pressed penny books. 

We had such a great time together and it was kind of hard to come home to all of the snow. We had about 18 new inches when we returned and the snow piles were as tall as Emma! But we are thankful for sweet neighbors who shoveled for us. We couldn't have gotten back without them. We made awesome memories this year and saw a wonderful corner of our little world!