Do or Do Not! There is no Try!

that's how life has felt these last two weeks. I had to squeeze in a dentist appointment for another cracked tooth. Seriously what is wrong with my teeth. I've seen our dentist almost every 6 weeks this year. UGH! Oh well it was a quick and easy fix and he didn't even have to numb me (which by the way he was impressed with because I didn't even flinch and I think he realized how much pain I must have been in earlier that year because that did not bother me).

The boys had a Lego Derby for their activity days on Wednesday, October 23rd. I kept reminding them to work on their cars but they weren't too worried. Finally that night they were scrambling to finalize things and Steve even setup a mock track to try them on before they went over to the church. Marcus managed to win his first couple of races which was exciting for him. Andrew ended up finishing above him but he had tougher competition in his races. Overall they had fun and that's all that matters.

Thursday, October 22nd. Lila had night of dance down in Cottonwood Heights. I was helping with the boys Act 1 run through so I couldn't go down with her. I was very grateful for a Mom who was willing to drive a group of girls down to the event and sad I wouldn't be there to see her dance. She had fun. Andrew also had his first volleyball game that evening. It was fun to watch and a little rough. There wasn't really much playing. It is a combined boys girls 4th and 5th grade so Andrew is on the older side and the only boy on his team. His friend Wes signed up and we were totally bummed they did not get on the same team we thought maybe because each team would only have one boy but there were teams with 3 boys. . .weird. Anyway, Andrew was one of the few to get his serves over and to return a serve back over the net. There was a lot of cheering from the whole crowd when there was more than one hit. Marcus's football coach from last year came up and said Hi to Marcus and we realized his daughter is on Andrew's team so that was a fun connection.

 

Friday, October 23rd we decided to have a family movie night and watched Coco. The boys hadn't seen it since they were really little so it was like a whole new movie for them and we all really enjoyed the evening. I bought Mexican Flavored popcorn and thought it would be appropriate for this movie but it did not taste great which reminded us of the time in Cancun when we went to the store and found a whole aisle full of microwave popcorn and they had the best microwave caramel corn. We also tried several other flavors. There was one that was really weird and nobody would eat except my Dad. Grandpa just kept eating it and then later that night he complained his stomach was hurting. 😂 We called to tell them that we were saving the rest of the popcorn for him.

 

Saturday, October 24th, Ellie was coming home to get her bike fixed by the Phelps. They offered some parts off of Porter's old bike which would be an upgrade for her. So she went for it. We picked her up from the train then she drove over to their house while we took the boys to the park and played some pickleball. We had a rough week practicing instruments so I was really trying to get Andrew motivated to practice his orchestra pieces and he was really struggling. So we sent Steve and Marcus to his basketball game without us. Andrew finally managed to finish up his practicing so we made it up to the game in time for the 2nd half. The team they played only had 2 players show up so we gave them 3 of our players and everyone played the whole time. Marcus did pretty good for his first game. It was enjoyable to watch. They don't keep score and don't really call too much because they are still learning. Our neighbor friend was reffing the game which was fun too.

 

I then took the boys to Fiiz to get a Halloween inspired drink which was their reward for getting their instruments practiced. Then we smoked pizzas including Jack-O-Lanter ones.

Ellie worked on her ballot, her first time voting and it's a big election. And then showed us her upgraded bike before we took her back to the train so she could be back in time for work.

 

Then we took off to hike Farmington Creek trail. It is the hike the boys and I did last year while Steve was in Malaysia and the fall colors were amazing. This fall has been so warm the leaves didn't quite change as drastically and we were a little later but it was still a fun hike and a nice way to spend the afternoon.

 

Marcus was hot and decided to get his hat wet in the creek to cool off. And of course the boys had to climb the rope out from the waterfall. The first time we hiked it years ago that rope was the only way down to the waterfall but now they have added a nice switchback trail.

Then Steve pulled out the new pressure sprayer he bought so he can try to get more mud off of the van, spray off the bat mess one last time, and clean out the garbage can. He was in the middle of all of that when I needed to take Andrew to his basketball game. I thought he would meet us at half time like we did with Marcus's game but he forgot Andrew's games are at a farther away school so by the time he was going to head over there was only 8 minutes left in the game and he wouldn't have made it. Then the game went into over time. 😱 Our boys had a rough night. Andrew made a couple of silly mistakes and then he had a great rebound and took a shot and made it but he never really got mentally back in the game. I talked with him about learning how to do a mental reset. It was a rough conversation one I'm sure we'll have again. Anyway, it was a physical game and they practice at a different gym which has a little different setup so I noticed several times they were called out of bounds one one side because they are used to the curtain being really close to the out of bounds. Made me wish their games were as simple as Marcus's. 😂

Sunday was a long day for me. The boys and I sang in church with our ward choir so we had to be to church early. Then we had the primary program practice where Andrew is playing his violin and both the boys have a small part so we were practicing that. Then right after church I had a meeting for Stake Women's Conference. I can't believe I'm going to say this here but they have asked me to chair this big event and I've been working on things with the Stake Relief Society Presidency. Nobody really knows I'm doing it because it is an assignment and not a calling. As I was inviting all of the committee members to the meeting and signing my name as Women's Conference Chair, I had a Wizard of Oz moment like the curtain was being pulled back and now everyone would know how unqualified I am to really be running the show. I had a little panic attack and the spirit whispered to me "Britney, you are not running the show, I am." It is true. I have an amazing cochair who is the calm to my crazy and we have felt the spirit and goosebump moments as we have discussed and planned. Steve was a real trooper helping me make copies and get refreshments ready during the primary program practice. Grateful the day went well and I think the committees had a good first meeting and I didn't even get a headache, tender mercy.

The week of Halloween arrived and I knew it would be crazy. On top of that we have a little cold going around. It started with Steve. . .Well I had a little something the weekend of camping. I thought it was allergies from the dust in the tiny home and camping fun but then when Steve go sick I thought maybe I shared it with him but then I got what he had so camping was probably allergies and the cold came a little later. Oh well, just meant I had two weeks of feeling a little under but not too bad. Thankfully Lila and Andrew weren't bothered by it too much because they both have performances this week. 

 

Well let's start with the Monday fun. Lila was getting ready for regular dance when we got a call from our carpool friends saying that evening it was a competition night blitz so they didn't need to go. She was grateful for the break as she needed to be to Weber State for a quick staging of their dance for Scrooge. I drove her up to that and while I waited I watched Sing Thriller on Netflix. It was so cute! I had to text my family because when we were little a babysitter let Jake and I watch Thriller and he had nightmares for weeks. Then Lila watch the MJ Thriller video on our way home and then we watched the Sing one with the boys. I told Lila her and the dance team should make a short Thriller video during their party on Wednesday. 

Ironically the next morning,Tuesday, October 29th at Pickleball the exercise class next door played Thriller and the lady across from me pulled out some classic MJ moves. It was hilarious. I cam home after pickleball worked out with Steve then I went to take a shower and could not get hot water. Steve went down and noticed the water heater was not lit and there was a little water on the ground. After some investigation he determined the water heater was dead. Ironically I had just mentioned a few weeks ago that we might need to get a new water heater, when we finished the basement we put in a second one but it went dead a few years ago so I thought it might just be time to hook up a second one as a backup but Steve has been interested in the hybrid ones so he wasn't for sure he wanted to do that but now that we were feeling the pressure to make a decision and buy a new one we decided the hybrid model might not be best for us as it is in the basement and it can be loud and makes it cooler because it pulls heat out of the air. . . yadyahd. Anyway Steve ran to Home Depot got a new one while Marcus was at piano lessons.  I helped him get it downstairs and he started working on hooking it up while I drove Lila to dress rehearsal at Weber. When I got back the boys loaded up and headed to the Jazz game. Marcus had Jr Jazz tickets for that night. Unfortunately there was an event an Abravanel Hall that night too making traffic and parking crazy. And the line to get free hot dogs and drink was forever long and took them a whole quarter to get and when they got to the front they only had water, Marcus really wanted a soda. The Jazz also did not play very well. But the boys still had fun. It was stressful for Steve but he was a real trooper and I told him we have to have the meh, it was ok experiences to appreciate the, yeah that was good ones.

Lila had an early morning practice Wednesday and I could hear her up at 7am so I tapped Steve and asked him if the water heater was good for Lila to take a shower and he said no he needed to run to Home Depot to grab some gas line sealant. So got up and ran to Home Depot unfortunately it wasn't ready before Lila had to leave but she made the best of it. I dropped her off with a cooler full of yogurts for the Halloween party the dance team was having during 1st period (she forgot to have them do a Thriller dance during the party 😂).

 

Lila spent every night but Halloween up at Weber's Performing Art building rehearsing for Scrooge. Monday and Tuesdays rehearsals were a little rough. And she was expressing some frustration about the piece because people weren't coming to all the rehearsals and they had to respace because it is also the weekend for the Harvest Dance at Layton High so some of the girls opted to go to the dance and not perform. So Lila was frustrated and a little upset by the time I was taking her to Wednesdays rehearsals. I don't think it helped that I had to go in to assist with play practice last minute that day because one of the other Mom's got sick so I wasn't there to make sure she was ready and eat and pump her up. And she hadn't been able to take a shower because the hot water situation. Anyway, on the way there I told her she did not need to stay and practice bows. I told her I would come get her as soon as they were done performing their piece. She texted me at 7:20 saying they were done. Earlier than I thought because they didn't get done until 9:15 the night before but she stayed for the whole thing that night. Anyway, I hopped in the car and as I was driving up she asked if a couple of other girls could get a ride home and I said sure. She was in a better mood when I picked her up. She said things went better and she was glad to be coming home early. Hallelujah, I'll take it.

 

We finally made it to Thursday, October 31st. Halloween! Marcus had started showing signs of the cold but it wasn't slowing him down. Unfortunately he woke up coughing and really not feeling great. He decided to stay home for the morning and see how he felt a little later. We had talked about getting Andrew a little baby Yoda to go his Mandalorian costume but I never ordered one. I looked at Target where I originally saw one for a decent price and it was 25% off and I could pick it up in two hours. So Marcus stayed home watching Phineas and Ferb while we took Miles and Andrew to school in their costumes. Then we went to our pickleball league which was fun. I did really well in the first three games but we were also the longest game and I was not feeling great myself so by the 4th game I was really wiped. Ironically that game I ended up playing against Steve and he played with a gal named Judy and I was playing with her husband so it was a battle of the spouses. 😂 Steve took me to Target to pickup Andrew's baby yoda. Then I came home heated up apple cider and ordered Twisted Sugar cookies to take to Lila and her friends. We had been trying to think of something fun to do for them for lunch on Halloween and she really wanted to include her friend that has a gluten allergy and Twisted Sugar had gluten free cookies so we went for it. I dropped them off to Lila and she said her friends were so excited. Then I drove by the elementary school to drop off baby yoda for Andrew and party supplies for Marcus's class. I was supposed to help with his party but with him being sick they said they could find someone else to help, I think it ended up being Miles. Lila texted that there were a lot of leftover cookies and asked if I could pick her up from school. So around 2 I headed out to see if I could catch Andrew in the costume parade and then pickup Lila and it worked out great.

When I got home I put Marcus in the shower to see if he could steam out and get ready to go trick or treating. He realized at that point that he had missed the party and was sad. I told him it wasn't a big deal. He got to do the craft I was taking in and I brought him home a huge sugar cookie from Twisted Sugar as a treat and really he was fine with it. Then I ran to pickup Andrew and Miles. Marcus sent me the following text, cute boy!

Andrew came home and watched some Phineas and Ferb with him including a Halloween episode. Thankfully I had put chili in the crockpot for dinner and bought some cornbread pillsbury roll things that ended up being really yummy on the mummy dogs with the chili. Then we got ready to go trick or treating.

 

Andrew asked if he could go with his friend Dominic, we decided it would be best if Dominic came with us. So he came over and then we headed out. Miles wanted to meet up with Julie the other itern and the host family. I suggested they start walking towards us and we would start walking towards them and gave him an address we could meet up at but I think it got lost in translation so we ended up going down a street we wouldn't normally and didn't meet up with them. By the time they sent me an address of where they were we were on the opposite end. We tried to pick up the speed but the boys really wanted to hit some of their friend's houses we were passing and I couldn't say no and the line for the roller coaster was not very long when we got to it so we decided to wait, we've never done it.

We finally met up with the host Mom and the other Chinese teachers at the house with hot cocoa. At that point the boys got hot cocoa and were done trick or treating so we walked home and Miles went on with Julie and the other crew. The boys went downstairs to watch a short Halloween movie on the home theater. Then Lila's friend Macey came over and they watched The Quiet Place. Dominic and Andrew played for a bit while Marcus got to do Minecraft on the computer. Then we took Dominic home and put everyone to bed. It was a nice evening. 🎃

Fall Break[s]

Well let's see a few days before we got to fall breaks our front yard project was completed and we are so happy with how it turned out. It is a big section to not have to mow or overhead water.

 

October 4th Steve and I had an appointment to go to the Layton temple for the last session for the night before it closed for a 3 week cleaning, but Steve had his annual well check that morning and I told him to get his flu shot. He came home having received 3 vaccinations, flu, COVID, and Tetanus booster so by evening time he was a little feverish and not feeling so great so we cancelled. Lila also had a birthday party that night so I wasn't real comfortable leaving the boys home so late in the evening.

Saturday morning, Ellie wanted to watch the first session of General Conference with her institute group before coming home for fall break. So Steve left before the first session ended to pick her up and bring her home. They also picked up pizza and we were making frozen butter beer in my new slushy machine we made a few slushies throughout the week, we love it and are so glad we got it instead of the raved about Creami machine we did not like.

The kids were excited to have Ellie home and loved sitting next to her drawing while we watched General Conference.

 

Steve took Lila driving Sunday evening and she was mad at me about something and Steve said, "she is a good angry driver because she is more decisive." 😂  They had a lovely drive and went up and around Ogden Canyon and said it was beautiful and even stopped to take a pic.

It was pretty great having Ellie home even though she was busy doing things. She had her dental cleaning and well check Monday morning, Oct 7th. She got her flu and COVID vaccines so Lila and I decided to go and get ours after she got home from school. Ellie was kind enough to go with us and pickup the groceries while we got our shots. Then we all got Fizz drinks as a reward.

Then Ellie went to mountain bike practice with the Phelps. Steve decided to take Andrew mountain biking with his new bike. We didn't get a chance to try mountain biking with it this summer. They had fun. Andrew had a little spill at the end and when they got home I asked if there were tears and he nodded shyly. Lila said, "It's ok. I cry mountain biking even if I don't fall." It's true. It may just be her way of gritting through it. 😂 Then I remembered Andrew was supposed to do his state report the next day so he hopped on the computer and worked on his presentation a bit. It got late fast so I told him to go to bed and he could finish it up in the morning. The next morning he showed it to me and it was pretty great. He had a drum roll while the curtains pulled back to reveal his state at the beginning. Then he had lots of information and at the end a fist punched onto the screen with a microphone to do a mic drop as it said, The End. His teachers told me they discussed how hops is a major crop in Washington (apparently it is in beer and brewed drinks). When he asked me about hops, I asked him if we was talking about basketball. 😂 His presentation landed on dress crazy day for red and white ribbon week. I asked him if his teacher would be ok with him dressing crazy on presentation day and he said, "She said I want to see your craziest!" 

Ellie kept herself busy working for her NUAMES Chemistry teacher on Tuesday and picking up a couple of shifts being a custodian at Layton High so she would drive over there just as Lila was leaving. Steve and Ellie went up and rode the brim trail together Thursday morning. They had a good time.

Marcus finished out his football season and we were all able to go watch the final game, even Ellie so that was fun!

 

 

 

 

I managed to sneak in a Bunco night with some friends and even wore my costume that was delivered that day. Then the boys had to try on their costumes and were sending me adorable pics. . .but I'm not sharing them yet, you'll have to wait until Halloween.

Friday I went into help Andrew's teachers with the 5th grade end of term party. They ate ice cream out of rain gutters. 

That night Andrew had basketball practice with his Hawks team and then they all wanted to hangout. They thought they were going to one friend's house but no one was home and then the coach was nice and was going to take them his home but there was something going on at his house so Andrew called me from coaches phone and asked if they could come to our house, I said sure. We made a slushy, they played badminton outside, and watched a Halloween movie. I think they had fun, the tween years are coming. 

 

Saturday, October 12th Andrew had a Davis Suzuki Activity Dia de los Muertos. They played songs with a mariachi band. It was really fun.

We then took the boys to get their COVID vaccinations. Let me tell you it was a trick finding pediatric doses with time slots we could make work. I tried to get them in at Smith's when Lila and I went but they don't do pediatric. Looked at a couple of other places when I finally called their doctor and he said he had it and could do it during the hours of 9-4 which is when they are in school. So I asked if he could put it on their charts so we could stop by the Kaysville clinic which is closer to get it done. We stopped by Friday on our way home from Andrew's orchestra practice and they told me they had just ran out but that Walgreens was doing pediatric doses. I spent 45 minutes trying to get through to Walgreens. Sure enough they do it but you need an appointment. I logged on and the only appointment times available were the next day at the Layton location. There were 3 time slots available and most websites you can schedule more than one patient at a time but not Walgreens so I made on appointment went right back around to schedule another one and there weren't any. UGH! We decided to take them and just see if they would squeeze the second boy in. The pharmacist said he wasn't for sure if he could he had to check how many vaccines they had, but thankfully he came back and said he could. We were patient because he was kind to do that and we were there for an hour. The boys did not like how he gave the shot, he was really slow but steady the Smith's pharmacist who gave them the flu shot was a little shaky so they couldn't decide which was better. 😂 We haven't done COVID vaccines since 2021 but I've heard good things from a friend saying her kids received the vaccination from their pediatrician then when they got COVID they only really got the sniffles not a cough or fever and body aches which the parents got because they hadn't got the new vaccine yet. So there you have it. We made it happen and we picked up Habit Burger for lunch as a reward.

That evening Andrew had his first Hawks basketball game of the season and they had a few people from last season leave and a few of their regulars unable to attend but Andrew really stepped it up and made 3 baskets one was pretty wild with a guy holding his one arm and then he had a few other shots that hit the rim and was fouled once and got to shoot some free throws. So proud of him, his practice paying off.

 

Then Sunday morning Steve and Lila drove Ellie back to her dorm in time for her to attend her ward. Well, they wanted to get off early but they watched the SpaceX launch which was pretty incredible. Then they took off. We had stake conference later that afternoon so it worked for us to get ready after that.

Monday, October 14th I went on an all day field trip with Andrew's class. Well I met them there because I had to be there early for training. It was the JA City field trip. The kids all had fun. I even overheard a couple of girls at lunch say, "This is so fun. I don't know why adults think it is so hard." Then they clinked their little drinks they had bought at the Maverick store front and said, "Here's to adulting." I was laughing on the inside. Andrew was the town treasurer and even guest DJ'd for a bit.

 

Lila performed at the football game for senior night on October 16th. She had fun and they honored the seniors on the team. She came home and hugged Steve over the back of the couch. It was cute.

 

Our plan for fall break finally settled with the idea of staying in Green River so we could drive an hour to Arches and an hour to Goblin valley and show Miles some of the great scenery of the south. And also give some variety to our trip since we have not stayed in Green River. Of course the boys wanted to camp since we didn't get to camp this summer. When I looked at the Green River State Park camping ground all of the campsites were booked but they had these 4 tiny homes available. They had beds for 6 people, no linens so we would still take our sleeping bags. There was a fridge, microwave, bbq grill, toilet & shower, heat&a/c and an outdoor fire ring with a picnic table so the boys decided it was close enough to count as camping. I told them we could call it glamping and Marcus even told his class that is what we were doing. Then as fall break got closer the weather started to look questionable. I was glad we had booked the tiny home because if we had been in a tent, we probably would have cancelled. It was crazy because we have had lovely weather all of October. It has been the warmest October on record. And then fall break comes and there is state wide cold snap. It snowed in Cedar City where state mountain bike races were being held so all Friday races were cancelled. Even St George dropped 25 degrees in one day.

 

Steve and I spent a great deal of time packing Wednesday night. Camping is so much work! Then we got up Thursday made breakfast and finished loading the van. As we were driving Ellie called and said she had two spokes broken on her bike and was asking what she should do. Steve told her to google bike shop near me and call around and see what options she had to get it fixed. I quickly googled while they were talking and found there is an on campus bike shop. We told her we would be in and out of cell phone service so we couldn't help much.

We drove straight to our Tiny Home in Green River. 

The boys picked the bunk room, Miles and Steve slept in the loft area, and Lila and I shared the queen bed in the other bedroom.

 

 

After we unloaded and made sandwiches, we headed into Arches National Park. It looked like the only day they wouldn't get rain and we were working the timed entrance thing to be there right before 4pm so we wouldn't need a timed ticket. We had a lovely evening in the park and explored an area I don't think I have ever been out too.

 

And we had to take Miles to the Delicate Arch View Point

That night there was a storm. It hailed, lightning and thundered and clattered all through the night. I felt bad for Steve and Miles because they were closest to the tin roof in the loft area and grateful the boys weren't up there. It was pretty wet and cold Friday morning so after breakfast we all kind of just relaxed a bit trying to make up for the lack of sleep from the night before. The boys took a couple of games into their room and played for a couple of hours. Then I made lunch and played Finding Sasquatch with them. I may have been the Finding Sasquatch champ the whole weekend. The very last game we played that weekend I had no chance of winning but no one found Sasquatch so he escaped and the winner was the person with the least Sasquatch cards which happened to be me because Andrew stole mine. It was a really funny win. Steve took the boys out to do a few frisbee golf holes and they lost a disc in the pond, no big deal, but Steve even tried to wade out to get it but there was a huge drop off after a couple of steps in so he backed out. Then we drove in to Goblin Valley where we started with the hike out to the Goblin's Lair since Marcus and I didn't get to rappel down into the last time we were there.

Then we decided to go the extra 1/4 mile out to Goblet's Lair.

The boys were really looking forward to playing hide and seek in the valley of the Goblins but Lila and I were freezing so we went back to the car after 30 minutes and they stayed out there for another 30 minutes before coming back.

 

 
Towards the end of our visit we heard from Ellie who had taken her bike past the on campus bike shop which didn't answer when she called but someone happened to be there as she was stopping by. He said he'd have to order the spokes and it would take 3 days to fix. She uses her bike everyday and really wanted it fixed faster so she found another shop, took her wheel off her bike, took it to the shop via public transportation, and they had just called to tell her the rim was bent and there was nothing they could do. They could sell her a new wheel for $250. We asked what she wanted to do and she was torn. The Phelps were at state races in Cedar City for the weekend but had given her information for a bike repair shop in Syracuse so the plan was we would grab the wheel on our way home Sunday and take it into that place.

Saturday, October 19th the sun came out and it turned out to be a really nice day. The boys went paddleboarding in the morning. Then out to finish the frisbee golf course which was really a highlight for them. Finally at the height of the afternoon sun I convinced Lila to go out on the paddleboard. The water was pretty muddy from the recent storms but they said that it does turn green from the iron we were seeing in the rocks around the parks. Also right in front of our tiny home was a tee for the golf course. While Miles, Steve and Marcus were out on the paddleboard this group teed off and one shanked one into the river. They were like, "Dude! You almost hit that paddleboarder." Miles said it wasn't that close but it was close enough to make you wonder.

 

She was coming in just as the boys were coming back from frisbee golfing. Marcus accidentally hit Steve in the head with a frisbee disc so his head was hurting and I was wondering what we could do for a bit to entertain the kids and I decided we would load up and drive out to Crystal Geyser in hopes to see it erupting but knowing we would likely see nothing. However, when we got there I was happy to see it bubbly and gushing a bit. People say that is the activity before an eruption but you never know when it will erupt. When it does to can go 150 feet in the air. We had fun exploring the area. It was quite pretty. Andrew kept trying to delay our departure in hopes of seeing a big eruption but no such luck.

We headed back to our tiny home for the much anticipated dinner over the camp fire night. It had finally been dry enough to have a fire. Marcus and I went to the gas station earlier to fill up the van and get firewood. We made one stop on our way back to grab a local melon. Green River is known for their melons and has several stands around town selling them.

Andrew declared fire roasted hot dogs his favorite. Miles had never roasted a marshmallow over a fire before and thought that was fun. The boys did not want to leave the fire. I was in packing up food and I kept giving them cardboard to burn from the boxes of food that would fit in other containers and they thought that was great fun. Finally around 8:30 they came in after putting out the fire. They changed out of their fire smelling clothes and I washed the boys hair in the sink since our shower never really had too much hot water.

 

Sunday morning we woke up ate breakfast then packed up and loaded the van. We wanted to drive through the San Rafael Swells to the Little Grand Canyon. A scenic drive some neighbor friends had told us about. When I was researching there were two different routes to get to it. Both unpaved the one from the south would take a little longer but I read there were scenic stops. So we decided to start on the south end and we drove right by and through the San Rafael Swells. Let me just say that pictures will not do this justice and it was probably the highlight of our trip. So fun to explore new territory. We even found some new camping grounds we want to try.

The whole drive was stunning. Slow on dirt roads but stunning! We were glad the roads had had a couple of days to dry out from the storm because you could see wash areas that would have been tough to cross in our van. We even stopped a couple of times at muddy spots to ponder if we should really keep going but Steve said, "the van is all wheel drive" 😂 and it did great. Our first stop was to see some petroglyphs and pictographs It was fun to learn the difference on the signs and read the interpretations of the images we were seeing.

It was chilly when we stopped. It had been raining a bit that morning and the temps in the canyon were 44 degrees.

 

Then we saw a sign for a dinosaur footprint so we pulled over and walked out to it.

There were some tunnels we noticed and Steve went out and took a picture of the sign to read to us what they were about. Then we started driving up and out on our way to The Wedge overlook. It was stunning!

 

Seriously this scenic drive was so worth the extra 4 hours in the car and the two car washes we had to do to clean the van (there is still a little mud stuck in the rear passenger wheel causing it to vibrate a little). We can't wait to go back with Ellie and camp there. There were even some mountain biking trails. Speaking of Ellie we met her at a trax stop on our way home to grab her wheel. It was fun to see her and hug her. I put her wheel in next to Lila and she had to move it to get out to hug Ellie. We visited for a bit while we waited for her trax to come back. Then home where we unloaded, showered, and started laundry.

 

Monday Oct, 21st the kids did not have school. Since they have started ending 2nd term before Christmas break, the 1st term end has lined up with fall break so the teacher prep day adds an extra day to our time off. I knew I didn't want to be gone that long but still wanted something fun to do so we decided to go to Cross E Ranch and spend the day there. Well Lila had a doc appointment that morning and Steve had to work so we let Lila invite a friend to use his ticket. We picked her up and headed out. I was planning to buy lunch there but as we were walking in they told us the grill was closed so their went my lunch plans good thing I packed snacks. We walked through the petting zoo.

 

Then went out to the maze. They had a couple of different games set up to play in the maze. Marcus wanted to do the Mega Maze but we convinced him that we should start with the medium maze because there was a clue like game we could play in it too but once we were out in the maze we realized we did not really understand how that game worked and it was pretty complicated. There were also 6 checkpoints we were supposed to get hole punches at but we had trouble finding the first one. When we found checkpoint 2 there were directions that told us we were walking the lines and not in between the lines which was throwing our navigators off. After that Andrew took the lead with Marcus helping lead us around to get all of the hole punches. Well we somehow missed checkpoint 5 and found a clue hole punch so technically not all the correct 6 punches. 😂 At one point a son and a Mom joined our group because they were lost and Andrew lead them back to a place where they knew where they were. I heard her son say Mom we should go that way and she said, "I think their 10 year-old knows what he's doing." 😂

Then we went out to enjoy more of the activities. Everyone did the archery which was a little cheesey. Then Macey and Lila played Jumbo Jenga while Marcus and Andrew did the  obstacle course.

 

 

 

 

While the boys went to do the giant slides I sent Macey and Lila to check out the snack shack which was pretty lame so we just decided to get a dozen apple cider donuts to share and then we would hit In-n-Out on our way home. The boys did the zipline several times while the girls were still out getting donuts then moved on to the jumping things. We decided it was time to go over to the rock wall which was next to the pig races we wanted to see at 2:30pm. I could not convince Macey and Lila to do the rock wall but they went and road the tractor ride while the boys did their 2nd climb. The boys were really good climbers. Marcus was holding himself on with only his hands at one point.

 

Then they all rode the tractor ride once before we headed over to find a seat for the pig races. We had a little snack while we waited for the race to start. The emcee for the race was hilarious and we really enjoyed the races. Then we hit In-n-Out. Macey and Lila hung out and played games and let Andrew join them and they even got into magic tricks which he thought was great. Marcus had his first basketball practice which is was stoked about. Now it's back to routines for a few days. Hope we can get into the swing of things again.