Spring Break - Bryce Canyon

So the kids had a week off school for Spring Break and my mom and her friend had reserved a campsite down near Bryce Canyon in Kodachrome Basin. I have been such an Un-Fun mom recently and spending an awful lot of time on the couch (irritable uterus contractions still 3 minutes apart or less) that I decided that I really needed to do something fun with the kids. Peter wasn't able to get time off of work and I wasn't looking forward to spending multiple nights sleeping on the ground in my current enormous condition so we figured it out so that we could only spend one night there and not have pack or set up a tent. I drove down with the kids early Thursday morning and we spent the day in Bryce Canyon before driving back to the campsite that late afternoon/evening for dinner and s'mores and sleep. Then we drove around and saw some more cool sites on Friday before we drove home Friday evening after dinner. My mom brought my nephew Drew up with her from California and so we left Tyler to stay for the rest of the weekend with them and he drove home with my mom's friend and her family Tuesday morning. It worked out great! Minimal uncomfortable sleeping and maximum fun and exploring for the kids!

Here are each of the kids waiting at the Visitors Center for everyone to arrive from their campsite (about 20 minutes away). It was FREEZING in the park that day but the kids still had fun walking around and around and around a little half wall/bench in front of the visitors center.

Here are all of the kids except for Rachel's son Eli and her twin babies who just turned 1.

The boys enjoying the view and trying to identify cool shapes and things out of all the rock formations below.

Sweet Maddie soaking in the beautiful scenery

Little Nate-Man

Some of the cool scenes we saw as we hiked along the ridge trail from Sunrise Point to Sunset point. My contractions were pretty miserable that day and I endured the short hike (on a paved trail I have to add) pretty well, but it took a LOT out of me. I don't think I realize how truly miserable I have been until I try to do something... ANYTHING really! And then my body rejects all form of physical activity and forces me (through constant contractions and back labor) to not get up and attempt anything again until I forget how miserable it was the last time! And the cycle starts over! Lol! It was really fun though and since I've never been I was really glad to be able to see it. So beautiful and so amazing!

After we had our fill of the cold and the red rock formations at Bryce Canyon we drove back to our campsite and let the kids explore and play until dinner was ready. Here's Emily showing me her "seat" that she found.

Maddie showing me her special spot in the dead tree just above our kitchen area in camp

Logan exploring. It was a super cool place, a lot of dirt but a lot of cool rocks and trees to climb on and there were several natural barriers around the site so that Logan could actually wander around pretty freely and still be close enough to hear us and for us to be able to keep an eye on him.

Here's a few views of the campsite that I took the next morning. There was a dry creek that ran around two sides of the camp and there were a few trails I guess you could say so the kids could get down into it and explore around in it. Eli and Nathan made a cool "fireplace" and hideout near these big rocks and spent the entire time while we were in camp down there!

Cute Emily just being silly

Logan LOVED the way that the dirt basically dissolved in his hands as he touched it. He would pick up a big rock and the squeeze it and it would turn to powder and he thought it was great! He spent about an hour at one point just poking his finger into the side of the dry creek bed watching the dirt dissolve. It was too steep on the one side for him to climb up so the only way out was for him to climb back up our side and there was a fallen tree down the way inside of the creek so he couldn't get very far in it so he spent his entire time at camp down in the creek bed as well!

While he was down there he must have gotten hot and decided to cover himself with dirt to cool down like and elephant does. He came up for lunch with a thick layer of dirt in his hair inside his ears and all over his face! I guess it's a good thing because it had gotten pretty hot and I hadn't put any sunscreen on him yet and the dirt kept him pretty safe from the sun! Lol! All that dirt was a blessing that morning!

After lunch we drove on a dirt road for 10 miles past our campsite to see one of the worlds tallest double arches. We got to the top of a little rise about halfway there and had cell service for the first time since leaving Bryce Canyon the day before so we pulled over to enjoy the beautiful view and call Peter to talk to him for a bit since we hadn't talked to him for so long. (Logan was asleep in the car so he wasn't in these cute pictures.)

Here are the arches.

Tyler and his cousin Drew in the big picture and Clay is with them in the smaller one. They were climbing the walls of a sort of cave under the arches

Cute Madeline loving the chance to strike a pose

Emily Mae

Nathan and his buddy Eli

Cute little Logan enjoying the dirt and exploring the sage brush

Tyler and Drew.

After this we drove back to camp and made dinner and loaded the car and drove home. It seems like a super fast trip but the kids really had a ton of fun. I love that kids can have the time of their lives with nothing but a few rocks and sticks and a bunch of dirt!

I am REALLY glad that we went and we had a lot of fun, but it did completely wipe me out. I'll do a full pregnancy update later this post is long enough! So that was our spring break!