Vacation 2010 Day 9

We said good-bye and headed for Utah on Day 9. John decided his stuffed animal would enjoy listening to my iPod as well.

Our first stop of the day was Hoover Dam. From this angle, Joe couldn't really figure out why it was such a big deal.

So we crossed over the dam and saw the other side. This is not a great picture. It was pretty difficult to get a good picture from a "free" position. (It even cost to just go into the visitor's center). This is probably the last time I'll get to drive (I should say "ride") across the dam. They are in the process of completing a spectacular bridge that will go above the dam. It is for security concerns. They had some pretty serious security checkpoints on the way into the dam.

The kids next to their first palm trees.

We left our quick stop at the dam and drove through the corner of Nevada which included Las Vegas. We drove a little of the strip and the "got out of dodge". We are not real big fans of Nevada. Kind of ugly and you feel like you need to take a shower after you cross over into Utah. Oh, and FYI, southern Nevada Subways don't take Subway gift cards. Seriously.

Just outside Cedar City (our next campsite) we stopped at the north end of Zion National Park and saw Kolob Canyon. Ahhh, beautiful.

My two "mishaps" in the last two days

Mishap #1: I've been a little skittish about sickness in my house lately. I'm not usually a "oh no, a low grade fever. I must run my kid to the doctor" kind of a person. But with the amount of strep we've had and a kid that we think is carrying it, I've kind of gotten that way. So yesterday when Nathan started acting a little off and running low grade fever and a reddish throat, I jumped at the chance to make a 1:15 appt to get him checked out. I had called at noonish so I was feeling really blessed that our popular doctor had something available. (The receptionist was even shocked.) As I rushed out the door I seemed to recall that all I'd really eaten for lunch was some watermelon. So I grabbed a banana and went on my way. Once we arrived at the doctor my eyes were having difficulty adjusting to the light in the office. After we got back to the examining room it became very apparent to me that I needed to either find some sugar or a nurse. I did find some candy, but still needed the nurse. Nothing like having to have your child sit in the office chair to be examined because his mom was laying on the examining table sucking down a protein shake. I'm still not completely convinced it was a blood sugar issue (they tested it and it was 105, but that was after the stick of candy), but you can be assured the next time I go to the doctor it will be on a full stomach. It definitely goes up on my most embarrassing moment list...

Mishap #2: So I was outside this morning, barefoot, cutting fresh flowers to beautify my home. I had a couple of lilies in my hand when I stepped on something slimy. My first thought SNAKE!, of course...because we all know that snakes abound in my yard (we haven't seen one since we moved in so it made complete sense to me that this would be a snake). I screamed and then proceeded to throw my flowers in the air. I looked down and no, it wasn't a snake (shocker!). It was dog poop. And to make it worse it wasn't my dog's poop (she only goes in the backyard). It was a neighbor's dog. Somehow it is worse when it isn't your own animal. It is kind of like changing someone else's baby's diaper is much worse then changing your own kid's diaper. Sigh....fortunately I have been having an excellent morning so I'm determined that this will not damper it in anyway. Still...it was pretty gross. Oh, and in case you are wondering, it is worse to step on it barefoot. Joe was trying to convince me just last night that it would be better and easier to clean up if you were barefoot. The grossness factor totally makes up for the fact that it is "easier" to clean up.

Vacation 2010 Day 8

Day 8 of vacation (which happened to be a Sunday) started somewhat chilly. Nathan decided he needed to make his socks into leg warmers.

Our plan for the day was to see the Canyon early in the morning and then come back for some laundry, swimming and general relaxation before we started packing to leave the next day. Joe was hoping to see some elk so he commented "Kids, look out the window. This would be a good time of day for them to be out." Sara decided to tease her dad a bit with the comeback "Yeah, it is also a good time of day for cows and horses." We'd seen several cows & horses masquerading as elk. Sadly, we didn't see any elk.

All was going as planned until we got about 5 miles from the Canyon and John threw up. So we all prayed that he just got car sick, turned the car around and changed our plans for the day. We did about 4 loads of laundry, Joe cleaned out the car, we took naps, we swam, and then we headed back to the Canyon for the evening. The quote of the day came from John while were at the pool. Joe said "We will be leaving the pool around 2". John replied "So we'll be leaving at either 1:59 or 2:01?"

This little guy is the desert spiny lizard. The shuttle buses that we were riding had pictures of different animals you could see at the Grand Canyon. This lizard was one of the animals pictured so the boys were super excited to spot him. While at the Canyon we also saw many ravens. They also were pictured in the bus so everytime we saw one John would say "There is a common raven". We also saw a gopher snake at one of the overlooks.

Vacation 2010 Day 7

Our campground and "home base" for two days sat next to the Kaibab forest. In fact. our cabin looked out on the forest. As a side note, you may have heard about Kaibab recently in the news. Part of it has been on fire and it's not too far from our campground. So the timing of our trip was just about perfect. I'm wondering if the campground is even open right now. Most of the trip (when we weren't staying with friends or family) we stayed in KOA kamping kabins. They have two room ones that were perfect for us and most have air conditioning! As you will hear in future days, this Horn family doesn't do well when we get hot. We are rather spoiled I guess. The kabin also makes it easy to relax and not worry about rain or thunderstorms while camping. You will also see why this is important in future days.There was a small trail in the forest and the boys decided to go in search of jack rabbits. They were successful and we also watched one while we ate breakfast. We took it slow on this morning of vacation. We'd been packing up and heading out pretty quickly everyday until now, so we were ready for a relaxing morning to enjoy sausage and eggs in the midst of the pine smell. Mmmm, nothing like that smell combination.

The rest of the day was spent with "oooo's" and "ahhhhh's" as we saw the grand canyon. It was also filled with "hold my hand!" and "no, Ashley, no one is going to fall over the edge". Here are some pictures from that day.

Our first glimpse of the Colorado River.

We stopped at a couple of overlooks and rode the canyon shuttle up to Hermit's Rest. Then it was back to the campground for some swimming in the heated pool, some fun, and some good rest.