Kiersten’s Blog

The second day of our vacation started out with a run.  I knew I needed to keep up on my running while we were gone so I ran 5 miles with Alan.  Then he had to get to work and we had to get to Idaho so we parted ways and were off.  On our way to Idaho Falls where we were staying, we stopped at my aunt and uncle’s house in Blackfoot.  That place was surreal.  I have forgotten how different Idaho is to what I’m used to now in San Diego.  I lived in Idaho for 6 years.  Granted, I didn’t see it very often without a blanket of snow, but the country is so beautiful.  The sky is so big and we could see for miles.  From my aunt and uncle’s house, we could look one way and see the storm rolling in.

Off to the other side, the sky was bright and sunny.

The fields seemed to go on forever.  They air was fresh and there were linens blowing on the lines.

We went outside to see the chickens and ducks and to feed the horses.

London (who won’t admit it, but is afraid of dogs) had her hand in the horses mouth feeding it!

The kids were so excited to be out in the country!  They’ve never experienced anything like it.  We had such a great time.  I forget how different life is out there.  And once we had soaked it all in, it tried to soak us all in and the rain started.

11 days.  7 states in as many days.  2 nights of sleeping through the night.  2 national parks.  2 family reunions.  3000+ miles of driving.  1 extra kid for a week.  754 photos.  1 tired family.

Someday soon I’ll be back with photos to post and details to relay.  But don’t get your hopes up for this week.  I’m just hoping for a decent night’s sleep and a house that might not look like it has been hit by a hurricane.

We’ve been busy. If you would like to see what we’re up to, check out Taylor’s zaps. I’m not around my computer to load pictures and write. We’re having too much fun. But Taylor posted pictures. See here: http://42a6.zapd.co/
and here: http://42wf.zapd.co/
and here: http://43e4.zapd.co/

We stayed two nights at the Grand Canyon, but really only spent part of one day there.  We woke up early (since that’s what my kids do) and drove into the park.  We stopped at a lot of look-out points along the road to the village.

It was incredible, but also very scary for me.

I think I would have enjoyed it more if my kids were older and I wasn’t so freaked out about them falling off the edge.  We stopped at one spot and started to hike down the canyon.

Ashton was in a backpack that Taylor was carrying and was throwing a fit saying, “WALK!  WALK!” the whole way, while London was whining because she wanted to ride.  Needless to say, we didn’t go far.  We found a nice big rock on the edge of a cliff and ate our sandwiches before heading back up.  At that point, we decided to drive down to Sedona (which I don’t have many pictures of because at this point my camera battery was almost dead).  It was a bit of a drive, but I’m glad we took it.  (I’m also glad my parents were nice enough to take our car with our kids so we could drive in peace.)  It was a beautiful place.  We didn’t do anything there, though, because we were getting hungry and wanted to make it back to the Grand Canyon before sunset.  We stopped in Flagstaff for dinner, then pulled into the parking lot at Grand Canyon Village just as the sun was going down.

We ran to the lookout point just after the sun had disappeared.  It was still quite spectacular, although I wish we would have made it just 5 minutes earlier.

Next up: Zion

We were lucky enough to have Taylor’s spring break fall on the same week as London’s (and my mom’s) so we could take a trip together!  When we realized that it would work out, we decided on the Grand Canyon and Zion.  We found out later that it was fee free week.  Bonus!  My aunt was kind enough to take care of my grandma for the week so we could spend the vacation with my parents.  They left on Saturday and hit a couple of other national and state parks in Utah before meeting up with us.  We left from Hemet on Tuesday and headed toward the south rim of the Grand Canyon, stopping in Lake Havasu for lunch.

We had a picnic under the London bridge.  London was quite excited to be there.

It was a nice break in the drive.

We didn’t stop long, and continued our drive toward the big hole.  We made it to the hotel before my parents and geared up for the prospect of a fun day the next day.

London had a 2-week long spring break.  By Tuesday of the first week, I thought I was going to go crazy.  But we had plans so I hoped things would get better.  The next day we went to the zoo, but that wasn’t the plan.  I told the kids they could choose a place to visit that day.  They wanted The New Children’s Museum downtown.  We dropped Taylor off at work and headed out there.  We got there a little early so we played at the park for a few minutes.  When it was time for the museum to open, we walked to the front door and noticed that they are closed on Wednesdays!  Luckily we were downtown and the zoo was close by so we made it a zoo day with friends instead.

Thursday we played at the park with friends.  Friday was packed full of cleaning, laundry, and packing.  We left that evening for Hemet.

Saturday morning, Taylor and I took off for Pasadena.  Taylor had a short rehearsal for a Sunday concert.  Then he spent the rest of the day working on his dissertation in Claremont while I shopped.  We spent the night with family in Claremont and went to church in our old ward the next morning.  After church we drove out to Pasadena for the concert.  We were a bit early so we drove around for a bit, hitting up Griffith Park and the Rose Bowl.  It was fun to drive around and see the sights of Los Angeles, which I haven’t done in a long time.  But the most fun of the whole trip was sleeping.  I didn’t get my sleep interrupted by a 2 year old!  I can’t remember the last time that happened.  It was SO nice of my in-laws to take care of my kids for those two days so Taylor and I could have a bit of sanity before a crazy week to come.  More on our crazy week in subsequent posts.  We drove back to Hemet on Sunday evening and headed out for more adventures with the kids on Tuesday.

We have had a nice (but definitely not relaxing) vacation this week with my parents.  We met them at the Grand Canyon and then went to Zion National Park from there.  We’ll be home soon and I’ll post more pictures and many, many more details.  For now, all you need to know is that I conquered Angel’s Landing yesterday and I’m still alive.  I’m proud to say that I did it with relatively little freaking out.  More on that later.

Yesterday I was freaked out by this:

Yes, folks, that is my 5-year-old standing on the edge of one of the biggest cliffs in the world.

Tomorrow I will be freaked out because I will be looking down from the top of one of these (I don’t know, maybe it’s not really one of these, but a similar one):

Our last day in Oregon we spent at the county fair.  It was a quaint little small-town fair, which was a great time for all.  We walked around a bit and saw the animals.  We watched some dancing done by a group Karli clogs with when she’s not pregnant.  They were great!  It was fun to watch.  It’s too bad Ashton didn’t want to sit still.  Right after the clogging finished, we went to and adjacent stage where they put on a wild west show in which the kids could participate.

Mylie and London both scored parts as cows.  Of course they were excited to dress up and get on the stage and perform.

Afterward, they wanted to go on rides and we promised them each that they could go on just one.  There was also a booth where they could learn safety and become a junior deputy.

In their swearing in, they promised to obey their parents and go to bed on time.  It’s too bad London doesn’t remember that part.

Later that evening, we got a babysitter and all of the adults (including my parents who were also in town) went to see Taylor perform at the student concert for the conclave he was attending.  He did a great job and it was nice for us to go spend some time with him after not seeing much of him all week.  It was also a much needed break from the four kids we had been wrestling all week.

We had a wonderful time staying and playing with Nick and Karli and Mylie and Nolan.  Before we went, I knew that London and Mylie were quite a bit alike.  I had no idea.  I was amazed by how similar these two girls really are.  I was a bit worried that their similarities would make them clash a bit with each other, but it was quite the contrary.  I think they understood each other so well, that they played really well together.  They even made up some crazy games.  One was pretty gross.  It had something to do with one of the girls pretending to eat the other, then the one who was eaten, climbs on the stomach of the other who is laying down, and covers herself with a blanket.  Then the girl who “ate” the other girl poops her out.  Gross.  They loved it.  Sure, during the week they had some blow-ups, but I think that was also good for them.  That way they could see what they look like when they throw fits, by seeing the other one do the same thing.  By the end of the week, they had even learned to talk things out!  Karli and I were so impressed.

Our week in Oregon was a great thing for us.  We loved spending time with cousins.  Nick and Karli were so great to let us stay with them.  I hope some day soon that we can return the favor!  We miss them already!

We had friends to visit while in Oregon.  On Tuesday night, Nick and Karli were gracious enough to watch our kids while we went out with an old friend of Taylor’s from college.  I never knew Darcy.  She had moved away by the time Taylor and I met.  It was a lot of fun to go out with her and hear stories from their college days together.

On Friday, we went to the park in downtown Portland where there is a water play area for kids.  There, I met up with an old friend from college.

Can you believe that adorable chunk of hers is only 9 months old???

Halsey and her husband and 9 month old son are living in Portland for the summer.  It was nice to see her and meet her adorable little family.  We had a good time catching up and letting the kids play for a bit, even if I was chasing them around the whole time.

When we finished at the park, Karli and I took our kids down the street for cupcakes at Cupcake Jones.  Ashton was almost asleep, so I didn’t get anything for him.  I got myself a big yummy cupcake, and London got two mini cupcakes.  I put her cupcakes on a plate, held onto mine, and pushed the stroller with the almost-sleeping-toddler out the door.  As soon as we got out the door, London’s vanilla cupcake was on the ground, frosting totally gone.  The whining and crying started and I headed back into the shop with my sad looking no-frosting cupcake, which they willingly traded for a new one.  I took it back outside to where we were sitting and gave it to London.  She took one little taste of the frosting and decided she didn’t like the frosting.  By this time Ashton was awake and wanting a treat, so I told her to feed the frosting to him, which they were both happy about until he decided to take a bite out of the cake instead of just the frosting.

Even so, all ended well and we headed home, tired from a long, fun day.

Nice teeth