We went to St. George March 9-12 with my mom, my brother Jeff and his family, and my brother Kevin. On the way down, we drove half-way and stayed at a hotel in Salt Lake. It is about an 8 hour drive total, maybe a little less if you never stop. But we had to stop to eat and stretch and what-not.
I don't like staying in hotels with the kids. Everyone gets so riled up. Kaden is never tired because he has usually slept in the car on our way to whatever hotel we go to. And the kids won't settle down with him wide awake. I ended up pacing the hall with him for a long time before wearing out and trading with Ryan who eventually got him to fall asleep. Sadie coughed in the night and pretty much woke everyone up. Then someone (or more than one) uses the bathroom and again wakes people up. I don't worry so much about anyone else being woken up, but if Kaden wakes up in a strange crib, he usually starts crying instead of just going back to sleep. He's usually a great sleeper, but it takes him a few days to adjust to new places.
We had some fun at the pool. And Kaden actually got to swim this time! He loved it! Especially when Kylee would play with him, and when he had his red ball (the ball that Sadie found in our yard and packed in her backpack just for Kaden).
Kylee and Gabby had fun having sleep-overs. Dylan fought with Sadie in the middle of the night the first night so he kind of got kicked out. He wandered around, mostly because Sadie kept coughing at night.
We did some running there. I really wanted to run some trails, and there were trails right by our condos. So my mom and Kevin and I went exploring. It was beautiful!
We went to Pioneer Park and the kids had a blast climbing all over the red rocks.
This was the dinosaur footprint. It wasn't marked or anything, which we thought was strange. But it's pretty cool.
The kids spent a long time climbing and wanted to go back the next day, but we had other plans. Kaden was so very tired, but he was a trooper for most of it.
This little narrow area was fun. The kids were able to fit through, but none of the adults got very far. It's a little freaky to have your chest squeezed by rocks.
We went to this historic area for dinner at a Thai/Sushi place. This little building was a jailhouse that housed Butch Cassidy! Funny. Also found a phone booth.
The next day we went running again and were packing up to go mining for gypsum, when Kaden pulled a glass bowl out of the cupboard onto the tile floor and shattered it to oblivion. I was just a step away so I grabbed him before he had a chance to step on any of it, and Ryan started sweeping. But after a minute Kylee says, "um, Mom. He's..." And right then I saw a drop of blood fall, and realized it was on my clothes and dripping on the floor. I took him to the bathroom to rinse his foot in the sink. He had two cuts. One on the top of his foot and one on the side. Somehow the way the bowl shattered as it was falling, a part of it must've landed on his foot after it had shattered away. I don't know. He hadn't screamed as if the whole bowl crushed his foot. Anyway, when he curled his little toes, the wound opened quite wide. I knew it wasn't going to heal well on its own with him curling his toes all the time. I called my mom on FaceTime to get her opinion, because that's what I do. Always. Her and Tom both agreed that it should be seen. Ryan quickly looked up some instant care facilities in St. George that would be in our network while I tried to get the bleeding to settle down. No luck on the bleeding, and Kaden kept pulling away any paper towels we tried to hold to it. So I grabbed a diaper and strapped it on tight, and it worked like a charm. Then I packed him up, picked up my mom, and headed downtown.
We had been getting ready to put Kaden down for a nap when all this happened. I had decided it wasn't fair for him to have to be super tired all day so we could have fun and I wanted him to get just a little sleep while we all got ready to go. So he was tired and fell asleep on the way to InstaCare. Conveniently, my mom was able to stay in the car with him while I went to check him in and waited to be called. It took about an hour. My mom dozed off in the car as well. I had left the keys for her in case it got warm, but she is from Florida and acclimated to heat. So she was in a jacket sleeping in the warm car. When I went out to get Kaden, he had beads of sweat on his red cheeks! I was thinking the people inside would think I left him out there unattended in the hot car! Mom and her crazy warm blood. Anyway, he was fine.
The Dr said he needed stitches. It took three of us to hold him down while the Dr put in five stitches. Kaden wasn't happy. But we wrapped his foot up nicely, and they gave me more dressings to keep it wrapped. I through one of Dylan's socks over the dressing and we packed up to head out for some fun!
I made a quick stop at Walmart to buy a replacement bowl for the condo and to grab a hammer and screwdriver for mining.
It took quite awhile to get to the mining place. It's off the beaten path and it's 10-12 miles on a dirt road. But it was pretty cool once we got there!
The kids loved it. Once the sun came out, it got very glittery.
Next on our list was a cave. We found a hike to a cave in Snow Canyon State Park so we went there. We were kind of racing against the sun. It was a short hike, which is good because we were carrying Kaden, and Sadie doesn't have much stamina. But it was fun!
The caves were lava rock caves, which are treacherous holes in the ground. So not quite what we had expected. And Marcus never did get to use his night-vision goggles. But they were cool none-the-less.
It is such a pretty area! I loved the scenery!
We packed up Saturday morning, and I took the kids to this cool park I had seen to get some energy out before we hit the road for a very long drive.
We said our goodbyes and left around 10:30. Kaden fell asleep so I told the kids we weren't going to stop until he woke up. We drove to Fillmore before stopping. We got out and ate lunch, used the restroom, and got back in. Kaden was AMAZING in the car!!!! When he did wake up from his nap, he reached over to the bag that was next to him and pulled out the veggie straw bag. Then he snacked on them for awhile. He was perfectly happy. He dozed again a little bit later. We drove all the way to Ogden before stopping again. We got out at a Maverik and we threw the football and frisbee around for a little while and let Kaden walk around. Then we drove the remaining 2 1/2 hours home and had dinner. Yes, that means we stopped TWICE the whole time. TWICE! Made it home around 6:30. And I was able to cook something instead of eating out again. The last two hours Kaden was just jabbering and hanging out, snacking, etc. I was seriously blown away. I had expected some major misery on that last stretch. The other kids did great as well. They were on electronics, or sleeping. The ride was much better than I could've thought. Makes me want to do it again soon!! I loved the whole trip! (Minus the stitches part :/ )
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