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Fall Break

After last year's break from tradition, we were back at Eric and Heidi's property this year for Fall Break.  The kids even had Wednesday off which is not the norm.  We were going to try to make it down on Wednesday so we had an extra night but Justin was, big surprise, working on a project-that darn trench/pipe/watering system sucked up so much of his time this fall.  But it was fine-after two nights of camping I'm usually ready to go home.  It's just a long drive for a couple of days.  But.  We did it, we had fun, the drive home took forever but it's all in the past.  The drive there felt quick and uneventful.  Ivy did get bored when her Kindle ran out of battery and had to entertain herself by taking a million selfies on my phone.

 
We left early on Thursday morning and were able to make it there by about 1:00 which left us plenty of time to play that day.  Eric took us to a repelling hike, Diana's Throne, that was kid-friendly.  It was a bit of a hike before we got to the canyoneering portion but it was a pleasant day and those canyons are pretty neat to see.  The only way to see them is on foot like we did!

Ivy and Grandpa
Evie and Ivy
Molly and Grandpa

Jake and Ivy

This is how each of my kids did with canyoneering:  Molly-loved it.  Stockton-hated every minute and cried before each and every repel.  Brynn-loved it.  Ivy-loved it.  So yeah.  Mostly we all had a really fun time.  Poor Stockton, he was not making it up.  He was terrified and you could just see him gearing up for his turn each time.  It kinda broke my heart.  The only way to get to the end was to do all the repels and he made it, but I will never, ever make him do anything like that again.  It's one thing to push your kids to conquer fears but this took it too far for him.  Eventually I hope he will go back and try something like this again but it will definitely be on his own terms.

Eli, Brynn, Molly, Stockton, Luke, Ivy
Eli, Molly, Ivy
Ivy would hook to either Justin or I and repel tandem-style

it helped an itty-bitty bit for Stockton to be hooked to one of us as well
you can see how Stockton felt as he was waiting his turn
 
Anyway, we did about 7 or 8 repels and then had to hike uphill, in sand, for quite a while.  Molly had twisted her ankle on the last repel and was hurting and it was completely dark.  It was a miserable hike back up to the truck.  I would have been totally lost had Eric not been with us to lead us in the right direction.  Good thing we have some fun pictures to remind us of what a good time we had had-well, most of us.  We all slept very well that night, although Stockton woke up with what seemed like another of his sinus infections.  We told him he must be allergic to repelling.

Camping in October, even in Southern Utah, means the nights and mornings are chilly.  We always make sure we pack our winter gear.  A morning fire and some hot chocolate are pretty great when camping.  Uncle Brett is pretty great too.

Ivy and Brett

Friday was a "divide and conquer" kind of day...although not sure what we were conquering.  Well, I know what Justin and Molly were conquering, and I'll get to that.  Heidi, Brett, and I stayed at camp with the 7 younger kids (Luke, Stockton, Jake, Brynn, Evie, Ivy, Eli).  We rode Heidi's side-by-side to Jolley Gulch with Ivy and Eli.  The other kids pretty much just played all day.  I really can't remember what they did-but they did whatever kids do when they have practically a whole forest to play in.

Eli, Ivy, Brett

 

Justin and Molly were off with Gene, Eric, and Tiana conquering much larger and longer repels than what we had done the day before.  It was a special canyon in Zion's that Eric had had to get a permit for since they only let a set amount of people in each day.  It was an all day trip and they were up and out of camp before breakfast.  They did several 100-foot repels.  Molly said it was scary and exhilarating and something she for sure would do again.  I'm so grateful she got to go do something that she wouldn't normally get the chance to do.  She rocked repelling!

Tiana, Molly, Eric, Justin
Eric, Tiana, Molly, Gene, Justin
Molly and Tiana
 
There's not much to share after that.  Another night spent around the campfire.  A morning spent packing and loading everything back up.  More playing at camp.  And then the trek home.  The drive home always seems to take forever.  We dealt with car sickness (Brynn) and a closed Provo Canyon due to a fire which added an hour to our already long drive.  We were very happy to finally make it to our "home sweet home" that night.
Ivy and Eli

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