Reunion time! This year for the Petersen reunion we went to Bryce Canyon. Doug had never been before, I had been pretty young when my family went so we were excited to go.
We left Thursday morning at 9:15. We stopped once for lunch and two other times for gas and bathroom breaks. The boy finally fell asleep in the afternoon, they woke up with only 30 miles left to go.
We stayed at the Bryce Country Cabins. It was a duplex type cabin with Doug's sister's family on the other side. We had two queen beds, a table, mini fridge, microwave, and full bathroom. It was small, but nice to have our own space.
Some of the other cabins had more of a kitchen, with a bigger fridge, sink, and two burners. The area also had a fun playground set that the kids enjoyed a lot. I liked the wooden swings accompanied with my book.
The owners also had a farm on the premises, so Christopher loved seeing the sheep, cows, chickens, goats, and rooster. He is getting better at making animal sounds. He does a pretty good moo, baa, and chicken buck buck.
We had spaghetti that first night and Damon got to stay up and enjoy the fire and marshmallows.
Friday morning we drove into the park and went on a hike: the Queen's Garden trail. It was a warm day, but still nice. Damon and Tyler weren't in their best hiking moods and Tyler really did not want his picture taken with the family.
We made it down to the bottom with lots of encouragement to battle the scraped knees and tired legs. We went back up the same way since the loop was longer and steeper. We will remember this hike with Uncle Eric's rendition of "The Hiking Song." (Just sing the beginning of Elmo's world and replace the words with
Hiking Song.) Tyler and Christopher perked up with this comical performance - Thanks Eric. I ended up carrying Chris all the way up to the top - about half way up Doug realized he didn't have his work cell phone, so he hiked back down to the bottom to see if it had fallen out of his pocket when he sat down. Nope, it was in the truck. But he got lots of exercise. He made it back to the top about the same time we did.
At the top we rested and had a few snacks. We were going to have lunch there, but ended up going back to our cabins so we had better cooking facilities for our hot dogs.
After lunch we went to a nearby hike with a waterfall. We were prepared to play in the water and everyone had a fun time, though the bugs were a bit annoying. Chris decided to fall asleep on the way (he hadn't fallen asleep in the pack 'n play earlier). So I carried him to the water and held him for his nap. He woke up after awhile, so he got to play in the water for a bit.
We relaxed for awhile when we got back - after stopping for an ice-cream sandwich. Doug took a nap while the boys watched a movie and I followed Christopher around outside. We had taco salad for dinner, then drove back into the park to see some of the look out points. It was pretty late for my boys- Chris was pretty tired and grumpy, but it was neat to see the beautiful scenery. We got back late and put everyone to bed.
Saturday we drove to the Kodachrome State park. Evan's father had helped discover it. We pulled in and got ready to explore and have our picnic lunch, but quickly realized that the gnats were so bad that we would not enjoy ourselves. So we jumped back into our vehicles and drove to an arch nearby. It was a 30 min. trip on a dirt road. The bugs were still around, but not quite as bad. The arch was very cool and impressive. I fed Christopher in the truck in case he napped on the way back. (he didn't) We drove back to the city near the state park and had our picnic. The kids had fun playing and we enjoyed good hoagie sandwiches.
At this point our destinations divided. The Halls went home, the Larsens, Petersens, and LeFevre's went to Escalante, and we went back to our cabins and took it easy. The boys watched a movie, Doug rode his bike and explored the city of Tropic (where we were staying, population: 440), and I tried to get Christopher to nap on my lap while swinging in a swing. He didn't and I finally gave up and let him roam around while I read my book. He finally took a late nap in the cabin but only got to sleep for 45 minutes and was grumpy when we woke up. I got a chance to walk to a nearby store and found a souvenir Christmas tree ornament and discovered a ice cream parlor. So we walked back with the boys and had an ice cream treat.
I was in charge of dinner this night and prepared pulled BBQ pork sandwiches, with pasta salad, carrots, chips, and fruit cocktail. It was easy to put together so that was nice. There was lots left over, but better that than not enough.
We just chilled in the evening while some went shopping back in Bryce. The kids had fun with the loops of the glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets.
A quiet moment together, so nice.
It was a great reunion, fun to see family and catch up on things. We packed up Sunday morning and were on the road by 8:45. We went home a different way (by way of Price) and got back faster than on the way down. The driving was the only down side - hard to have young kids in the car for 6 or 7 hours. But they did pretty well and Chris only screamed for a little while :)
Thanks for the fun time Petersens and we look forward to next year.
