Returning to our Happy Place: A Vacation(!)

In the midst of Life Happening in the last month, Tim and I both had the thought (separately, but at the same time) that we should take a trip to Torrey. Torrey is in southern Utah just outside of Capitol Reef National Park, and it's been a special getaway for my family and for Tim and I. We really needed some family time and the thought of being in Torrey again literally brought tears to my eyes, so we took advantage of Tim's week off between school semesters to head down.

The last time we went down to Torrey was two years ago when Georgie was only 7 months old, so this trip was way overdue. We've done very little traveling since having kids, which sometimes makes me feel like a wimp, but the price of not sleeping is usually just too high. But for Torrey, we decided it was time to brave it. It was literally this huge, freeing epiphany when I realized that we could take extra measures to make it work and we could, in fact, have a vacation. (As a side note and for posterity's sake, we put Rosie in the tiny bedroom in the pack-n-play and set up our baby gates in the loft to create a pen for Georgie so she couldn't wander during the night. We also let Georgie stay up super late so she was tired enough to sleep through both nights. Whatever works, right?)

It was rainy and cold for 2/3 of our trip, which meant no stars, and we never did get to take the girls hiking (we had a low tire that we wanted to take care of before it went flat and ended up missing our hiking window), but we got our family time and we got to be in Torrey - the only two things that really mattered. The best part, for me, was when we went to the park for lunch on our second day and had a blast flying a kite, swinging, and just playing all together. The sun came out on our last day and we had another wonderful picnic before setting out for home (and as a bonus, the girls slept for most of the car ride home). It was a great first vacation as a family of four and we will most definitely go back!

Rosie's first looks-like-a-selfie-but-wasn't

We're in Torrey! We prepped her on how exciting it would be and she reacted appropriately when we got there. Granted, she may have just been happy to get out of the car.

Dinner at Slacker's!

Tim got the girls to look at the camera by blowing raspberries, which of course, they copied. Love those lips.

Let's go fly a kite!

She insisted on going higher and higher...

Rosie asked to get back in the swing at least three times while we were there. I'd say she loved it.

It was super-duper windy. Can you tell?

The view from the back porch. I take this same photograph every single time (usually, multiple times) we're down there. I can't help it, it's so beautiful!

Awkwardly laughing selfie, but we had to document that we were there.

Just drinking some juice on the floor while Mama tried to do dishes, no biggie.

Eventually they ended up on the back porch so I could finish packing us up. They loved it for about twenty minutes and I love this picture of my littles soaking up our view.

Our one "hike" to Panorama Point - again, super duper windy!

Sometimes Rosie poses for the camera; other times, she specifically and pointedly will not look at me. This is as good as we got.

This one is getting printed. I just love everything about it - my girls, they're holding hands, the gorgeous cliffs in the back, the blue blue sky and green trees - seriously. It does not get better.

Summer catch-up

We had a crazy summer and I did a terrible job of recording it in any form. So quickly, a rundown of the last few months...

We kicked off the summer with a trip to Capitol Reef. It was Georgie's first time in Torrey and I think she liked it? It was her first trip anywhere and she didn't sleep well, so that made her super cranky. But it was still gorgeous and fun!

This is where Georige took her first crawling steps.

June was full of the usual craziness - Father's Day, Tim's birthday, our anniversary, birthdays for cousins, and this year, weddings for two of my cousins. These pics were from Addy's 3rd birthday - it's so fun to see all the little cousins together!

Tim wanted to do something fun for the 4th of July so he planned, organized, and put together a huge bbq party at our house with a swimming excursion at our community pool. It was so much fun! We had a ton of food and lots of great people. And at the end of the night, we went to an overlook and watched fireworks from up here and holy cow, people. All the fireworks were little but there were dozens going off all over the valley at the same time and it looked so cool!

Georgie loved having all her cousins to play/destroy her room with.

The only problem with the pool is that it's windy and therefore chilly sometimes. All the littles were freezing!

The rest of July was pretty normal - another birthday celebration for Tim's brother, the 24th of July, etc. Then at the end of July, we found out Tim's Grams had passed away in California after six months of battling cancer. Tim really wanted to go out for the memorial service so we packed up, rented a car, and went the next day! I took zero pictures from this trip but it was great to see all the California folks and really nice to be there for Tim's Grandpa. We had some wonderful friends in St. George who let us stay there on our way back to break up the trip and the rental car, though expensive, was soooo nice! Georgie was teething and didn't sleep at. all. during the trip, so we ended up coming home a day early. (Plus we found out I was pregnant and I wanted to be home.)

August was full of my birthday, adjusting to the idea of being pregnant, feeling sick and exhausted, a major landscaping event at the house (that gets its own post), and finally, a Herrick family trip to Bear Lake for a week. This vacation was planned back in January so it seem surreal that it was finally time to go. It was super fun to be with everyone and the lake was incredible! It was also super stressful because we blew a tire on the way there (in my mom's car) and had to drive on the spare, Georgie didn't sleep well, and I felt sick at least half of the time. So we were really really glad we went and really really glad to go home. Hopefully next year's family vacation will be a little less crazy for us.

We watched the three littles while everyone went to the Minnetonka Caves - Georgie (11 mo), Lillian (9 mo), and Cora (1 yr 2 1/2 mo). Please note that Georgie is in motion while the other girls are sitting fairly still and that will tell you a lot.

Happy to sit with Daddy!

Gorgeous gorgeous water!

Georgie hated - and I mean HATED - being on the boat and having a life jacket on. This was her face for most of the 3 1/2 hours spent on the water - suffering. Just suffering. Luckily she fell asleep for the last bit and that helped!

We coaxed a smile out of her while we stopped for lunch.

Rob made t-shirts for all the girls and we took many many pictures in an attempt to get a good one of them all together.

The one thing we didn't get to do this summer was game night. We went down to Orem twice for it and then scheduling got crazy and it just was too hard to go down with a little one who essentially spent the summer sleep training. We also didn't go to any parades or concerts, but we did go swimming a lot. On the hot hot days, Georgie and I just ran over to our community pool for 45 minutes or so and chilled in the shallow end - perfect. We got to see our families a lot, which was fantastic, and we also had a lot of lazy time. I am thoroughly ready for fall but I definitely enjoyed our busy summer.

Viva Las Vegas

This last weekend held a very quick trip to Las Vegas for me with a stopover in St. George. It was quick but enjoyable! My dad needed to drive down on Sunday to meet with his oncologist on Monday and my mom couldn't go with him (it was a somewhat spur-of-the-moment appointment). I thought, I can miss work on Monday...I'll go! So I did. It was very nice to be able to switch off driving and I had a great time just chatting with my dad the whole way there and most of the way back. Plus, I got to meet Dr. Vogelzang and see where my dad has been going for his appointments and treatments for the last long while (two years now?) Even though it was a super short trip and the driving was tiring, I'm really really glad I was able to go.

I don't know what exactly I was expecting from the treatment center but this wasn't it. I think I was picturing something smaller because my dad has gotten such great one-on-one attention from his doctor and the nurses there. When we walked in the building, I was very surprised at how big it was and how crowded. I also had a small moment of shock as I realized that every person there was there because of cancer. It was only a short moment though, and in the next moment I realized that that meant I had a kinship with them all. It was a little surreal that way.


As a side note, this trip was to get my dad set up for a new clinical trial for a radioactive pharmaceutical drug that's actually really interesting. It mimics the shape of calcium so the bones suck it in to help repair the cancer damage, then the drug emits a strong but short radioactive wave (so it doesn't do damage to the healthy bone) that both fights the cancer and helps with pain. Kinda cool, right?


The other cool thing about this trip is that I got to see firsthand my dad's extensive knowledge of the road between here and Las Vegas. He knew where all the gas stations with the best bathrooms were and knew exactly where they were, which exits, which side of the road, etc. I kept telling him he needs to write it all out - this is invaluable information! 

Valley of the Goblins

On Labor Day, we went to a barbecue with my mom's extended family and had a conversation that went something like this:

Rachel: When are we going to Goblin Valley? Jase has never been there before.
Me: Tim's never been there either! Can we come?
Mom: When can you guys go? Let's pick a weekend right now.
Everyone else: That sounds like fun! Let's all go!

Twenty seconds later, everyone had their phone/iPod/iPhone/etc. out and were checking their calendars. We went back and forth trying to decide which weekend would work best, finally deciding to just go two weekends later. We reserved the group site that night and that was that!

When I was growing up, my family went camping with my mom's extended family every year, usually over Spring Break and sometimes during the summer, too. Together we explored many of the National Parks within driving distance in Southern Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada (if I remember correctly). We went to Goblin Valley two, maybe three times and we always had so much fun. I remember exploring the cliffs behind the campground with my cousins Mike and Quinn and being completely enthralled by the actual Valley of the Goblins with their strange shapes and features. And I remember learning to play Kick the Can in one particular corner and thinking it was the best game ever.

So last weekend was our semi-impromtu (throwback to the good ol' days) camping trip to Goblin Valley. Tim and I had to leave a little early so I could make it back for our ward's Primary Presentation on Sunday, but it was super fun while we were there! It rain for the first eighteen hours we were there, but luckily the group site came with a huge pavilion so we just pitched out tents on the cement and stayed dry. Once the sun came out on Saturday, it was beautiful! We had a corner of the campgrounds to ourselves so we played kickball, dodge ball, four square, and of course, we played Kick the Can in the Valley of the Goblins! Everything was still muddy from the rain so we all got pretty dirty but that was definitely part of the fun. And then we took our flashlights to the Valley of the Goblins when it got dark and played flashlight tag (aka sardines but in the dark), which was fun but a little freaky, I'm not going to lie. It was a fun-filled, action-packed, very short vacation but I loved it.

Camping under the pavilion





Bundled up against the cold and rain

Playing kickball behind the pavilion as soon as the rain stopped


Goblin Valley!

Love these cool formations


Kick the can!


Playing four square in the dirt

It was an incredibly fun trip - I hope we get to go back soon!