Some trips go as planned and are tons of fun. Some are a little bit harder and good opportunities to teach my children resilience. Our spring break trip was not perfect. I was solo with the kids, luckily for the most part they stepped it up and helped out.

The first day we went down to St George and went to Canyon Park and Gunlock Falls. The older kids loved racing at the park. The waterfall was beautiful. We also dealt with wet feet, Henry wandering off, a sandwich thrown in the sand, and Evie getting carsick and puking all over herself and her blanket. We made it to our hotel room and had plenty of time to play in the pool.

The next day we went to Zions. Don’t go in the spring, it’s too busy, like Disneyland busy. We also started out by having Evie throw up right by the entrance (carsick again), finding a parking spot a half-mile away, and losing her last extra pair of pants. It did get cleaned up, and Evie spent the day in her brother’s pants. (Incidentally, the last time I was there was when Peter was a toddler and he also ran out of pants and wore one of my long-sleeve t-shirts as pants.)

We did not board the shuttle bus or do any of the popular hikes. We parked a bit down the road and went to the visitors center which was super busy. But down by the river, just a few yards away from the crowd, there was hardly anyone about it that was really pretty. We drove through the tunnel, enjoyed some viewpoints, as well as parked by the side of the road, and explored some rocks and sand near the east entrance. There were actually some pretty things to do that no one was doing because they weren’t listed in a tour guide.

The rest of spring break was pretty chill. We went out to Thanksgiving Point Gardens, had friends over, flyed kites, and played a lot on the Switch.

I’m doing a YouTube channel with my sister, and here are a couple of videos I made.

I remember hiking this trail with my husband rather early on in our relationship. I thought it would be fun to take our kids too. There’s an arch in the same area, but we didn’t make it there because there was a lot of snow. It’s easy to get so eager to go hiking once the weather warms up, but trails are often still covered in snow. We were prepared. Although Henry broke his arm the day before. (He and his brother were fighting on the tramp and he was pushed and fell on his outstretched arm. Resulting in a broken elbow.) He wasn’t allowed to do anything harder than walking. The end of the trail does get rather tricky with some climbing. Henry and Peter turned back early, and we finished with the other kids.

Beautiful place, although I think most of the kids preferred the pizza restaurant we visited before the hike.

We also enjoyed our annual leprechaun hunt for St. Patrick’s Day. ChatGPT was very helpful in making that, along with a leprechaun trap kit from the local party supply store. I kind of like the easy holidays like St Patrick’s Day.

There are also some pictures of normal life: library visits, and trampoline time. Evie and Zack adore the trampoline. We did add an enclosure after this picture, and hopefully, we only have one broken bone on it…

We went on one large snowshoeing adventure with our younger kids at Tibble Fork. It was a pretty easy hike along the road for the first part, and a lot more interesting after we got off the road. We followed the backside of a stream until we came to the lake where we started from.

If the lake was frozen over (it usually is), we could have had a 2-minute walk to the car. But it was a sloshy mess, so we turned around, crossed the stream (good thing winter boots are generally waterproof, and when that fails, wear wool socks), and were just in time to crash an engagement. (We literally ran through to get out of their way ASAP.)

We also enjoyed Highland Hollows one frosty morning, and another windy morning at Utah Lake. No pictures from that one, but we did see a bald eagle.

Our family has been to theme parks, but not Disneyland. I’ve been a few times, Peter went when he was one, but it was everyone else’s first time.

It was rainy. We went to the beach by ourselves the first day we drove in.

And the next day we experienced Disneyland as uncrowded as it probably ever gets. We also were very wet for most of the day. We basically did all the rides, the longest line was probably 20 minutes. And went back at dinner time to dry off. The hairdryer in our hotel got a lot of uses, drying out everyone’s shoes.

Zack was scared of the first few rides, like Pinocchio and Snow White. That didn’t bode well for the rest of the trip. He did struggle with being scared, and usually, we just pushed him on the ride anyway. He always enjoyed himself afterward. By the very end of the trip, he was able to go on a rollercoaster without freaking out.

My older kids definitely liked the rollercoasters the most. I think they rode Incredicoaster 5 times. None of us loved the more traditional dark rides: our worst experience was getting stuck multiple times on The Little Mermaid. Genie + helped us avoid lines, except for the Radiator Springs Racers line that was posted at 90 min and ended up being 2.5 hours. Luckily, we sent the three older boys on the single rider line, and they were done in under an hour and proceeded to explore the park without their parents. Luckily they did not lose each other, but they did try once. That was the only long line we stood in, and we did ride nearly every single ride in both parks.

The final day was the only day that we really had good weather, and that also meant bigger crowds. But we’d already done most everything, so it was a pretty chill day. My favorite ride was Guardians of the Galaxy. I also liked things like being on the Millennium Falcon, and going out to Tom Sawyer Island. The atmosphere is cool. And I liked doing everything, even watching Great Moments with Abraham Lincoln. But ultimately it felt a lot fake, was expensive, and wasn’t my favorite vacation. Worth doing, but only occasionally.

You might notice in the pictures that we didn’t bring Evie. She stayed back with Grandma and Grandpa and ended up with the stomach flu for most of our trip.

Winter can get rather slow. It feels a lot like this:

We have been a bit busy. The older kids are all playing basketball. Many of us have gotten various illnesses. We did make some snowmen and snow forts, and we’ve gone sledding when there’s been snow. We’ve been working on a few house projects: updating the banister and adding a hall. And often not doing all that much, and that’s fine. Sometimes the highlight of the week is trying out cookies from Costco, and nothing is wrong with that.

We spent the last day of Christmas break on an adventure. I let the kids choose from several options, and they went with Goblin Valley. Because it’s a giant playground. We played games, explored, and climbed, and had a great time. Henry is the one going off and exploring the most, Zack wants his picture taken, Curtis is the hide-and-seek winner, and Peter likes games better than taking in the scenery.

Sometimes I worry I’m forcing the kids to go on too many adventures that they don’t care much about. Because I have in the past. I was all ready to not go on this ambitious day trip, but when asked about it, the kids did want to go. They do sometimes like to do things that aren’t video games.

We did one more sledding trip to Tibble Fork too.

The boys have been asking for a Nintendo Switch for years. We already have an Xbox and a good gaming computer so I didn’t see the point. But when it gets so important to them that it is the top thing on their Christmas list for all four of them…they got a Switch this year for Christmas.

Christmas break has been playing a lot of video games. I make them go outside, do chores, and read books to earn more time. We also drove for an hour and a half to the closest sledding hill, due to crazy warm weather. We even played outside at the park, and there were lots of people there which is strange for December. We’ve had a lot of time with cousins, going to parties and having sleepovers. We made it to a jump park, Stars basketball game, Thanksgiving Point, and a short hike. Still a couple of days left, and the kids are learning that if you actually help Mom with chores, she’s a lot happier.

Miles Traveled 9,466

Miles Hiked 35

We enjoyed family reunions and trips to Vernal, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone, and a couple’s trip to Grand Staircase Escalante. There was lots of fun spent swimming, hiking, fishing, going to parks, and fun locations like the jump park and Lagoon.

People living at our Address 11

We finished renovation on our home, and this year we did our kitchen and a lot of landscaping. Grandma and Grandpa live in the apartment downstairs, the seven of us live upstairs, and Great-Grandpa and my sister fill the rest of the house. We love living so close to family most of the time.

Extra Activities 25

Peter did basketball, track, flag football, and more basketball. He also takes piano lessons and does percussion and went to EFY. Curtis was the rookie of the year for his tackle football team and did basketball, knowledge bowl, coding club, Space Camp, Clear Creek, and soccer. Henry did some swimming, theater, garden club, and choir. Zack loves preschool, did some swimming lessons, and itty-bitty soccer. Evie loves cats and Grandpa. Liz played volleyball, took two sections of her exam for landscape architecture, and had several residential design clients. Joe was busy at work but did manage to finish a woodshop project he started two years ago.