bryce canyon national park and beyond

Day 2 of our Utah adventure!

We got up early today and headed to the very snowy Bryce Canyon National Park, where we spent a little time wandering around and looking at hoodoos. Absolutely incredible views, but we weren't really prepared for the amount of snow, so we were a little limited in our explorations. Although Max and Henry did climb up a snowy ridge to get a better view into the canyon, because of course they did. Guess they didn't mind having wet, cold feet for a while.

After lunch we embarked on a whole new adventure: a slot canyon tour! We headed to Orderville, where we had reservations for a UTV ride to explore two slot canyons: Upper Red Cave and Lower Red Cave. Our guide was super knowledgeable, and the ride itself was bumpy and exciting. 

The slot canyons themselves were breathtaking. It's really hard to capture them in photos because they are so tall and narrow, but we did our best and tried some panoramas. We got to explore them to our hearts' content, and we got so lucky in that we were the only ones there, so it felt like we had this extraordinary landscape all to ourselves. I bet these areas are just teeming with people during the summer. It's privately owned land, but the tour company does tons of tours and has a whole fleet of UTVs, so I'm sure it's pretty rare to not have a crowd there during the season. I'm so glad we did this. What an experience!

zion national park

 Friends, my randomness knows no bounds. Months ago, I saw a photo of a hotel in an email about great road trips across the country, and I made it a goal for us to stay in that hotel. And now here were are with a long weekend, some surprisingly affordable airfare, and a whole ton of hotel points later, staying just outside Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah.

We had modest and not-so-modest goals for this trip. Mike wanted to see a roadrunner. Max and Henry wanted to hike Angels Landing with Mike. I wanted to see some cool animals and rock formations and go for a bike ride (even if it's cold). And on this first day, we made a huge dent in our list. 

That's Angels Landing on Max's side.

The thing about hiking Angels Landing is that because of overcrowding and land management needs, you have to have a permit to do it. And there are two ways to get a permit: months in advance, or the day before. We completely missed the advance permit window, so our best hope was for Mike and Max (because he's 18 now!) to enter the day-before permit lottery each day and hope they got lucky one of the days. That kind of made planning anything else impossible because we had no idea which day we would have to drop everything so they could do this hours-long hike. Happily, they ended up getting permits for our first day. 

The next issue was the snow. They had warm enough clothes, and we had one set of spikes that go on shoes to give extra traction, but at the last minute we decided that everyone really should have spikes, which we ended up finding at the park visitors center. While we were there, we spotted a roadrunner, which was nice enough to stick around and pose with Mike. After that, I dropped the intrepid explorers off at the trailhead and spent a few hours on my own exploring Springdale and the visitor center and some other areas. 

Eventually, we all met back up at the base of the trail for Angels Landing. They made it! I can't give you all the details, but they climbed 1,488 feet, clinging to chains at some points, slipping on ice at others. And when they got back down, they were tired and exhilarated. So obviously, it was time for pizza and pasta to celebrate their incredible feat. We're off to a fantastic start!

catching up

It's been a minute, huh? OK, let's catch up, quick and dirty style.

October

Mike and I went to Rhode Island and Connecticut, states 47 and 48 for me, for a weekend right before Halloween. We rode bikes all around Newport, ate a delicious apple cider donut at an old-fashioned farm in the country somewhere, and explored a coastal state park in Connecticut. We ate calamari at Iggy's Doughboys, something that has been on my list since I saw it in the 2020 Democratic National Convention (the delegate from Rhode Island was accompanied by a chef from Iggy's). Also pizza at Frank Pepe's, which Mike judged to be very tasty indeed. Henry and I also did a pumpkin train ride with my siblings and nieces and nephews. Very fun! And I went to my first tailgate at Purdue with Liam, Popi, Maria, Kelsey, Emma, and Elly. Boiler up!

November

Thanksgiving happened. Liam came home for it. Max got his senior pictures taken downtown. Bike season ended, and snow season started. Ugh.

December

I started the month with my very first girls trip! My friend Kelly and I went to Savannah for a long weekend. We stayed at an oceanfront condo on Tybee Island and had a blast. There was a holiday parade (so weird to be warm for that) and tons of holiday lights viewing. We rode bikes all over the island one day, and did a full day of exploring Savannah by trolley as well. We ate SO MUCH good food. Would 100% recommend.

Mike and I spent a weekend in Indy for my cousin Stephen's wedding, which was at an absolutely gorgeous venue downtown. I had so much fun catching up with all of my cousins.

Before we knew it, it was time for the holidays! We spent a lot of time with our favorite people. Gifts were exchanged. Liam got his wisdom teeth taken out right at the beginning of break, so we kept it pretty low-key. I did get to go to a couple of holiday light walks, though: Illumination at the Morton Arboretum with Aunt Rita, Kent and Popi, and Lights at Fernwood with the boys and our cousin James. Oh, and I turned 49 in there too.

January

Here we are in a brand-new year! Henry has joined the wrestling team. I was definitely NOT prepared for how brutal and bloodthirsty it would be. I also apparently missed the part of the parent handbook where I was supposed to spend a decade learning every single wrestling technique so I could scream them at my child from the bleachers. Oh darn. He really seems to like it, and I like that he's happy. Max has been busy making college plans (more on that soon), working, and starting his last semester of high school. Where has the time gone?? Liam has finally discovered a class that is hard enough to even give him pause: thermodynamics. He seems like he's really enjoying the challenge, though. Meanwhile, Mike and I are just waiting for this endless winter to end. We're tired of being cold. I want to be on my bike, and he wants to be in his garden. Soon, friends. So soon.