I know I am crazy, but I agreed to go to Bryce Canyon Winter Fest the weekend Miriam's play ended. I just had to! The stories were so great, and some of my favorite people were going....plus my friend got us such a killer deal on the hotel room. Add to that, Byron's 4th grade pass gets us into Bryce for free. Had to make it work. How could I pass that up?
So even though we missed all the activities on Saturday and most of Sunday while we were driving down, even though we had a crazy week with Little Mermaid, and even though Soren has a horrible cough, we went. We made it just in time for kids crafts, watercoloring, and cookie decorating.
Most of our friends ended up leaving early because of the huge snow storm that hit Utah the next day. Sad...but one of them gave us their room for the night so we wouldn't have to share with the kids. So thats kind of awesome.
We also ran into the park while the weather was so great. We only hiked for about a hour around the Sunset Rim and a little bit down into the hoodoos. Bryce packs a big visual punch with virtually no effort...you just drive right up to a lookout and hike around. You can hike down into the hoodoos but you can also get fantastic views and photos from up top.
That night we found a place for dinner (no small feet.....only like 3 options open and one of them had over an hour wait) and then settled in to watch the Olympics before bed.
The winds howled that night! I thought we would wake up to tons of snow...but no, we woke up to this:
a bit of snow but nothing amazing, but it was SO COLD and windy.
Miriam and I went to an awsome yoga class and then met Darin and the boys at the swimming pool. It was funny, there was this crotchety- looking older lady in the pool with us and I was super careful to give her space while we worked on and preformed our "family Olympics" inspired by the ice dancing the night before. I had thought we were irritating to her but when we got out of the pools she said "it's so nice to see a family playing together". We talked for awhile about hiking and skiing, she turned out to be very nice! Just goes to show, you can't judge a book by it's cover.
We showered and went to the Bryce Canyon Pines restaurant for lunch (the one with an hour wait the night before). It was SO good!! I can see why it's a crowd favorite. They specialize in homemade pies so we each ordered a slice to take back with us.
Back into Bryce to hit the kids geology presentation and history of Bryce Canyon movie. We realized that if we did some workbook activities that night in our hotel, the kids could be sworn in as Jr. Rangers the next day.
This is what things looked like when we got back to our hotel...below freezing temps with the wind chill. After smashing pennies at the General Store we hunkered down for the night.
We had snacks and breakfast foods in our hotel (tip from my friends who go all the time, food is expensive and there aren't many options in the winter) so we ate a snacky dinner and enjoyed our pie.
Then the kids learned about conservation, tree ring counting, animal footprint tracking, and drew the rocks of Bryce while toggled between the Olympics and the Kids Baking Challenge.
We got through that night, and surprisingly I wasn't too tired the next day. I should have been, between all the breathing sounds, Soren coughing, the heat coming on and off and my own sleep issues I remember seeing 2:30 am before I fell asleep. Note to self, spring for 2 rooms. It's worth it.
The kids were sworn in the next day as Jr. Rangers. We had planned to do the 3 mile hike to get the extra badge, but the Ranger we spoke with said it wasn't the best idea to be out that long because it was so cold and slippery. She suggested hiking around the lookouts and then driving out to Mossy Cave.
So thats what we did.
Then out to Mossy Cave. Darin stayed in the car with Soren because his cough was out of control by this point. The cold air irritated his lungs to him and he was so tired.
Then we hit the road to get Miriam back in time for a babysitting gig.
Good-bye Bryce! I hope we get back there this summer to do the Navajo Loop!
