A Good Old Fashioned Family Christmas

Christmas came and went again in a big hurry, as it always does. Just like every year, we had a houseful of guests for a few days. It was noisy and energetic and busy and fun. Then, everyone left and our house and life seem suddenly strangely quiet and slow.

 Kye and Grandpa Don

 Pekay looked like an elf.

 Calder playing in the snow.

 Beware of Pekay; she throws a hard snowball.

 Grandma Teresa

 Grandma Ellie

 Calder liked his fire truck.

Kye's first Xmas- the most exciting thing for him was...

...eating the wrapping paper!

We love having everyone up at our place for the holidays. It's a ton of fun and great to catch up with family. The typical festivities were enjoyed: good food, gift giving, playing with newly received toys, snowball wars, hotty toddies, and pumpkin pie. We also discovered a super sweet toboggan run in the woods, all lit up by strings of Xmas lights. Tara gets the Gold for best/most death-defying sled run, although she may be traumatized by it and never sled again. 

Puffy Cuteness

Everyone knows that I'm in love with 'puffies', (a.k.a. down jackets). I think I should have one in every color, some with hoods, some without, pullovers, vests, zip-ups, etc. They are so comfortable! And fashionable too!

So it's only fair and right that Kye should have a puffy of his own. But they are expensive and little babies grow so fast that it almost doesn't make sense. Thankfully, my new friend Isabel loaned us a puffy for Kye to use this winter, since her little boy is just a bit older and bigger.

Here are some pics of puffy cuteness:

Thanksgiving!

We are grateful for our many blessings! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

And thanks to our family for a great holiday meal and time with everyone. We just showed up and everything was already done. Wow, one of the benefits of having a baby! :)

 Grandpa Dale & Kye

 Kye & Auntie Carly

Uncle Jon & Kye, Nicole in the background

Heading Home

We broke the trip home from Zion into several days, so that bambino wouldn't spend too much time in his car seat. The first leg of the journey went from Zion to the City of Rocks, near Boise, Idaho. We camped and climbed here several years ago in the summertime. Since it is such a cool place, we thought there would be some people there camping, but it was absolutely deserted. So we camped all by ourselves in this land of large granite boulders. Although we enjoyed ourselves in the desert and red rocks of the Grand Canyon and Zion, this landscape -with snow on nearby hills, dark clouds, and brisk air- felt way more appropriate and comfortable for the holiday season.

 Kye's traditional morning pic; B took one in each camping location.

B is looking a little scary with his unshaven face. :)

 The cave at one of our favorite campsite

 Ninja Kye

After a walk through the city and breakfast/dessert at the Almo Outpost (known for their excellent pies!), we hit the road and drove to McCall, Idaho. There, we pulled off and parked in a ski area/snow-park lot to camp for the night. Not exactly the most 'off-road' accommodations but not bad either, as we had the lot to ourselves and a forest service bathroom.

Thanksgiving day- we better clean up (after 2+ weeks on the road) 

before we go to the fancy turkey dinner!

Zion National Park

We left the solitude of Toroweap and drove the short distance to Zion National Park, the noise and crowdedness in sharp contrast to what we had just experienced. There were people everywhere! We typically find national parks to be comparable to zoos: a ton of people crowded into one spot to see nature's best and most amazing features, somewhat spoiled by the sheer number of people enjoying it with you. Oh well, Zion was worth it, as it is astoundingly beautiful, and you could experience a quieter version if you got onto the less popular trails.

The hiking trails in Zion are the most incredible I've ever seen in regards to engineering. We wondered who had the idea to put these trails in and how difficult it must've been; unfortunately, there was no information about the history of the trail building. Many of the trails are literally carved out of rock faces and, often, they have been 'paved' with concrete for miles upon miles. 

Kye liked the view, 

although he looks a little grumpy here actually.

"Angel's Landing" trail goes along the rock spine you see here...

some serious exposure.

The last .5 miles of "Angel's Landing" are a slab scramble,

so the chain is really important

as a fall off either side of the narrow trail would be fatal.

You can somewhat see what I mean by 'exposure'.

I am sitting in the safest spot on the trail (i.e. the middle),

and you can see how far away the valley floor is below.

Brandon & Kye- 

this part of the trail was not as scary as the end but just as impressive

in regards to trail-building.

Kye, flying amongst the fall colors.

The colors were stunning this time of year...

if only I were a better photographer.

We found fewer people on the Observation Point trail,

which was actually more beautiful than "Angel's Landing" 

but a bit longer and less hyped.

 This trail had serious exposure too, 

although you at least had the rock face to grab on one side.

Kye did an awesome job of napping for most of this hike.

Here, he enjoys the view, the reward for his efforts (napping). :)

 On the way down...

A cool canyon the trail went through.

Grand Canyon

It was hard to find the motivation to leave Bishop because we were having such fun climbing and the scenery and camping were great.  So, with much hesitation, we packed up and hit the road, leaving in the evening with the hope that Kye would sleep for the trip.  We drove through Death Valley and ended up near Las Vegas around 3am.  Somehow, in our sleep-deprived state, we mistook the Red Rocks Visitor Center for the campground and puzzled over how the gate could be closed with campers inside. [The Red Rocks campground was further down the road, we discovered the next morning.] 

We pulled into a large, vacant parking lot of a private resort and popped the top to sleep. We knew there was a good chance that we could get chased out of there but exhaustion overruled.  Sure enough, at around 5 am, we awoke to a grumpy property owner.  Thankfully, he didn't call the cops and was nice enough to point out safe, secluded camping nearby.  After a couple more hours of snoozing, we ate a disappointing breakfast, got more groceries, drove the Vegas strip, and then hit the road for the Grand Canyon.  

About halfway through the day, Kye had a pretty big meltdown which landed us in a gas station parking lot for a few hours.  Much discussion was had about bailing on the Grand and returning to Bishop, or bailing on the trip altogether.  Thankfully, when we hit the road again, Kye went to sleep.  

While Kye was sleeping, we discussed our options.  We chose the North Rim because it was a more quiet, secluded experience.  The idea was to either head to the campgrounds at the North Rim main area, or, more ambitiously, to drive the 61-mile dirt road to Toroweap, a remote park service campground.  The access road is washboardy and requires a high clearance vehicle to go over some difficult, rocky terrain, however reviews of the camping promise it to be a Grand Canyon experience unlike any other.  The park service warns that 25% of people that go in to Toroweap get one or more flat tires, many people break down or get stuck, and there is no assistance if you have problems.  They also warn that if you need a tow, it averages close to $2000! However, we had everything we needed for tire repairs, and felt we could be conservative in our driving to avoid such difficulties.   

So, it was about 6pm when we reached the turn-off for Toroweap....hmmm, still no decision.  We had no idea what the weather forecast was and worried about getting stuck out there, due to the fact that the road is prone to flash flooding.  We could go the safe route or the adventurous route.  After a little more debate, we decided to run into the nearest town to top-off on fuel and water and then go for it.  Because it was dark, we drove pretty slow, especially the last 5 miles.  Kye slept almost the entire time, and we made it safely to camp at about 11pm.  It was pretty technical terrain for the last 5 miles, especially for such a long, heavy truck, but we had no issues.  There was just one other person camping so we had our choice of campsites.  It was hard picking a spot as they were all nice.  Finally, we decided on one and set up the camper for the night.

Toroweap is an amazing place, I would say that it is hands-down the most amazing place Heather and I have ever vehicle-camped.  Being so close to the canyon, the scenery is unreal and the quiet is indescribable.  Three days here and we didn't want to leave.  We will be going back and spending more time there sometime in the future.  

The start of the difficult driving, this doesn't look too bad. 

Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures of the good stuff, as we were more focused on the driving.

Lots of rocks

Again, this picture doesn't do the road justice; 

here is a 2' rock shelf as you enter the campground

Our campsite, number 8

The whole campground is on red rock.

The view we awoke to.

Breakfast for Kye

Campsite 7

The enormity of the Grand Canyon is hard to capture in a picture; it was really big!

The area of Toroweap is considered to be the inner canyon, 

so it is one of the narrowest sections of the canyon, but still 3000' deep.

Just sitting in amazement

Kye really enjoyed it too!

Heather (little tiny pink thing on the left) sitting on a rock overhang.

Even the toilet has a view!

Heather standing with Kye on a volcanic spill formation, just before sunset.

Not much more to say, other than we will never forget this place.