Spring Break, Just the Three of Us

This was the first year that we only had one kiddo home for spring break. They haven't always lined up with everyone off at the same time, but we usually have a weekend overlap with everyone. But this year, with Bug in Brazil and Bean going to Hawaii with friends, it was just Peanut and us. We let him pick what he wanted to do, and so. . . here's Spring Break 2026!

We stayed home for the first couple of days. Watched General Conference and had Easter dinner on Sunday, while packing up the van and getting ready to hit the road Sunday afternoon.

And we started off by driving to Death Valley. Had a dinner stop at Red Rock Canyon State Park,

and then spent the night at the Father Crowley Overlook lot. Got a gorgeous view in the morning!

We didn't have a lot of time in Death Valley the next day, but did stop at Dant's View for a little while. Getting to see Bad Water Basin from above was cool.

And there were quite a few wildflowers in the area.

The lower elevation superbloom was long gone, but we were happy to find more than a dozen different types of flowers.

I'm always more impressed with the desert than I think I will be.

And then, we finished the drive to Peanut's pick of destinations. He wanted to hang out with our friends in southern Utah for the a few days. 

We parked our van at their house and loved having evenings hanging out with them (and access to a hot shower after our hikes!)

Peanut and E. made a fort the first night and slept in it every night.

From all reports, it got really hot inside and the last night, they finally ripped down the walls so they could sleep, haha.

On Tuesday, we went to Zion NP to hike to Observation Point. It was really crowded driving through the entrance to the park with all the other spring break travelers, but luckily this trailhead was outside of the main part of the park and while still busy, it wasn't non-stop people.

And the view at the end was fantastic. We could look down at the end of The Narrows and see the whole canyon, which we had visited just two years ago.

Our hiking crew. Just missing the three oldest kids.

Found lots more flowers along the trail

Love that spring in the desert brings out all of these blooms, before it gets too hot for everything.

And we also found dozens of these catepillar "webs". We thought they were spider webs at first, until we looked at them a little closer.

Not pictured from our time together: hot tubbing, video games, eating lots of good food, and lots of conversations that kept circling back to the state of our nation, but also included good books and future plans and memories of our kids when they were a lot younger and all lived with us.

On Wednesday, we went to Bryce Canyon for an overnight visit. Last time we were here, Daddy-o wasn't with us, and the whole place was covered in snow, which was beautiful, but made it impossible to hike, so Peanut and I were excited to come back.

I think the hoodoos are prettier in the snow, but still amazing (and way easier to hike through this way.

We did a figure 8 loop, starting with Wall Street, 

which involved some crazy switchbacks. Glad we did this on the way down.

And glad that the whole trail wasn't as packed as the beginning (although I won't lie--this area was still packed and I did a little magic eraser to get rid of the extra people in this picture, haha.)

It was so crazy seeing where trees have managed to grow in these tight spaces that don't get a lot of light. But we found life scattered through the hoodoos,

including flowers growing right out of the rocks. There's hardly any soil here.

After coming down into the lower part of the park, we crossed a wash and did a loop on the Peekaboo trail. 

This hike was mostly up and down, over and over again, but it was so cool hiking through these rocks.

We saw lots of cool formations,

and other than Peanut drinking almost all his water in the first half of the hike, things went pretty well. Luckily it wasn't hot.

It was a full afternoon, almost 6.5 miles of gorgeous scenery. We were tired and hungry by the time we finished, and ready to go find a camping spot.

And even though we had to drive a couple of miles in to find an open spot, the area in Dixie National Forest just outside of the park was a great place! We were worried at first because you can only camp in designated spaces, and every one we came across was already taken, but luckily it's a long road into the forest. This would be great for longer term camping to explore all the parts of the park with lots of space and privacy at each campsite.

The next morning, we went back in to the park to hike along the rim and see the formations from up above.

We did a little over 2 miles and got some good views.

It's just so different from anywhere else that we have hiked.

Some of the formations that we had passed the day before, like the Alligator here, were much easier to make out from above. We stared at the rocks down below for several minutes without any idea which rock was supposed to look like an alligator, but the light colored layer at the top was a lot easier to spot this way.

By mid-morning, we were ready to say goodbye. But we'll be back!

We were starving so we stopped at Henrie's Drive-in for burgers and milkshakes, which always feel welcome after a couple days of hiking.

We had one more night in St. George with our friends and then one last camping spot in the desert--Anza Borrego this time.

This was our third free camping spot on this trip (plus the free nights on our friends' street). I've been impressed with all the options--the southwest is definitely bookdock friendly.

We pulled out the UV lights to explore once it got dark and found some great stuff, like these little blossoms on one of the shrubs around our camp spot.

And all the rocks in the area.

But the highlight was finding several scorpions. We could see them from 20 feet away, they're so bright!

We enjoyed our last evening of real camping. Peanut got to pick the first half of our trip, but we had one more stop coming up. . .

A Little More Utah

Between the family lunch and wedding reception, we snuck over to my cousin's house for a couple hours to catch up and see my aunt and uncle as well.

It had been way too long !

My dad's twin sister is one of only two of his siblings left. 

We had a great visit with all of them.

After the wedding, we still had two days to spend with family up in Utah. 

We went to a park to meet up with my brother and his kids.

Played a little pickleball. It was a first for Daddy-o and I, and unfortunately, didn't end well for Daddy-o. He was trying to take it easy since his ankle is still not 100%, but must have been favoring his left leg because he ended up pulling or snapping something in his right leg. He heard a loud sound and felt instant pain. He was gobbling pretty badly for a couple days, but can still walk, even if he can't drive.

We spent New Year's Eve at Uncle Jeff's place, 

playing card games, Jackbox games, 

watching fireworks in the backyard, and eating way too many treats and snacks. It was so fun.

And then, we went over to Cam's house for New Year's Day--had brunch, and played more games, and exchanged Christmas presents.

We love all the time with cousins.

We love seeing these kids!

And even got to talk to Bug while we were there, so he got to see everyone, too.

Even though there is a pretty big age span between all of these cousins, they have so much fun together.

And we got to do another Christmas!

This cute girl loves opening gift bags! And she has the best facial expressions when she sees what's in the bag.

We got the kids some fun gifts, but maybe the most fun thing was leaving behind almost 100 tiny plastic ducks, hidden all over their house. Just before we left, they started finding them, and then, when they realized what we had done, the kids went crazy looking for them. I think they will be finding those things for a very long time, haha.

Friday morning, it was time to drive home. We got lucky with the weather--mostly blue skies with only a little rain in the beginning and end, but no snow, despite the storms on both sides of us. It's a long drive, but Bean and I did it (so glad she was with us! I hate doing that drive alone.)