Family Holidays 2014! (1)

Last week we went away on a family vacation! This is going to be an epic blog post, in several installments, so unless you are Nana or Grandma you are not expected to stay with me through all of this!

We left on Saturday afternoon and drove to Las Vegas, with Nicholas and Kate singing their version of Viva Las Vegas - 'Beela Las Begas' -  over and over in the car until we were driven to distraction! We went to dinner where Nicholas was super grumpy and refused to eat anything. We were pulling out of the restaurant car park to go back to our hotel when we heard the unmistakable sound of Nicholas throwing up in the car. Twice. So we were off to a flying start.

Our first stop on Sunday was Target, to buy a sick bucket, Febreeze for the car, and children's Ibuprofen. Fortunately Jeff had done a thorough job on cleaning the car the night before (and destroyed a couple of hotel towels in the process) so the car didn't smell. Thank heaven, because we were spending a lot of time in it! Nicholas didn't throw up again, which was a blessing, but he did have a high fever for the next two days and was grumpy and listless unless he was dosed up.

We stopped in St George to get petrol and take a break, and purely by chance found the best little park, right next to the St George tabernacle. The kids played and played and didn't want to leave.

 

We were losing the light and so we finally had to drag them away and get back in the car and drive up to Zion National Park. The scenery starts to get pretty spectacular on the road up to the park, and I was looking out of the window and marvelling at it all, and Jeff kept saying 'Haven't I ever brought you here? I'm sure we've been here before' and of course I had never seen it before at all! 

We were staying at a ranch on the east side of the park and so we had to drive all the way through it to get there... including through the Mt Carmel tunnel. 1.1 miles, bored into the base of the mountain. I don't do well on mountain roads at the best of times, and so by the time we got to the entrance of the tunnel I was a bag of nerves anyway, and then the tunnel gave me the screaming heebie jeebies. I did not enjoy it at all! I told myself it was the price I had to pay for spectacular views...