Bryce Canyon National Park.

Since I didn't get to run my marathon, I told Brandon my big stipulation for the trip was that we NEEDED to make a stop at a national park to cross it off our list. Utah has 5, and the two closest are Zion and Bryce Canyon. I looked it up, and last October 2 million people went to Zion and 200,000 went to Bryce Canyon. So, we didn't extend our stay at the hotel in St. George and found a yurt on Airbnb in Panguitch about 20 minutes away from Bryce Canyon. 

I looked up the weather, and it looked pretty chilly. It said high of 50's and low of 20's so we packed all the warm clothes that we have for the kids. When we drove through Panguitch it reminded me a lot of the small towns in Idaho we had for 6 years. Then we turned onto Scenic Route 12 and WOW.

Notice the weather. It was 70 in St. George, and it got steadily colder as we went on. Then, the raindrops got fluffier and fluffier. IT WAS SNOWING. Brandon and I looked at each other, we hadn't expected this! The kids had warm sweaters but nothing water repellent.

Cora was FREAKING OUT. She is obsessed with Frozen, and wanted to see snow for a long time. The only other time she's been in snow was when we went to Reno, over a year and a half ago. So we taught her to catch a snowflake on her tongue.

This is one of my new favorite pictures of her.
The visitor's center has some nice things for the kids to play with. We haven't seen too many visitor's center like these!

I was worried that the fog and snow meant we wouldn't be able to see the big amphitheater of hoodoos. That was the thing I wanted to see! So we went to Sunset Point, where the hoodoo named Thor's Hammer is located. I jumped out of the car to see the view, and it took my breath away.

Amazing!

 I am obsessed with this new family picture. It's definitely going on our Christmas card, and I think I'm going to put it on a giant canvas on our wall.

Some selfies with our kids.

 (James was saying "dees" and pointing at the canyon)

The problem with Bryce Canyon (not surprisingly) is that the path doesn't always have good railings and it is very. high. up. So we didn't walk too far, because Cora just wanted to throw snowballs!

When I threw a snowball at Brandon, it just bounced off his stomach and hit the ground. It was too wet to be a proper snowball. But James really laughed at it!
Some of our other views:
Natural Bridge

Inspiration Point

 Look at that cutie James in the backpack! He was actually shivering, but his face was so cute I had to take a picture (before we rushed him back to the car to warm up)

It is A.MAZE.ING.

The only problem with Bryce Canyon is that we didn't have service and couldn't listen to the afternoon session of General Conference. Every time I saw any service I tried to stream it (thanks Giullians for Brandon's unlimited data plan!), but it never stayed for long. We were racing back to the lodge to try and listen to the end when they announced all TWELVE temples! I MISSED IT! And that's my favorite part of the announcements in conference! And especially for Puerto Rico to get a new temple. I got a little teary eyed thinking of Bethany listening to it and being able to hear that her beloved mission was getting a temple. She's been through SO much! (As a side note, she MAY have been excited...)

And another temple in California! This one will be way further north. But as of right now we have been to all the temples in California, so this will be another one to visit.

So anyway, we're going to listen to what we missed in conference this week.

Our yurt was an experience. It was RIGHT off the 89 freeway, which is the freeway that took us to the park.

 I don't think I'll do camping any other way with little kids. Tent camping seems too stressful... but we had a wood burning stove for the heat source and James was only interested in touching that stove and climbing inside. So THAT was a disaster! We tried to keep him in the portacrib for as long as possible, but he freaked out after a while.

The biggest problem was that it rained all night and all day, so we didn't get to make a bonfire outside to roast marshmallows. But the stove kept the yurt warm. We kept James in the portacrib in between the stove and the table, far enough away from each that he couldn't touch them but close enough to feel the warmth. Since it is pitch black he wouldn't be able to see it anyway.
Cora didn't want to stay in her sleeping bag, even though it was a cute fox themed one that had sleeves. So after a few hours she ended up in between our sleeping bags so we could keep her covered with blankets.

That night I was startled to hear car doors slam shut and footsteps around the back of our yurt. Now, as I have a "little bit" of a Boy who Cried Wolf complex with hearing things at night. For whatever reason, now that I have kids I jump at any noise I hear at night. So I waited to make sure I heard was real and not just my imagination. So after about 10 minutes of listening I woke Brandon up. I mean, how many scary movies start with someone camping in the middle of nowhere?? I told Brandon to grab the wood cutting axe and head out there haha. I mean what if it was a bear, and I had just heard the car doors shut once? AHHH. He looked outside, and said it was 2 cars of people going to the yurt next to ours. I guess they just got out there late. AND it is hard to find the gate in the light, so I imagine how hard it is at night. After that I could relax and fall asleep!
At 6 AM both kids woke up, and we figured since we couldn't cook eggs over the fire we'd might as well pack up and go. So since we were out the door by 8, we made it home by 8 PM. That was with 3 stops in St. George for lunch, Las Vegas for Great Harvest, and Tehachapi for dinner. It was a fun trip, and we were glad we did it. But after 4 nights of sharing a room with the kids and having literally NO time away from them, we were ready to get back. Next "camping" trip we are getting something with at least two rooms so we can relax without having to watch a show on our phone under the blankets with headphones.

We love Bubba.

One of the big themes of this month has been hurricane watch in the Caribbean. I am grateful that we moved just before this hurricane season, because hurricane Irma was a category 5 that was supposed to hit Miami. Our friends all evacuated and were without power for weeks. Thankfully Miami missed a direct hit at the last second, but Puerto Rico was hit directly.  That sounded terrible, so when hurricane Maria was coming towards Puerto Rico I thought it would miss. But the mission president called everyone to the mission home/office to wait out the storm. That was such an inspired move, because PR is totally destroyed right now. There is no power, no water, no food, the gas is about to run out, etc. It is so scary to think of my little sister in a place like that. Once they realized how dire the situation was, they began evacuating the missionaries. It is crazy. They ate canned food for days, helped out a little bit, and couldn't go home to get the rest of their stuff because it isn't safe. 

Bethany was reassigned to the Utah Ogden mission, which is super exciting since the mission office is 2 miles away from Tommy's parents' house. I never served a mission, so I can't imagine how she is feeling about leaving your mission. When Brandon was on his mission he was evacuated from Bolivia to Peru because of the political unrest. So he's the only one in our family who can relate to Bethany through this!

But we are just so happy that she is safe. Since she's in Utah now she can be sent her clothes easily. Plus mail will get there more quickly! They hope she will be there for about 6 months until the worst of it settles down, but who knows. Bethany is going to epitomize D&C 4 "If ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work". She will be great wherever she goes!

Grandma Giullian saves the day.

After I was told I needed to stay off my feet for the rest of my pregnancy, I was worried about what I would do. I had planned to make freezer meals that weekend, and organize all the clothes for the baby. Now I couldn't even cook or clean. (That is specifically what the doctor said... I didn't mind.) It automatically put Cora's social schedule on hiatus, which made me feel bad. She went from going out 5 days a week to needing to stay at home.

However, that brought up one of the biggest reasons why we moved to Visalia. We wanted to be closer to family! And even though it is hard to not have my parents nearby for the next 2 years, I was glad that Cora got to be around some of her aunts and uncles. And it was perfect for a moment just like this. I called Karen to ask her if she could come down to help us get ready for the baby, and she came down immediately. She ended up staying for 2 weeks which was much longer than I was expecting, but it was SO needed! Here is what we did while she was here:

 False alarm 1... I wasn't worried enough to bring Brandon with me. I just dropped him off at work and went to the hospital by myself. Sure enough- nothing. But I did get some awesome ice water out of it!

 She is so proud of her new sunglasses.

 We got to talk to Bethany one more time before she flew to the DR MTC!

 We made smoothie popsicles! 

 Obviously a hit.

 Time is short with just one kid. It's also getting crowded on the couch.

 I was so bored on the couch I taught myself to French braid my hair. Something I've meant to do for a while!

 I've been crocheting stuffed jellyfish for baby gifts, and I gave one to Cora.

 I love seeing her sleep, it's always so cute.

 Karen helped us set up bookshelves, which was something we had put off for 4 months and were JUST ABOUT to do when I was taken off active duty.

 When you can't carry your kid, you get creative.

 Brandon was in charge of taking my blood pressure 2 times a day, and Cora got jealous of "Arm?"

 This was my last full week at church.

 Reading books with grandma.

 This is what I came home to from a doctor's appointment one day. We also washed all the car seats and strollers (as seen in the background).

 Another cute sleeping position.

Getting hot! (And I'm getting swollen)

 

 We drove up to see the temple one day.

 I can never be alone.

 Yes, another cute sleeping picture. It's too hot for pants.

 Post nap snuggles.

 We went to the trampoline park. It was nice to be an observer and just sit and not chase Cora around the whole hour.

 Poor Cora has had a rough time with all the changes. We had been barely holding on by telling her that she could have chocolate milk when we went to lunch at Panera. When we got to Panera, however, they said they were out of chocolate milk. As I thought about how to cancel my order and where to go to get chocolate milk as soon as possible, the cashier said she would make us some. And she did! It was the richest chocolate milk I had had in a long time. And all was right with the world again.

 Child labor. In the heels!

We went to Dickey's and they had a free soft serve machine. Cora was pleased. 

 I wasn't able to go to church, but Cora looked so darling.

 False alarm 2- I was more sure that this was the real deal, so I had Brandon call in a few hours late and took this last family picture. But alas, not meant to be.

 Resisting the sweet potato.

 Painting nails with grandma.

 Since I was so sure I was having a C-Section (since my doctor said I was) we were teaching Cora to climb into the car seat herself. This was how far we got.

 Children's museum.

 Not a false alarm, but one of my weekly doctor appointments at the hospital. But good news- the baby flipped! With 2 weeks to go before my due date, I was no longer a guaranteed C-Section.

 One of the best hacks was teaching Cora to climb into a diaper box and color in there. Kept her entertained for hours.

We were so thankful to have people who were willing to drop everything and come help us in our hour of need! It was hard to accept that we needed it, but we did.