Utah Family Trip 2023

About a month after our Asheville trip, we went to Utah.  We started off in St. George for Reid's family reunion.  After a week of that, we hopped in the car and drove to the southeastern side of Utah to visit my sisters--Jen and Kati.  I will remember this trip as the "See as Many National Parks as You Possibly Can Handle" trip.  I saw 5.  The rest of my family saw 4.  As a native Utahn, I can handle more National Parks than they all.

Before I dive into the national parks, here are a few tidbits from the Archibald family reunion:

Grandma's Pajamas

Reid's mom likes to sew.  She likes it enough to personally sew Christmas pajama pants for each grandchild.  She didn't get to do that this past Christmas, so one night we sang silent night and she handed them all a pair of pajamas.  My hat's off to her.  

4th of July

The cutest float that I saw and also had NOTHING to do with our country's independence from Great Britian.  Wait...Most of the floats had nothing to do with independence.

Some of the cousins out for candy at the parade.

National Park #1: Zions Canyon

I had to haul Jaydon most of the way up the canyon and then back down on my back. He wasn’t quite ready for hiking even with his new braces on. 

National Park #2: Bryce Canyon

We drove to Blanding by way of Bryce Canyon. It felt like seeing giant sand castle made by deity. Again, I ended up carrying Jaydon for awhile on my back. 

National Park #3: Mesa Verde

After we got to Blanding, we spent one day at Mesa Verde in Colorado. My kids got to hang out with cousins from Mom’s side of the 

National Park #4: Natural Bridges 

This is the only national park that I attended without my family. I went with my little sister (who is taller than me) and her oldest daughter, Erin. It was super awesome, except for when we almost went the wrong way. My niece was super awesome and seemed to know the right way all the time. 

National Park #5: The Grand Canyon 

After Blanding, we drove to Las Vegas Nevada via Arizona and stopped by the Grand Canyon for a moment or two. I made sure to buy a souvenir of that cool tower pictured below. 

Last Stop Before Home: Las Vegas

We decided to spend our last day in Las Vegas because we had to catch our flight at night and we didn’t want to be in the car and then get on a plane all night long. Here’s some of the highlights from that. (Don’t be fooled by the pictures. We all hated Las Vegas. It was 120 degrees Fahrenheit and the strip was too scary for our family. I, for one, was so relieved to be leaving and finally coming home. If I never go to Vegas again it’ll be too soon.