Colorado / Utah Trip - Day Two

The second day of our trip did not start off well.  The boys woke up early around 4:45 am (they were still on Central Time).  Right as Carter got up, he said he thought he was going to throw up.  He didn't really get anything out and I figured he was just tired from our long day the day before.  We'd also increased our elevation a lot and I thought that might be getting to him.  So I proceeded to pack up our stuff and get everything organized for our planned day of hiking in slot canyons.

Unfortunately, Carter got worse.  He had the stomach bug.  Poor kid threw up at least eight times and it was coming out the other end too.  He was sitting on the potty and puking in a trash can in a Comfort Inn - yuck!  He'd go back to bed at times and we went through a few pairs of underwear when he wasn't able to make it back to the bathroom.  We had to check-out by 11 am and still had to drive to Moab (2 hours away!) where we were renting a condo for the next four nights.

We tried once close to 9:30 am to get Carter to the car but made it to the parking lot where he threw up again.  We let him rest some more and then close to 11 am we just decided we had to do it.  Luckily Carter finally fell asleep after about 15 minutes in the car and when he woke up an hour later, felt okay (not amazing though).

We decided to stop at some dinosaur tracks that were just off the highway to at least give the other kids a break.  Carter decided he could hike the 100 yards to the tracks.

At Copper Ridge there are tracks of a brontosaurus and four three-toed dinosaurs.

Brontosaurus footprints ...

Four-toed dinosaur tracks ...

After a few minutes, Carter started feeling not so great so we headed back to the car.

At the car, everyone but Carter ate the lunch I had packed that we were planning on eating on our hike. Carter ate a few bites of some food and was able to keep it down (yay!).  As we were driving back to the highway, we passed a bunch of prairie dogs.  There is one standing up in the center of the picture facing more around their hole.  There were fun to watch for a few minutes.

Carter was doing okay and we couldn't check into our condo until 4 pm so we decided to head into the Island in the Sky area of Canyonlands National Park.  Carter and I hung out in the shade on the large porch of the Visitor's Center and worked on his Junior Ranger booklet while Brian, Rylan, and Gray went across the street to the overlook of Shafer Canyon.

It was really nice in the shade of the Visitor's Center so we hung out there for awhile and had some snacks.  We didn't want to push Carter too much and really wanted him to be better as soon as possible.

We decided to try another short hike that we thought Carter could handle.  The hike to Mesa Arch and back to the trailhead is a 0.5 mile loop.  I let Carter have my camera to take pictures as we walked and that kept him distracted from thinking about not feeling well.  I think he took about a hundred pictures.

Checking out the arch ...

Looking down into the canyon from a safer vantage point next to the arch :)

A couple more pictures through the arch ...

And Gray and I were there too!  I tried to remember to have Brian take some pictures of us every day!

Before leaving the park, we checked out one more overlook - Green River Overlook.  Gray had fallen asleep in the car so I stayed with him while Brian took the big boys to check it out.

We then headed to our condo that we stayed in for four nights.  The condo was great - it had three bedrooms, felt very clean, and had lots of room for us to spread out.  The condo was just outside of downtown Moab and we felt like it was a perfect for us.

We made the easy dinner we had picked up at the grocery store the night before and Carter was able to start really eating (though it was still light for him).  After dinner I took Gray to the grocery store with me to buy food for the next few days and Brian took the big boys to the pool in our neighborhood for a bit.  By the time I got back, it was time for bed.

We lost a day of hiking but we were so glad Carter recovered relatively quickly.  And no one else got sick.  Yay!!!

Colorado / Utah Trip - Day One

Last week we took a trip to Colorado and Utah to hike for the week.  Brian and I did a similar trip in 2007 and have been wanting to get back out there.  We kept putting off a trip like this because the boys are young and we weren't sure how to do it with them.  But we decided we didn't want to put it off any longer and it was never going to be a perfect time.  Plus we decided to do no camping which made everything a lot easier.

The basic itinerary we planned out was to fly into Denver on Saturday, drive to Grand Junction, Colorado that day, and spend the night there in a hotel.  The next day (Sunday) we would hike in the San Rafael Swell area of Utah and then drive to Moab.  We had a condo in Moab and we spent 4 nights there.  We planned to hike around Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.  Then on Thursday we would drive back to Denver and spend two nights in a hotel there.  On Friday we planned to hike in Boulder and on Saturday we planned to do something in the city before flying out that night.

The last time I flew was when Carter was about 15 months old and we tagged along to San Francisco when Brian had a conference out there.  This time around we were flying Southwest and had a 7, 5, and 19 month old and I was a little nervous but it went fantastic!  We were super early to the airport and Gray was loving just watching everything going on outside the terminal window.

We had a direct flight to Denver and left Nashville at 8:55 am.  As soon as we started to taxi for takeoff, Gray passed out sitting on my lap.  He took a nice hour long nap.  Carter and Rylan were excited to be flying and about the bag of entertainment I packed them that they were easily entertained for the 2 1/2 hour flight.  Carter and Gray sat with me (unfortunately there were no extra seats and Gray couldn't get his own seat) and Rylan sat with Brian in the row behind us.

Getting ready to takeoff ...

And passed out ...

Once Gray woke up, he enjoyed sitting between Carter and me.

Suzy gave me the idea of bringing along window clings.  I had a bunch I bought a few years ago on clearance and they were a big hit.

Carter enjoyed taking pictures out the window for awhile ...

Getting close to Denver ...

Once we arrived in Denver, we got all our luggage (which was a lot to carry) and made it to the Enterprise lot.  We had reserved a standard SUV but got upgraded to a Toyota Forerunner which ended up being a blessing.  The boys really liked having a little more room (though nothing is ever enough and there was still plenty of fighting).  We brought along Gray's carseat and bought Bubble Bums for the big boys (which are inflatable boosters that are super easy to pack).  After a quick lunch at Chick-fil-A, we started headed west toward Utah on I-70.  It didn't take long for everyone to pass out!

The drive along I-70 is gorgeous and there was still a ton of snow.

Vail is about midway between Denver and Grand Junction (where we were spending the first night), so after two hours on the road, we took a break to fit in a little hike.  Vail may be one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been.  To get to the trailhead, we had to drive through East Vail and the homes there were amazing.  They were nestled in beautiful tall trees, next to creeks raging with snow melt, and with views of snow capped mountains.

Vail has an elevation of over 8,000 feet (Nashville is about 500 feet) and most of the hikes go straight up the mountains 2,000 to 3,000 feet (at least) to beautiful lakes.  We didn't want to push it too much since we weren't acclimated to the elevation so we chose to hike for awhile up Gore Creek Trail with no intention of reaching the lake.

The trail was all uphill but it wasn't terribly steep.

We got to hike through groves of beautiful Aspen trees.

This is the only complete family photo we got our entire trip!

These photos definitely don't do this area justice.  One of the coolest parts of this hike was coming across beaver dams and seeing the stumps of all the trees the beavers had crewed down.

We hiked about 2 miles and gained about 500 ft in elevation before we decided to turn around when we reached the edge of Gore Creek.  The boys flew back down to the trailhead since it was almost all downhill on the way back.

After we got back to the trailhead, we loaded back in the car and stopped at a gas station in Vail for Gatorades (we hadn't had a chance to fill up all our water bottles yet and only had water left over from lunch at Chick-fil-A!).  Soon we through Glenwood Canyon which is absolutely amazing.  There are so many places I'd love to spend more time in!!!

The kids were starving so we stopped for a super easy dinner at Burger King (they really wanted cheeseburgers and there were very few options).  We finally made it to Grand Junction around 7 pm (mountain time), did a quick stop at a grocery store for lunch and dinner for the next day since we were planning on hiking all day before driving to Moab, and then made it to our not-so-amazing hotel (a Comfort Inn - it was the only think with good reviews that wasn't over $200/night).  We unpacked only the necessities for the night and then went to bed.  The big boys had to share a bed for the first time.  Luckily they put up with one another!

Nolensville Hurricanes

This year the big boys are doing swim team with the Nolensville Rec Center (last year Carter swam with the Franklin Rec Center).  We decided to change teams since our friends were changing teams to further away from us and I felt like our coach was just okay.  The Nolensville Rec Center is only 10 minutes away from our house, is only a year old so it's nice and clean, and I had heard has an amazing coach whose been coaching at the Maryland Farms YMCA and Brentwood Academy for a long time.  Plus our friends that live in Nolensville decided to join the team with us.

It has taken a little convincing but Rylan decided he'd try swim team - yay!  Practice started last week and unfortunately we missed it all week since we were out of town.  But the boys got to practice with the team for the first time yesterday before their meet today.

Our coach is extremely encouraging and wants any child who wants to be on swim team to have the opportunity to do it.  He doesn't expect the 6 and under age group to be able to swim across the pool on their own yet.  He has tons of the teenage swimmers in the pool with the younger kids during practice as assistant coaches.  It's great for the kids to have so much individual attention.

Carter is swimming with the 7-8 year old group and Rylan is with the 6 and under group.  This team is practicing both age groups at the same time (9:15 to 10 am) each morning.  This is another plus for switching teams!

Tuesday was the first meet.  It was a home meet against the Brentwood YMCA.  And the boys did great!  Carter swam freestyle, backstroke, freestyle relay, and medley relay (which Carter did backstroke for).  Rylan swam freestyle and freestyle relay.

I took videos of their individual races.

Rylan swimming freestyle (split into 2 clips):

I'm so impressed with Rylan.  I wasn't sure he could even swim the length of the pool (he's never done it before) and he did it for both races he was in (some other kids had to have a coach help them).

Rylan's time for the freestyle was 51.75 seconds and he got 6th place.

Unfortunately one of the other kids in his freestyle relay messed up and started swimming at the wrong time (there were two kids swimming at one another) so his team technically DQ'd.  However, the team still got a 2nd place ribbon.

Carter swimming freestyle (he was trying SO HARD to swim fast - he's one of the youngest of a 2 year age span so it's not going to be easy this season):

Carter swimming backstroke:

Carter did great!  He has only had one practice and his times were similar to his best times from last year.  Here are Carter's times and places:

Freestyle: 33.75 seconds, 7th place

Backstroke: 31.23 seconds, 2nd place

Freestyle Relay: 2:30.89, 2nd place

Medley Relay: 3:05.18, 2nd place

So far we really love our team this year!  We even found out we know a few other kids on the team.

Branson was on Rylan's soccer team when I used to coach the team:

And Max was in Rylan's class in preschool and played on his baseball team before:

After the meet Tuesday (we were there from 6:45 am to 11:45 am), we joined Jen and her kids at the neighborhood pool for a couple of hours.  Evie is 8 and Mae and Reed are 5.  These kiddos are going to be spending a lot of time together this summer and so far are becoming even better friends!!!

Gray really loved the pool.  There is a huge shallow pool that is a million times nicer than any regular baby pool.  Only time he didn't like it is when he'd start walking too fast and fall down and not know how to get his face out of the water.

He was a pro at lounging though!!!

Splash Pad

We met Missy and Suzy with some of their kids at the Port Royal splash pad yesterday.  Unfortunately the splash pad was having issues and kept cutting off but Gray really loved it when it was working!

We're Home!

We got back around 1:30 am this morning from a wonderful trip to Colorado and Utah.  I'll post lots of pictures soon!

Swim Lessons Update

Carter and Rylan finished their week of swim lessons today.  They both made a lot of progress.  Rylan is now able to swim both freestyle and backstroke.  He's not super fast but he looks comfortable.  Carter can swim those two strokes as well as breaststroke now!  Gareth is always yelling out as Carter swims by doing breaststroke that it's legal :)

At the end of the day, each kid does two lengths of the pool to show off their progress.  They are tired by then and their strokes look a little sloppy but you can tell a huge difference from the beginning of the week!  We are excited for this year's summer swim team season!!!

Rylan doing freestyle:

Rylan doing backstroke:

Carter doing freestyle:

Carter doing breaststroke:

Basketball Practice

Carter is playing basketball this summer with the Flight League.  The league is put together by Brentwood Academy's boys varsity coach.  Coaches put together their own teams and find their own practice space and then play games at BA.  Suzy and I were talking about basketball camps this summer and how they overlapped with swim team so we decided to build a team for Flight who has games at night.  I ended up finding boys to play with Carter and Chase, volunteering Brian to coach (THANK YOU BRIAN!!!), and finding practice space at Franklin Fieldhouse.

The additional team members are Drew (who was played baseball with Carter since he started at Grassland with Chase and Carson), Fisher (who lives in our neighborhood, I coached on Carter's U4 soccer team, played on Carter's first basketball team, and now plays baseball with us), Cade (our neighbor who has played on our soccer and basketball teams before), and Carson (a playdate friend who has also played on Carter's soccer team off and on since I coached him).

Last night the boys had their first practice.  Chase came home with us from swim lessons and we also needed to give Fisher a ride so we took everyone to Sonic on the way to practice.

We were missing Cade (he's in Colorado this week) so Rylan subbed in so we had an even six at practice.  The rules are similar to what Carter has played with EWA and they play 3v3.

The boys did well for their first practice.  From what I've heard, Flight is very competitive.  It'll be interesting to see how these kids do!!!

Art Camp

Carter and Rylan went to an art camp at Ms. Julie's house on Monday and Tuesday.  The boys painted with her once before back in October.

The camp was from 9 am to 1 pm and cost $80 each.  One of Carter's classmates and two of Rylan's did the class as well as their friend Carson.  The kids had a lot of fun painting, playing on the trampoline, and playing games like kick the can and capture the flag.

On Monday, the kids did a few drawings and these beautiful bird nests on old barn wood ...

On Tuesday, the kids did these two canvases ...

by Rylan

by Carter

Swim Lessons

Carter and Rylan started their week of swim lessons with Mr. Gareth today.  This is our third year doing swim lessons with him.  We are again doing them with Suzy and Jen's families out in La Vergne.

The boys already made a lot of progress in one day.  Mr. Gareth seems to be focusing a lot more on swimming form this time around instead of starting with survival (the kids only did a couple of minutes of jumping in the pool and turning to float on their backs).

Here are videos of the boys swimming at the end of the lesson today.  I hope to share videos at the end of the week in which they are even better!!!

Sweet Brothers

Watching cartoons together this morning after waking up ...