Utah (Part 1)

A few months ago Duncan took a new position at Adventist Health System (AHS) as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Florida Division.  AHS is the parent company of Florida Hospital, just as an FYI.  With this new position, each June there is a special week of meetings called President's Council which takes place at a hotel in some part of North America - - a different place each year.  This year that place was Park City, Utah and of course, the family got to go along.

The meetings didn't start until Tuesday, June 28 but we decided to head out on Thursday, June 23 so that we could do some sightseeing first.  Cory Reeves suggested that we join them in Moab where there are a couple of national parks so we took them up on that offer.  Ron and Elaine had been wanting to go out to the Utah area too so they hopped on board with the plan as well.

Ron and Elaine left on Monday so they could do a few other parks first (Zion and Bryce) so that left us fending for ourselves to get to the airport.  We contemplated just parking there since it was a work expense anyway but I wasn't excited about having to get the car ourselves when we returned at 12:15 am.  We ended up parking our van at Ron and Elaine's and then taking a shuttle from there.  I had wanted to take an Uber but we were worried about not being able to get one big enough to fit all of us, hence the shuttle.  While we were driving there, it suddenly occurred to me, "Why would we not just take TWO Ubers?" It would have been like half the cost of the shuttle. Note to self for next time.

On the shuttle

We got to the airport a little early because I needed to finish my CLEAR registration. CLEAR is a program that for a fee allows you to skip the security lines at participating airports, Orlando being one of them.  Duncan had already joined because he flies a fair amount and then I could be added for an extra cost.  Orlando has some long lines sometimes so I was all for it.  We got that done pretty quickly, stopped for some food, and then proceeded to security. We had our stroller with us but the boys wanted to walk so we had all the backpacks piled on the stroller.  I had my black backpack, complete with my new Mac laptop, stuffed with a bunch of items as usual.  I was so glad I didn't have to carry it all through the airport though.

Signing up for CLEAR.  Colby is wearing his new backpack which he was very happy about and wanted to wear the whole time. I did have my backpack on at this point.

If you look closely, you can see where is his front left tooth is a little discolored.

The theme was yellow.  Obviously.

As we got to the spot to put everything on the belt, Duncan took over the job of unloading stuff while I went through the metal detector with the kids.  We retrieved all our stuff off the belt but I noticed that my backpack hadn't made it out.  Ah ha!  I knew immediately the problem.  We hadn't unzipped it and laid it flat on the belt.  It's a special bag where you don't have to actually take the laptop out but you do have to unzip it.  I razzed Duncan a bit that he forgot to do it but the truth is, I forgot to on the last flight because, well, because we have four kids and it's easy to forget to do it!  The TSA agent had the bag in her hand and was teasing us a bit about who forgot to do it. She then took the backpack and disappeared for about a minute.  She re-appeared with it in hand and says to me "I just need to put this back through again." I waited another minute and it appeared on the belt.  I grabbed it and put it in the stroller and that was that.  A small snafu but overall, we had gotten through security in less than 10 minutes.

Riding the tram to our gate.

The kids had a bit of an argument/discussion about who would would be sitting with whom but we finally settled on Brady and Aubree sitting with Duncan and Calleigh and Colby sitting with me.  I pretty much get Colby by default so it was no surprise.  The odd thing is that we had assigned seats!  We are so used to flying on Southwest where we sit wherever but this time we were on Delta.  I had originally booked us on Southwest flying in to Denver because I didn't want to fly to Salt Lake City, drive east to Moab and then back to Park City (which is just east of Salt Lake City).  My brilliant idea was to fly to Denver and then drive west to Moab.  I even booked the plane tickets. But then, a few weeks later when I went to reserve the rental car, holy cow!! It was triple the price to drop off the rental in a different city.  Yikes!  There went that plan. Thank goodness I had booked the tickets on Southwest.  I was able to cancel those ones and use the funds for our trip up for campmeeting/Nova Scotia.  I then booked tickets on Delta to Salt Lake City.  Southwest, of course, also flies to Salt Lake City, but they had no direct flights and it was more expensive.

We boarded the plane and found our seats in row 26.  We got such a kick out of that. Whenever we "fly" somewhere for school, I make airline tickets using a fake airline ticket website.  It always puts in the same row number on all the fake tickets.  Yup, row 26.  I hadn't even thought of it when I booked our real tickets.  I really hadn't even noticed the row number only that it was the only row that had six seats available all the way across.  Anyway, a funny coincidence!

Aubree scored a window seat.

We got settled and the kids got out their tablets.  I had taken some extra time to put some new games on Colby's tablet but had also brought the laptop with some DVD's for him to watch when he got worn out with the tablet.  Sure enough, the tablet lasted about ten minutes and just as we are taking off, I go to get the laptop out to turn on a DVD.  I unzipped the bag and there was NO laptop.  Arghhh!!!!

Of course, I immediately realized what had happened.  The TSA agent must have taken it out of the bag to run it back through the screening process.  Obviously that had not occurred to me at the time especially since she had held up the bag, with no laptop in her hand, to say she was running it back through.  Because the backpack was mostly in the stroller, I didn't really notice the difference in the weight of it and and it had been so heavy to start with anyway.

My immediate thoughts weren't, "Oh, no.  My new laptop is gone forever.  What a waste of money." No, it was "Oh no.  Now I have nothing to play a DVD on to entertain my 2-year old for the next 4.5 hours." Okay, let's not panic.  He can go back to playing some of the games on the Kindle, after all, I put a bunch of new ones on it.  I turned it back on only to discover they were all gone.  None of the games were there even though he had just played one. I showed it to Duncan who concurred I wasn't crazy. What in the world was going on?? Time to go to a Plan C.  I noticed in the Delta magazine that you could get free movies and TV shows streaming on your devices. Ah ha!  They may have something appropriate.  I read through all the instructions and took all the steps on his device.  As I got to the last step, I see "Not compatible with Kindle." Well shoot.  There went Plan C.  On to Plan D, my phone.  Again, I went through all the steps but the darn thing wouldn't download an app that was needed from the App store.  By now, I was seriously frustrated.  I looked over at Duncan who was peacefully watching a movie as his two seat companions did the same thing.  I will admit that a little tear of self pity came out one side of my eye.  But, I brought myself back to reality that it would all work out and it did.  In the end, Colby was entertained by some dinosaurs, coloring, eating, books, and his sisters lending him their tablets.  We survived!

When we landed and were walking to baggage, we passed a TSA agent and I asked him what they do when they find stuff left behind at security. He said they turn the stuff in to Lost and Found three times a day and they log EVERYTHING even down to a pack of cigarettes so he was confident that the laptop would be turned in.  That gave me hope. What didn't give me hope was trying to reach the Lost and Found department.  You couldn't reach a live person.  Instead, they had you fill out something online.  That deflated me a little.

Friday morning was a shower day and as I stood there, it occurred to me that my dear friend Amy was coming through the airport that very day on the exact same flight as we took the day before. Perhaps she would have time to stop and inquire?  I gave her a call and she agreed to check it out, time permitting.  Some odd hours later, I get a call from her and she says "They have it!" She was at Lost and Found.  The lady called and confirmed it all with me and she gave it to Amy who brought it to me.  What a relief!!  I will add that I was very relieved in a way that it was my new laptop because the new one has a password to log in from the very beginning whereas my old one has none of that.  People potentially could have been able to log in to my email, bank stuff, etc.  A word to the wise...

Thank you Amy!!

With that out of the way, time to just enjoy Moab.  First we had to get there.  Moab is about a four hour drive from Salt Lake City but because we already had our rental condo that night, we decided to just drive that evening and be able to wake up there in the morning.  Our car rental was supposed to be a mini van but when we got to the counter, they tried to upgrade us to a Suburban at only an extra $10 a day. I wasn't all that interested but I asked if the mini van had a DVD player.  They said only the Suburban did.  So, we went for it.  Of course, as Duncan put the car seats in, I noted there was a mini van parked right next to us and chances are it would have been ours. I peeked in the window and yup, there was a DVD player.  I felt like we had been scammed.  Nevertheless, it did work out to have an 8-seater because Ron and Elaine were then able to ride with us everywhere in Moab.  I will say this though.  After getting in and out of that backseat, I am glad I have a mini van!

We didn't end up getting to the condo until close to 1:00 am which would have been 3:00 am the old time.  The kids slept in the car and it was easy getting them inside and back to sleep.  I will say that doing it this way really worked out for us as far as adjusting to the two hour time change.  It was completely seamless.  They slept in late the next morning and then didn't go to bed the next evening until probably 9:00 pm and then woke up at a reasonable hour the next morning.  I didn't need to worry about any kid waking up at 6:00 am or some other horrible hour.  Truth be told, the kids did amazingly well the whole trip with their sleeping.  I didn't hear a single sound from Colby (or any other kid) any night except the very last one where he ended up in bed with me.  I feel like I deserve this though after all the horrible nights of traveling with Colby up until he was about two and a half.

We rented a 3-bedroom condo for Thursday - Sunday nights about 10 minutes outside of downtown Moab.  I was finally able to find a condo with a room that had two double beds so that Duncan and I could have one and the girls could have the other.  It also must have carpet because Brady slept on the floor in his sleeping bag (Colby had a pack-and-play).

Our condo is the one on the left.

Our view in the front.

Our room.

The main area downstairs.

Friday, our first day there, I did some grocery shopping while Duncan, Ron, Elaine, and the kids went on their first hike at a trail about 20 minutes away.  This would really be our first time experiencing heat above 100 degrees. Supposedly the humidity is less than in Florida but I pretty much felt how I feel at home which is very hot in the summer.  We made sure to keep ourselves well hydrated, obviously.  The hike (a few miles long) went great save for a few minor problems with Aubree who had to go potty in the middle of the hike and there was nothing around to use for cover. Duncan told her to just pee her pants because it would cool her off and she did just that and didn't seem to mind!  Another time she had to climb up a rock but then freaked out when she had to come down.  Duncan was worried this would be a bad omen for hiking the rest of the time.

Grandpa was ready to go!

Not sure if this is pre or post pee.

Grandma and Colby.  Duncan bought a new "baby" carrier to wear on his back during the hikes.  Colby did ride in it a lot but he also did enjoy walking some of the time.

Off to the pool at the condo to cool off.

The Reeveses arrived late afternoon and soon after we headed out for an early supper. I depended solely on Yelp to figure out where to eat during our trip and I think it steered me right every time.

Okay, so, yeah, it was called a brewery.  Elaine got a kick out of us eating at a place with a name like that.

Yes, that is Calleigh reading a book while waiting for her food.  A book she brought.  Knock me over with a feather.

Enjoying some gelato afterwards.

That evening when I went to go to bed, I walked into our bedroom and it was really hot. I tried to locate a thermostat upstairs but there only appeared to be one downstairs which I turned down to 67 thinking it just needed to be turned cooler for the night. But as I lay there, it didn't seem to be getting cooler.  I looked all around and that's when I realized there was no vent in the room.  What in the world??  There was a little desktop fan which I turned on myself and eventually went to sleep.  About 1:00 am, I was wide awake and it was just as hot as ever in the room.  It felt like a sauna.  I couldn't figure it out because the night before it wasn't like that.  What had happened?  I finally opened the door to let some cooler air in but I just laid there fuming and thinking about the scathing review I was going to leave on the place.  Who builds a place in the dessert and doesn't put an a/c vent in every bedroom??  Ridiculous.  I finally could stand it no more and I went downstairs and read on the couch for about an hour and a half. Eventually I was tired enough that I could stand the heat enough in the room to fall asleep but it made for a short night.  The next morning I was complaining to Elaine about how hot it was and she says "Oh, you know the vent is in the floor, right?  We had the same problem and Ron found we had covered it up." Bingo.  I felt like an idiot!!  Sure enough, I ran upstairs and we had covered the vent, which was indeed on the floor under the window, with a bunch of extra pillows and bedspreads from off the bed.  Thank goodness Ron figured it out.

Moab is near two major national parks, Canyonlands and Arches.  On Sabbath, we decided to set out for the former.  We got ourselves up pretty early so that we could try and do our hiking before it got TOO hot.  Ron had gotten a senior pass before the trip which allowed us to get into any national park for free.  Score!  I guess it was a good thing that we were all able to fit in one vehicle (otherwise, it would be $25).  We ended up doing three different hikes with the first two being pretty short (less than a half mile) and then the last one being about three miles.  Now, if you know me at all, you would know that I am NOT a hiker.  However, if I am hiking with my family and witnessing beautiful views, it isn't so bad.  And beautiful views they were indeed.  The downside is that we were also near some very steep edges which made me incredibly nervous.  I did not enjoy that part of it at all.

At the Visitor's Center.  Calleigh is wearing the backpack the loan out to you with supplies to help you get your "Junior Ranger" badge.

Our second hike which looks like a big crater.

That's close enough to that ledge...

Saw a lot of these along the hike.  Can't remember what they're called now.

At the culmination of the third hike.  I did not care to see them up there so Calleigh took this picture.

Don't I look like a professional hiker with that cooling towel around my neck?

Enjoying some shade with Noah and Jake

That backpack had these pair of binoculars in it that Brady wanted to carry the whole time.  It did cause a few fights when other siblings wanted to use them.

Like this one.

Elaine getting in some pictures.  Shortly after this, just after we had turned around to go back on our 3-mile hike, her ankle gave out while stepping down on a rock along the trail.  I saw her take a tumble which scared me especially when her face also hit the ground.  Fortunately the worst was some skinned up and bloody knees.  But it makes you wonder what they do if she had hurt herself badly enough that she couldn't walk.

We got back right in time for a late lunch and Colby's nap (and mine!). Early evening, the Z's arrived and we had a haystack supper (what else!).  Our condo didn't have a huge yard but it did have a little gully that the kids could hike up and down and play in which did entertain them quite well.

Playing in the back.

It was not without it's problems however.  On Friday night, Brady got a bunch of little prickers stuck in him that took Duncan and Grandma a good while to pull out.

The view from the other side.  That's the condo in the background.

No room at the table for Addi and Colby.

And that is the end of Part 1 of our trip.  Tune in later for more!