Bryce The Bear

 After last years' vacation to Yellowstone and the Tetons last year, we made it a goal to take at least one family vacation a year. Since last year was the furthest north Heidi Anne has ever been in her life, this time we wanted to go south.

We got a head-start by leaving home at 3:00am. Heidi Anne fell back asleep as soon as we got her in the car, I made it 30 minutes. Good thing Char stayed awake. Anyways, we woke up in the middle of Utah just in time to see the views. 

Before we knew it we were in Red Canyon stretching our legs and stopping into a little visitor center. Apparently, they don't get many visitors at that station, one minute I am readying a display, I turn around to Heidi Anne cuddling a little teddy bear. I went to go ask her to put it away when Char told me, "The Ranger gave it to her." What can I say, I guess it shows our tax dollars at work.

With Heidi Anne, Dolly, and now Bryce safely in tow  we continued our journey. We went to Southern Utah, which has many beautiful but strenuousness trails, passes, arches, ect. Lucky for me there are many scenic byways and trails in Bryce Canyon. With many other tourists willing to take pictures of us in exchange for taking their photos. ( To think I always thought international exchanges were harder to understand).

As we walked along the trail getting beautiful shots of the canyon rims and valleys, Heidi Anne convinced Daddy that she wanted to see the canyon better. That is how we got these sweet pictures of my only child enjoying the view from 8,003 feet high. Inside I was thinking, "AHHHHHHHHH -My Baby is over a gorge!" On the outside, I smiled as she was pointing out pretty trees, or the teeny tiny hikers on the trails.

We slowly walked around the rim trail, watching Heidi Anne trying to absorb the sights, the colors, trees, and the mountains. She would run ahead of us then run back to report on the sights. She was always pointing at something and telling us "Mommy that is so pretty! The prettiest thing I've ever seen!"

A few steps later, "Oh, Dada, now THAT is the most beatfulist mountain ever!"

A few more steps "NOO, now that is the prettiestest thing I've seen!"

This is how a little 1/2 mile (round trip) nature walk took us over an hour to travel. If she were a pioneer, there isn't a snowballs chance we'd ever reach our destination