the ring of fire!

So did all y'all see THE RING OF FIRE? I use all caps there because we say those four words with special emphasis around here. It involves a guttural man voice and crazy inflection. Belle does it particularly well. Anyhow, we traveled to Bryce Canyon National Park to get "the best" view of it this weekend. Here's how our days went:

Friday: We drove to Bryce, scoped out spots for pictures of THE RING OF FIRE, then drove to St. George, arriving in the wee hours.

Saturday: We spent the day in St. George with my mom and sister.

Sunday: We drove back to Bryce - via Zion National Park - and joined the throngs to watch the RING OF FIRE appear. We then drove back to Salt Lake City with the throngs. We got home at 3 a.m.

Monday: We stumbled around like zombies. Not the children. They slept the entire way home so they were refreshed and ready to run us ragged when they woke up. :)

It was actually a lovely weekend. The girls and I have made trips together in the last few months, but we always leave Jess at home working. This time, we had Daddy along for the ride. And holy smokes, it was fun. We've got a truckload of photos. And so many of them need explanation. So here goes.

On Friday, it was fuh-reezing at Bryce. Of course, I didn't bring socks for Lou (I seriously never put socks on my girls because I'm awesome and think they should experience frostbite at an early age) so I pulled some of mine out of the depths of our luggage and strapped them over her pants. One of them repeatedly fell off. It become a total comedy show. Observe:

 Annabelle has taken a recent dislike to posing in photos. Observe:

Unless she's not sharing the lime light. Observe:

 Lou is like REALLY a happy child. Especially when she's free of that dang car seat. Observe:

Jess' sisters traveled down (and back) on Sunday for the eclipse. So all the girls went to Bryce Point, spot of the best view of the eclipse, while Jess hiked into his previously chosen spot in Sunset Point's little canyon. Of course, by this time, my girls were pretty much running low on energy. I parked my folding chair in the shade (because Belle couldn't really care less about the eclipse at this point), plopped Belle in it with a bag of Goldfish, and we waited for THE RING OF FIRE. And then I smelled something foul. A quick look in the pants of a certain ten month old confirmed my worst fears. Lou had totally dropped a bomb. At the top of a mountain. Crawling with people. The nearest private place was at least five miles away. And the goodness was about to come right out the top of her pants. So I did what any other self-respecting mother about to be poop-leaked on would. Plopped that kid down in a bush and changed her. I've never changed a diaper with more speed than I did at the top of that mountain.

With twenty minutes to go, Belle fell out of her chair and informed me she was ready to go. I agreed to walk down to the parking lot with her, where we were told that even if we wanted to leave, the shuttles weren't leaving until THE RING OF FIRE was complete. So we actually did end up seeing THE RING OF FIRE despite the toddler's exhaustion level. Then we hopped on a shuttle. We were then informed the shuttles wouldn't be going to the spot our car was parked (and where we were meeting Jess). I smiled sweetly, wiped the dirt of my kids' faces, and asked nicely if we could be dropped off at our stop. The shuttle driver - a gem of a grandpa - was happy to do it. And we made it back. Jess arrived at the car minutes later with these:

 

 

I know. Whoa. Pretty spectacular, right?

 

I don't have pictures of this, but we did end up in stop and go traffic at 12:30 a.m. just outside of Nephi for an hour. I wanted to crawl out of my car and totally destroy every miserable traffic cone blocking off a lane of NOTHING. So completely aggravating. Not to mention the state of our minds. We were tired and delirious and ready to be home. But alas, we made it. And we'd do it all again. Because it's these little moments - the ones with stinky babies at the tops of mountains combined with the ones where our universe just puts on an incredible show - that make for some pretty perfect memories. Can't beat 'em.