About a
month and a half ago Matt and I were sitting on the couch trying to decide what
to do for a vacation. We had some money set aside. We were looking at doing a
BIG vacation. We wanted to be gone an entire week! We’ve never gone on a week-long vacation with the kids before. It felt like a huge deal. We talked for
hours trying to decide on where to go for that week. It was exhausting.
Planning trips is really hard for me. I hate deciding where to go, where to stay
and what to do. Maybe I over contemplate it?
Finally
we stopped and I suggested we pray and just step back from it for a moment.
Guys, I pray for everything! It may seem like a lot to pray for everything but
to me, it feels so much better to have help from God when everything is
confusing and frustrating. He’s got our backs and I’m super grateful for that.
Seriously
a few minutes after praying Matt said, “What if we go for an entire month?” and
the craziest part? I was like “okay, how do we do that?” Matt works from home
and can pretty much work anywhere [within reason I’m sure.] There’s flexibility
there so we figured he could take some days off to play and work the rest while
we played in the evenings.
In an incredibly short time, we had a place reserved through Airbnb and it was
happening! What?! What happened to ONE week?! I couldn’t believe how quickly we
made a decision like that and acted on it! After the place was reserved I
seriously started panicking. I’m a
person who likes my comfort zone and all the familiar things in my life. It was
scary and super exciting all at the same time! We were leaving in just two
weeks!
We went
to Saint George Utah. If I were to sum it all up, It was the best month ever!
There were tons of problems and things that weren’t fun that we experienced
like a little car crash, throwing up kids, tantrums, bee stings while hiking, getting
a little lost when hiking in the heat and maybe a few breakdowns by everyone in
our family [except Matt] but I would do it all again. I learned a lot of things. Life lessons that
I didn’t expect to learn. Matt and I worked on journaling every single day to
not forget these experiences we got to have and memories made with our kids. It
was an amazing time.
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| Bryce Canyon McKay almost lost his hat to the hoodoos because of the wind. |
What was
interesting to me is that there were a lot of problems and things that we faced
that were not easy. We have a lot of struggles that our family is facing right
now. Although these struggles
were hard I was able to see good in the moments at the same time.
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| Grand Canyon! |
At home
all of these struggles we’ve been going through have felt all-controlling of
our happiness and lives. I couldn’t see the good in the days that I was facing
before but for being in such a different environment and constantly seeking to
find the beauty in this part of the world, somehow it taught me that every day
can have good moments despite the bad moments. That’s exactly what they are,
moments. A day will fluctuate. They are not all 100% happy days or bad days. It
rises and falls at different paces. I learned that it’s okay for it to be that
way. It’s okay to experience the hard and then find something good to
appreciate.
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| Literally our best family photo at the grand canyon. I guess Matt's the only one who got the memo to smile |
I learned
to appreciate my little family and the goodness each of us has. At home, we are
so busy with so many things and so many other people. On this trip, it was just the
four of us. That was it. It was unique to have so much time with the people I
love most. We all had our rough moments but I saw strength come out of every
one of us that I don’t look for at home. It taught me to look more for the good
in my family members.
I was so
much braver for some reason. I got to experience so much more because I was
willing to step out of my comfort zone.
Before we left, Matt and I had made a
list of expectations for this trip. We wanted to gain everything from this
opportunity that we could. It was exciting to see both of us trying to create
better versions of ourselves.
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| hiking in the water at Zions national park |
Matt impressed me for his ability to work at the things he wanted to experience on this trip from reading books, to running in the mornings. They are simple things but at home, we don’t make time for what we really want in our lives. This experience helped me to see what was more important.
McKay was brave many times which was so impressive to me. He has a lot that he faces on a daily basis and watching him get through scary, hard things for him amazed me. With a lot of prayers, he was able to do things he wanted to do despite the overwhelming fear he had for some things we did. I love him so much for how he gets through all the difficult things he has to go through every single day and moment. He has come a long way and on this trip, I saw so much goodness come through him.
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| Sand Hollow Reservoir |
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| "I'm a good climber!" Pioneer Park |
Brynlee was just flat out a trooper the
entire trip. We hiked more this past month then our kids have ever done in
their entire lives. That little three year old walked so many miles. She would
say “I’ve got this!” and “I’m a good climber!” She would get hot and tired but
we would be able to keep her going. Her little legs kept up with all the rest
of us. When we had our little car crash we sat in our hot car for quite a while waiting for the policeman to do his job and after a long time she stuck her
head out of the window, in a loud voice said: “this is so much fun!” She also
wanted to invite the policeman to come to visit us at our condo. I love how friendly she is and made best
friends anywhere we went. She is a positive kid.
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| Bryce Canyon |
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| I love palm trees! |
What I learned
is that no matter how amazing a photo is, it’s not the same as experiencing it
in real life. The real thing is by far
more amazing and awe-inspiring. We took so many pictures but every time we
would look back at the pictures it would not do the place justice for the
beauty we experienced. Maybe someone who takes better pictures then I can capture its beauty but for my limited skills, I never could.
I could look at
all the pictures in the world of the grand canyon but it simply is not the same
as seeing the grand canyon for myself. I learned that experiencing things is so
much different than being on the sidelines observing. It’s better to step in
and experience the things around me than
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| Brynlee's first time riding the carousel. She loved it! |
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| Saint George Temple |
In the
end I learned that all that I learned to appreciate on our trip was already
there in my life. I just learned how to see it. I’m grateful for that and I
hope I can keep seeing it and not fall back into the normal routine of what my
life was before. I’m incredibly grateful for this experience.
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| Snow Canyon Petrified dunes |
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| Camping |
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| She got worn out! |
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| Alex Boye concert at the edge of Zions. It was incredible and He is a very good entertainer! |
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