Our bags were packed with ten extra sets of baby clothes, almost all of Carter's toys, snacks, and a prayer in our heart, we left on Wednesday nigh after John got off work.
Carter slept most of the drive down to Panquitch and was happy to find a brand new friend. He just loved Duke. We had to hold Duke pack from constantly licking Carter, although I don't think Carter would mind.
The next morning we left around 8 and would have gotten there around one if Carter hadn't exploded in his car seat. We had to pull over and wash out his carseat in a campsite water spout. He then sat on a towel the rest of the way.
We were all restless to get out of the car so Carter was very excited to see the grand canyon. Our first stop was Desert View at the watchtower.
I love this picture because Carter and I are both mimicking the drawing behind us, but John didn't get it in the picture. So here is the man from an online picture. It is the man on the far left, don't we look just like that?
It was a beautiful day!
Carter enjoyed staying at the hotel. He was able to go swimming for the first time, figured out he liked bread, and everyone he saw pointed and told him how cute he was.
For my birthday present, John let me get some family pictures. What a guy! I think he liked it because it was a cheap present :)
Carter was really good for us. I walked about 2 miles along the rim while he took his mid day nap. There was a shuttle that took you to each stop, but we were afraid that he would wake up, so we hiked. It was a great experience because we saw a lot more of the canyon then we would have from the shuttle.
On our last day we tried to get Carter to sleep in the stroller but he only slept for about ten minutes so we decided to just get the things done we wanted and hoped for the best.
Here is our happy guy!
I couldn't take enough pictures, the canyon was awe inspiring!
This was our hike into the canyon, that's right we walked a whole 0.2 miles in! Give us a break, we did have a baby :)
Carter was getting cranky, so sometimes we pulled to the side and let him touch the rocks, he thought that was the funniest thing, weird kid.
This is the trail that led to the bottom. I think we looked pretty lightly packed when we went in compared to most people who planned on walking all the way down.
It was sad to leave such an amazing place. We did more than we thought we would, but there was more that we wanted to do. Nevertheless, it was a great trip because we were together as a family, saw amazing things, and did everything we could to keep a happy baby. There were two times he cried on the shuttle and everyone stared, but we had pushed him too hard, so we forgave him. Carter and I will miss John when he goes back to work tomorrow.
