Capitol Reef May 2017

The weekend we got home from the hospital after having Lars, both Greg and I were pretty fried. We'd waited for 9 months for his birth and now that he was here, we both felt a longing to resume our other activities we like to do. I think we were both in shock mode. So we sat down with the calendar and planned some tentative trips for the year. We decided Capitol Reef would be fun with a new baby because we could stay at the camping cabin at the RV park which has a heater and electric outlets. We were probably also feeling deprived from friends so we invited a bunch of friends to come down with us. It was a really fun thing for me to able to plan out the trip and have something to look forward to during those first couple months when it was really tough.

We went the first weekend of May. Sadly, I only have a few pictures because we were holding Lars a lot of the time and didn't have free hands. We had great food, visited the Gifford House for dessert, Greg and his friends played a few games, and we went on a hike. It was great to catch up with our friends we hadn't seen in awhile (6 of us have had babies in the past 6 months). But I think my favorite part of the trip was being with Lars outside. It was his first time being outside for long periods of time. We go on walks quite a bit, but he usually is asleep or the sun is out so his cover is on and he doesn't actually get to see what's happening. But when we were camping, we took turns holding him, just sitting on the camp chair and it was like he was a new baby! He was so calm and content and was happy as a clam to just sit up right and take it all in. I don't know if we can technically count it as his first camping trip since we were in a cabin, but it was fun!

One other little tidbit I want to remember. In this photo above, you can see that there are some dark clouds nearing. As we approached the end of the trail it started pouring rain with strong winds. The trail was really sandy so as the wind came, it whipped the sand in our face and eyes. It was a little scary since it came so fast. I was carrying Lars and I just hugged him and tried to protect his little face so he wouldn't getting any sand in his face. Greg was ahead of us trying to block the wind, but I felt like I had one of those "fierce mom - stronger than she looks" moments. I moved faster than I expected and I didn't care about anything but keeping my baby protected from the elements. I felt like  we were his protectors. And even though I don't really want to get trapped in a canyon during a storm with a small baby, it was a special little experience for me to see Greg leading the way for his wife and baby and finding us shelter.