A Weekend Trip to Vernal

Last weekend we took a quick road trip out to Vernal. Our purpose was threefold - one to take Skylee somewhere (Kristin is near the end of her pregnancy and could use the breather), two to visit my sister and her family, and three to visit Dinosaur National Monument.

We left on Friday after work. When we picked up Skylee she was coughing, but otherwise in good spirits. We did not think much of it at the time, and she still really wanted to go. Vernal is about a three-hour drive. Half an hour in Skylee asked us if we were there yet about 30 minutes in. We told her we had a long way to go, and she did great.

We arrived and it was dark. We originally thought we might take Skylee to the swimming pool, but she was coughing a lot and said she was tired so we stayed in our hotel room. We had a room with two queen beds. Skylee got one to herself. We turned on the movie sign and lay in bed. Skylee kept complaining that she was lonely and needed me to sit on the bed next to her. I went over and sat by her until the movie was over.

When the movie ended we went to bed. Skylee had a rough night. She was up every 60-90 minutes either needing to go to the bathroom, coughing, or just wanting help. At one point she called for Alison because she needed help turning over. Sure enough, somehow she had moved around and her feet were by her pillow. This rough night gave us a sliver of appreciation for what so many parents do daily.

In the morning we got up and Alison and I worked out. I worked out in the hotel room and Alison went down to the fitness center. While I was working out Skylee watched cartoons and jumped on the bed. When I was done I took her downstairs to get some breakfast. She told us the night before she had stayed at a hotel like this and was excited about multi-color cheerios (fruit loops). She got her fruit loops and a cinnamon roll for breakfast. She was still coughing but was in good spirits all morning.

We drove out to Dinosaur National Monument next. I had been here once before, but it was many years ago and Alison has never been. We were interested to check it out. Skylee loved the giant dinosaur figures all over Vernal. She would point out each one as we passed.

We started our visit to the Monument at the visitor's center. There was a lot of random information about the monument and the dinosaurs that used to roam this area. There were lots of stuffies (Skylee's nickname for stuffed animals). We got her a rabbit.

After the visitors center, we drove up to the quarry exhibit. This was the most interesting part of the monument. It is a structure built over a wall of rock that has exposed dinosaur bones. These bones are millions of years old. They even let you touch some of them. We spent some time looking around, but then Skylee told us that she was not feeling well and wanted to go home. We told her we needed to make one more stop before coming home, but we got ready to leave the monument.

She told us she wanted to sleep in the car so we buckled her in and took her on a scenic drive through the monument. She warned us that we better not wake her up to see a pretty rock or anything like that. We did not wake up her. The drive really was not all that scenic and we have to say that the monument is really not worth the 3-hour drive. I did get to see some cool petroglyphs right before we left the monument (Alison stayed in the car with Skylee).

Our last stop in Vernal was at my sister's house. We have never visited their home in Vernal before so it was good to see them. We do not see them as often as we would like. We had a good time visiting with them and playing with their two older girls (Parker and Ashtyn). They loved coloring and reading books with us. Skylee rested at first, but then she started to feel better and played with them a little bit.

We drove home and Skylee slept most of the way. We stopped in Heber and thought it would be fun to take her to Dairy Keen. I thought she would really enjoy the train and Alison promised her she could have some ice cream. She had been doing better and slept for long enough that we thought she would be in good spirits. What we did not know yet is that she had the flu and that it had been getting worse. She had a really rough time in the restaurant and did not eat any food. We ate quickly and took her home.

Later that evening she developed a fever. Her parents took her to Instacare and found out about the flu. Turns out it was too late I also got it (even though I had a flu shot this year) and Alison did not get it (even though she did not have a flu shot). I was mostly out of commission on Sunday and had to stay home from work on Monday too. Fortunately, Alison and I were able to use doctor on demand to video chat with a doctor and get Tamiflu prescribed (preventatively for Alison). It is a miracle drug. A couple of doses of that and my symptoms much improved.

Even though the weekend did not go as planned we had fun road-tripping with Skylee. She was such a trooper, even when she did not feel well at all. We were also really happy to be able to visit with Charly and Ben and their girls.