Bear Lake, Vernal, and New Years

 This could have been 4 posts, we've had a busy few days:

• Since we were all around with nothing real going on, it felt like a good time to go to Vernal. Cass was nice to let me go out there for my Birthday, and honestly, there is nothing I enjoy more than going to explore somewhere in Utah with my family that we've never been before. Vernal did not disappoint. We explored Fantasy Canyon. It was freaking awesome and I can't believe we hadn't been there before. that night we swam at our hotel, had dinner, and went to some stores. The next morning we went to Dinosaur National Monument and saw all the dino bones and great views. On the way back, we stopped at an awesome diner for burgers.
• We missed Bridger on our trip as he took off in the jeep with 3 friends and went to Bear Lake for 5 days with no adults and no supervision (huge parenting moment). They had a great time playing games (Mostly video games), riding in the side-by-side, hanging out, and going to a giant bon-fire with tons of Christmas trees and firecrackers. He had a blast, and we are super glad they all made it home safe.
• Ryan got us tickets to the UVU basketball game to hang out with him and Tate. We had a great time and even got passes to the VIP area where you can eat all the food and snacks you want.
• For my actual birthday, we hung out. I got spoiled by my fmaily and cass made one of my favorite treats- Berries on a cloud that takes 3 days to make. 

Looking back on this year, We have done a lot of things, seen a lot of places, and had some really hard challenges. We had highs, like going to Hawaii and taking surf lessons and going to Yellowstone with our cousins. And we've had some really crappy lows. Watching McCoy go through everything in the hospital this summer was hearbreaking. We ached for him as he ached in pain for weeks and weeks. Watching him rebound from that and returning to the happy and amazing person that he is has been insparational. I hope we can remember the hard times and not dwell on them. We are always going to have challenges and things are not always going to go our way, the way we respond and how we rebound is important. McCoy showed us his resilliancy this year and it was a good thing to see and to learn from. 

Hopeing next year doesn't have the same challenges, but we can all be resilliant and learn from each curveball life throws at us!