Grand Canyon- North Rim

The Grand Canyon at Sunset!  Isn't it gorgeous!The kids were a not quite as happy to be there!  Happy times!  The next day was better (below).

This is the next day when the girls were all happy!  Brighty the Mule of the Grand Canyon.  We got the story to read on the way home, but haven't started it yet.  The girls just loved this big statue of a mule!We were lucky to get a cabin with a view of the Grand Canyon.  We called 5 days before going (last minute decision to stay right on the Grand Canyon), and this was the only cabin they had available for the night!  It was so perfect and fun!  The above 3 pictures were taken right outside of the cabin!  It was so fun to stay in a cabin (well, for some of the night--read below). 

I have to record our story of how we only stayed half the night in this cabin......It all started when we were visiting with our friends the Cheney's in Kanab right before heading off to the Grand Canyon.  Somehow, Lyndee hit her head on the slide or the swingset, then went spinning on a tire swing, then hit her head going down there stairs....at least that is the last story we got.  She really kept forgetting  how she hurt her head and in what order.  Well, she came and told me that she had hit her head and that it hurt real bad.  I didn't know she had hit it twice and like usual I just thought it was a small bump.  I felt her head and there was nothing there so I told her that she would be ok and it would feel better soon.  Well, before she hit her head she had a lot of black berries (she loves fruit).  She soon threw up after hitting her head (5 times and quite a bit).  I thought--oh you've just eaten too many berries.  Well, then we started putting together that she had hit her head more than one time, but at that point she couldn't remember all the details, just that she had hit her head.  She laid down on our friends couch and fell asleep for a little bit before we left.  We were in a hurry to get to the Grand Canyon so that we could see the sun set.  She also slept most of the 1 1/2 hours up to the Grand Canyon (which she never sleeps in the day in the car!)

As you can see we got up to the Grand Canyon in time to see the sun set and got some pretty pictures.  Lyndee seemed to be doing better for about the first hour and then she kept saying how her head hurt and that she just wanted to go back to bed.  We went into our cabin (even though mom and dad wanted to walk around and enjoy the cool evening) and she hurried to bed.  Anytime she would get up she would say that her head hurt.  She threw up again!  She could not hold any food down!  We had been a little bit nervous (mainly me--it dosen't help that I'm a nurse) about maybe her having a slight concussion.  She had many of the signs of one.  The second time that she threw up and the fact that she kept sleeping (which is not like Lyndee), we called the Grand Canyon First Aid and had their EMT come and checked her out.  It was so questionable whether they thought that she should go into the ER or not.  All of us thought that if we were within 10-20 minutes of a hospital that we would just let her sleep and keep an eye on her during the night.  The problem was that we were a good 1 1/2 hours away from the Kanab hospital.  So, for 2-3 hours we debated on what to do, even called the ER and talked to a nurse and she consulted with a Dr. about her symptoms.  We decided to drive her back down to Kanab to the ER just to check her out.   The ER had said that they would recommend a CT scan just to make sure she didn't have a slow bleed or anything (some of her signs showed that).  About 1:30 am we were all packed back up in the van, all 3 kids asleep (it took some thought in how to get all three kids to the van and keep them asleep, but we did it!)  Lynar drove since he is better with so many deer on the road--there were tons.  We arrived at the Kanab Hospital around 3 am.  We woke up Lyndee right before we arrived in Kanab and started asking her more questions and how she felt.  She seemed much better than before, but Lynar said as long as we came back that far we should at least go into the hospital and see what the Dr. thinks.  The plan was for Lynar to stay outside and sleep in the car with the other kids and I'd take Lyndee inside.  Lyndee gets out of the car, jumping and talking just like normal saying her head dosen't hurt anymore unless she jumps.  We walked in the ER (no one else was there) and the nurses were up front and Lyndee talked their ears off!  Obviously she was much better and so I didn't even check her in!  We got back in the van and drove back to the Grand Canyon (this time I drove while Lynar slept and so I went very slow)  We got back into our cabin just before 5 am.  The girls slept until 9 am thank goodness!!!  We were just glad that Lyndee was ok.  She still can't remember all the details about hitting her head.  The nurses at the hospital thought that she might have had a slight concussion and we agree.  What a night to remember! 

The next morning (or should I say later that day....) we went on a hike (with kids on our backs), then started the 1300 mile drive home.  We are so grateful for the great travelers that our kids are!  They did awesome! 

Thanks for being patient for all my posts from our long vacation.  I have other pictures of some of the things that we did, but they are on our cell phones and I haven't gotten that far to figure out how to download them.  This blog is our family journal and scrapbook at this point.