Steven

Steven and his girlfriend Amanda came to visit us. They were up for only a day and a half, so I had to make it worth Steve's while. I decided to take him through Keyhole since that would give him the most bang for his buck. So we got our wetsuits from the cache and headed up to the trailhead. After climbing the hill and dropping into the canyon, we started to do the most difficult part of canyoneering, putting on our wetsuits. I accidentally let Steve put on his entire wetsuit the wrong way. He had to take it off and put it back on and by the time he got it on he was sweating like crazy. He got to take the 6.5 mm wetsuit through, so he had no choice but to sweat it out. Sometimes we get a little overboard with staying warm when it definitely would not be so bad to be at least a little chilly. The 6.5 mm would make him very warm and not a bit cold. We went through the middle part with a bit of water, but not more than waist deep. Soon we were putting on our harnesses and getting ready to go into the canyon. Sweaty Steve was happy to go first. I told him to keep his butt down. He did a great job of that on the first rappel, but his butt kept moving but not his feet. He had to pull himself back up and try again. Second time around, he did great. I could tell he was a bit nervous. This is the friend that called me every name in the book until I sucked it up and rappelled for the first time 11 years earlier. Funny how our lives take us different directions and this day would be a piece of cake for me. We ran into some other folks in the canyon. They let us go around them, even using their rope. I thought that was really kind of them. The wetsuits finally came in handy as we did have the swim. We were both happy to take off the wetsuit when the canyon was over. We went back to the house to a sick child. Three days earlier, our 14 month old was on her hands and knees puking on the kitchen floor. So scary and difficult for a parent to watch. We were up most of the night with her.

 I was a little worried that Steve and Amanda would not come visit us because of the danger of getting sick. They showed some courage and came out to Zion. Zyla had been doing good lately, so we decided to try to go up the KT road and out to Cave Valley. It did not work out so hot. As we were going up the hill, puke comes out. We had nothing left to do but go back home. 

By this time, Jacqueline is not doing so well. She decides to stay home with Z, while Steve, Amanda, and I rode the shuttle to hike the trail between the Court of the Patriarchs. I wanted to hike this because I knew it would be quiet. We saw some turkeys, avoided some mule poop, and made it to the lodge where we got some ice cream and hung out for a while. Steve was happy Amanda was able to do the hike because she had not hiked much. She seemed fine with the entire experience even toughing out the mule poop. We went back to the house to find a rather healthy baby, but an increasingly sickening mommy. We spent the rest of the night hanging out, yet Jacqueline spent a good chunk of it throwing up. I felt horrible for my lovely wife, but I was hoping that the rest of us would not get it. Luckily we did not get sick and we were very happy that my good friend could come out to visit.