Have you ever had an iPhone stolen? Or at least thought it was stolen? Well, buckle up, because I learned a few things the hard way when my son lost his phone a couple weekends ago.
We took a trip out to Frederick for a nice meal and stopped in a few nearby shops, but somewhere along the way, Jack’s iPhone slipped out of his pocket. As soon as he realized it, we retraced our steps, asking in every store and the restaurant where we had dinner. One of those stops was a Goodwill, so just imagine me going down EVERY SINGLE AISLE looking for a generic black iPhone on the floor or on a shelf where it shouldn’t be. Sigh.
I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal, since we all have Life360 installed… except, someone had turned off the phone and the location wouldn’t update.
I then thought to use Find My iPhone instead, but we had never activated it, trusting that Life360 was all we needed. Yeah, rookie move. And here’s the kicker… when I was trying to activate Find My iPhone (because Jack is under “family” on my iPhone account), it kept sending a confirmation code TO HIS PHONE. Which we didn’t have.
At this point, we had given up on finding it that evening and headed home. So while Travis was driving, I tried everything to get Find My iPhone activated, and finally it worked. And that’s what I saw it – the phone was moving AWAY from where we lost it.
And yes, I was big mad. But I took it as a lesson that there are crappy people in the world who will steal a phone, rather than just turning it in at the closest restaurant or shop where they found it.
Luckily, Jack’s phone has an access code, and I have parental controls set up where he has to request permission for any downloads (so nobody could spend any money on new apps). I went in and locked down all the screentime options, just in case his code was hacked. I then added a “Contact me at my phone number” message through Find My iPhone. I also submitted a claim through our phone insurance that evening.
Fast forward to the next afternoon, and surprise! I received a call from my son’s phone. Turns out, a woman had found it on the ground where he dropped it… and then TOOK IT WITH HER TO WORK, 15 minutes away. Her daughter ended up calling me the next day, and we finally got the phone back.
Moral of the story? Install Find My iPhone now, not after you need it. And maybe remind your kids to check their pockets more often!
When I started this blog back in early 2011, Jack wasn’t even a twinkle in my eye yet. Then over my first year of blogging, I became pregnant with Jack, unexpectedly lost my job, sold our house, started a new job, moved into a new house, and had a preemie. Jack joined us 2 months early, spent about 4 weeks in the NICU and then came home.
And now, that little 4 pound, 15-ounce potato of a baby is a teenager.
One of the absolutely most wonderful parts of this blog is that the last THIRTEEN years of his life is here. I mean, kind of. Over the years I’ve been very careful to make sure I’m telling the stories from my perspective of being a working mom. I’d never wanted to focus too much on my kiddo in a way that would embarrass him when he was older. For the last few years, Jack has been in charge of approving any posts about him, as well as any photos that I share.
Each year, I do a Jack birthday post. And each year, I include a photo of my rapidly growing boy and marvel at how quickly time flies.
Here is Jack at 13:
Once again, he asked if I could take him to NYC for an overnight adventure. So that is what we did – we visited the Lego store, drank butterbeer at the Harry Potter store, ate Crumbl cookies in the bed of our fancy hotel, watched the waiters and waitresses sing at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, ate a fresh donut off the Krispie Kreme conveyer belt in Times Square, and bought souvenirs at the M&M’s store.
It was the perfect weekend with my teenager. And on the train ride home, I made a cute little compilation video of our adventure.
We are back and from our latest family adventure to Arizona, Nevada and Utah and I’m so excited to share about our November trip! If you follow along with our family travel adventures, you may remember when we went on a spring trip in April 2023 (you can find the three bite sized posts here: Family Travel, Part 1, Family Travel, Part 2, Family Travel, Part 3). Well, we loved that trip and the convenience of having Kanab as a home base, so we decided to go again.
You would think it would be repetitive and boring to return to the very same town as before, but there are so many things to do that we had a very different trip. Let’s get into it:
Day 1: Fly to Vegas
Our evening flight into Vegas worked out so well that we decided to do it again. We landed in Nevada around 11pm local time (2am Maryland time) and took an Uber straight to our hotel. Last time, we stayed at the Excalibur Hotel right on the strip because it was incredibly cheap and looked ridiculous. However, it was a little icky, so this time I picked a different hotel. We stayed at the Downtowner Boutique Hotel, which was kitschy, very clean and was reasonably priced. We would absolutely stay there again.
Day 2: Vegas to Valley of Fire to Kanab
In the morning, we walked to a nearby breakfast place and OHMYGOSH did we find a fantastic place right around the corner. Parlour Coffee Shop was super eclectic and had a really robust coffee and breakfast menu. When we got there, the place was pretty empty, but by time we left there was a line out the door.
Jack had the crème brulee French toast and it was so, so good:
Oh and I mentioned that our hotel was kitschy… but did I mention that it had a mini golf course right outside our door and AstroTurf in our closet?!
From there, we picked up our rental car and then stopped off at a sub place to grab a picnic lunch to take with us. I HIGHLY recommend this, as it is a long, long drive from Vegas to Kanab (by way of Valley of Fire).
This time, we skipped Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam and went straight to Valley of Fire State Park.
Valley of Fire State Park: This is one of my absolute favorite stops and if you are in the area, make sure to add it to your itinerary! It costs $9 to enter and we started by checking out the Visitor Center (which was closed last time we visited). From here, we did a whole bunch of different stops/hikes from our last trip, including: Elephant Rock, Rainbow Vista, Fire Canyon Road, and White Domes Loop. We also had a nice little picnic at the Seven Sisters Picnic area, which we had completely to ourselves.
From Valley of Fire, we continued on to Kanab to check into our house that we rented for the week.
Day 3: Coral Pink Sand Dunes
On our first full day in Kanab, we visited the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The cost to visit is $15 per vehicle and we also paid $25 to rent a sand sled for the day. It was chilly and sandy and so much fun to hike up the giant sand dunes and then sled down. And then hike up again.
We all shared one sand sled, which gave us the opportunity catch our breath after the dune hike before barreling back down it again. We were considering renting two sleds, but for our family the one sled worked out great.
I had actually planned for us to take a lunch break and then go back out to a different hike, but we were all exhausted so we took a trip to the local grocery store to stock up and then relaxed around the house.
Day 4: Tom’s Canyon Trail
For our second Kanab day, we decided to do a local hike. VERY local. The Tom’s Canyon trailhead was literally within sight of our rental house! We decided to let Jack have some TV/video game time and Travis and I went on a ‘date’ hike by ourselves. It took us around 2 hours and it was absolutely breathtaking.
Once we returned, warmed up and showered, we went into the Main Street area of Kanab and did a little souvenir shopping. One of our favorite rock shops in Kanab is Nature’s Showcase Rock Shop, so we made sure to stop by again. We also purchased some t-shirts at Gifts of the West.
Day 5: Zion National Park
Last time we visited Zion National Park, it was much warmer and we rented e-bikes. This time, it was a bit chillier, so we decided to do more driving and hopping out at overlooks. We purchased the America the Beautiful annual park pass ($80) which allows us to visit Zion, as well as a ton more parks for the next year.
After some sightseeing, we stopped off for lunch The Hangry Goat. Then, we walked around a bit and looked in and out of some shops. From there, we got back in the car and drove around a bunch more, jumping in and out to oooh and ahhh on our way back out of the park.
That evening, Travis and I bundled up and did some stargazing from the roof deck of our house. It was absolutely silent and beautiful and I 100% want to revisit that again in the summertime!
Day 6: Kanab to Pioneer Park to Vegas
We had to be out of our rental home by 10am, so we woke up and packed up the house. Since we drive through St. George on our way to Vegas, I did a little research and found a fun little park for us to visit on our way through: Pioneer Park and the Red Hills Desert Garden. Both were completely free and a great place to get out and stretch a little!
We will absolutely schedule some extra time to explore Pioneer Park more on our next trip. There are so many little hikes you can do throughout the 52-acre park.
Since it was Thanksgiving Day, I did a little googling on our way into Vegas and got us dinner reservations at Carmines. Once we arrived in Vegas, we dropped off our rental car and checked into Caesers Place for the night. The place was absolutely PACKED with people, where it felt like high-stake Frogger getting from one side of the casino/hotel to the other for the registration area. Thankfully our room was large, clean and quiet… with a gigantic whirlpool tub and walk-in shower.
We had a delicious dinner at Carmines and then enjoyed our room and went to sleep early, since we had a very early wake up call for our flight.
Day 7: Home
We woke up at 2:30am to take an Uber to the airport and head home. Yes, it totally sucks to wake up that early… but with the time change it’s nice to get home in the early afternoon.
We absolutely loved our Thanksgiving trip and can’t wait for our next family travel adventure!
