Last year, we had plans to go to St. George for spring break, but Arden got the flu and derailed our plans. This year, we made sure we all got a proper flu SHOT (no more of that silly mist stuff), and made southern Utah plans again. This time we made it! We left on a Saturday (after my long run, of course), and drove down to the land of sunshine. Even though it was only in the high-60s, the kids couldn't wait to jump in the pool next to the palm trees. Don't worry, it was heated to near hot-tub levels.
We spent Saturday night and Sunday morning (streaming conference, of course) at the pool.
The kids would have all liked to do nothing but swim in the pool the entire time we were there, but I am mean and eventually drug them out of the water and made them go to Zions with me. It was a beautiful day!
It had been quite a few years since I had been to Zion, and it was good to be back! Here we are starting our first hike out to the Watchman:
Are those my kids or mountain goats?
Whenever we hike, Dax feels a great need to be the first one in line. Cora, of course, feels the need to challenge his position. Lucky for me, Arden usually doesn't engage in the race to the front, so I can get some pictures with at least one kid in them. Beautiful Arden, beautiful view!
Dax and Cora did slow down when the found a rock that they thought was in the perfect shape of a chair. Here is Dax, posing for a rare picture, while the girls (im)patiently wait their turn to sit in the amazing rock-chair:
We made it to the top! Stunning!
We walked along the river for a while, but then got hungry and headed back for dinner and sleep.
The next day didn't dawn so sunny. In fact, it was raining pretty hard as we drove back to Zions. Luckily, it stopped while we were riding the shuttle over to the Emerald Pools trail head...which was closed due to falling rocks. We headed to the next shuttle stop to take the long way up to the pools. It was still pretty cloudy, but we thought we'd give it a try.
UN-fortunately, it started up again when we were about halfway up a VERY muddy trail.
By the time we got to the waterfall at the top, it was raining so hard it felt like we were standing under the waterfall even when we weren't. Luckily we had cheap ponchos in our backpacks! Cheese!
After a long, wet, muddy trek back down to the car, we were all soaking wet and freezing!! It was still raining, so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel, where we all took turns taking hot showers and putting our jammies on. We declared it a movie night, and were all culturally enriched by the very high-brow "Nacho Libre."
The next morning, the clouds had gone, and I got up early for quick run outside (there was only one treadmill in the workout room!). I ran up a little hill, and got to see this...there are a bunch of hawks flying around int he sky, but you can't really see them in the picture, but it was cool!
We headed to Snow Canyon. Cora liked to play in the sand:
We did some really fun hikes, scrambling over rocks and down into lava tubes.
There go those mountain goats again!
We found our way into a slot canyon we had heard about, which had petroglyphs on the wall. It was kind of hard to find, but pretty cool!!
Goats and stuff on the wall:
Dax had been trying to catch lizards the whole trip, and luckily we came upon a group who had caught one and were done with him. They let Dax hold him, and showed him how to put the lizard to sleep by rubbing his belly. He thought it was kinda cool:
The lizard was so pretty with his blue spots, Cora even held him:
Arden thought she wanted to hold him, but when the lizard moved she promptly dropped him on the ground. Oh well. We headed back to the hotel for...more swimming!
The next day was our last....so we swam:
We stopped at Kolob Canyon on the way home. Dax chose a hawk for his souvenir and brought him along on a hike:
Here is another shot of my pretty Arden and a pretty view:
Okay, one more!
We eventually made it home, a little sunburned and tired of being in the car. It was a fun trip! We will definitely be back!
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