Thursday, May 7, 2015

Spring Break Zion

We began our Spring Break (the last week of March) with a camping trip to Zion National Park.  We got a late start Saturday night after Ryan and Alicia's wedding and stayed in a Best Western in Layton.  Yes, Layton.  If we mix in a swimming pool, then the vacation is considered a success.  The kids had a lot of fun swimming, but the pool had so much chlorine and fried their skin!


We camped in the Watchman Campground near the entrance to Zion.  It was a nice camping spot but no showers.  We were some stinky campers three days later! The kids were so tired and all slept amazingly well with all of us in the same tent.



Seth brought his pocket knife and whittled everything in sight.  Ian begged for a pocket knife and ended up buying one with his souvenir money.  He proceeded to stab himself in the face with it the next day but has since been accident free!  I got the worst look ever from an older man who had been laughing at my kids but abruptly stopped when my 5-year-old whipped out a pocket knife the second we got off the bus.  And that bus--Zion was so crazy crowded.  We had a fun time but I've been a lot less crowded places that are more beautiful in my opinion, so I don't think we'll be back for a while!





 
The first day we hiked the Emerald Pools.  It was easy for all of the kids, and they had a lot of fun messing around in the water and climbing around along the way.




We cooked at camp for most of our breakfasts and lunches and a delicious dinner of hotdogs and smores, but we also ate in Springdale twice.  My little rock hounds were in heaven in this place.  They weighed and sprayed every rock in the joint.


 
The second day the littles and I made a trip to the visitor center, played by the river, and made a trip to the Weeping Rock.  Jer took Luke and Seth to Angel's Landing.  They turned back in sight of the very top.  They both had moments of being sketched out along the way which was aggravated by the fact that it was so crowded and they had to let go of the chains often to let people come down.  When it came right down to it Seth was willing to go (he had Jer's constant attention) but Luke was done with the exposure.  They did great!



 

It was unseasonably warm this year, so we spent the afternoon playing in the Virgin River.  Seth was first to brave the water up to his "giblets" as the boys would say.  Luke put on quite a song and dance show for us.  Luke & Seth both screamed like little girls when a giant, weird, water bug crawled onto their rock.  I attempted to give my hair a water only wash which pretty much turned it into a matted mess.  Not good.  We also saw a movie about Zion climbing in town (would not recommend) and ate lots of ice cream (that was good)!  Fun memories.  Another camping trip in the books.




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