Zion - Family Trip

Ok, so this is a continuation of the Friends Trip. They all left on Wednesday and I went to St. George for the night. Then Thursday I went BACK to the park, and reserved campsites for the fam. They slowly made it down group by group for our three day camp out. That night we set up camp and got everything settled and had dinner of roasted hot dogs and burgers and then side dishes. My mom goes all out with food while camping. I'm pretty sure that at least 3/4 of my dads truck was filled with food. Granted she was feeding 16 people for three days, but still...there was a PLETHORA.

Friday morning we had fruit and yogurt parfaits, I had never even considered buying one, let alone making one, but they were so good!! Then we hit the trails. We hiked up to Emerald Pools which is beautiful. The hike to the first pool is really easy and we were able to take the little kids, even in the strollers, but the two upper pools are a little more difficult, so the little kids stayed back with Troy and Danielle, and we took Davy and Jami (the older kids) up to the other two pools.

Jami and Me at the upper pool

Dad, Mom, Jami, Davy and Josh by the

Middle Pool

The waterfall from the Middle Pool

to the Lower Pool.

It got really really hot after that hike so we just kicked it at camp, went to the visitor center, etc. Then had dinner, Josh made Mac and Cheese in the dutch oven. It started as a joke between me and him, but then he thought it would be funny so he really did it, made mac and cheese from scratch in the dutch oven and it was PHENOMENAL. Once we were done with dinner we did something kinda different, we went and did a night hike so that the babies could come because it isn't smart to take a 3 month old and a 10 day old out in 100 degree heat. So around seven thirty, we hopped on the tram and went up to Weeping Rock. It is half a mile round trip so really easy and short. It was nice to go at night because it is typically such a busy, popular trail, but there was nobody!! Plus, we got a good view of the park at dusk, it was beautiful.

Melanie with Dallin and Vicki with Addie on

our night hike

View of the cliffs at dusk with the moon

Danielle with Timmy, Davy

and Jami at Weeping Rock

Ok...so next...Saturday, that's it. Um, Dad made breakfast that morning...mountain man. Freak I love camping food. Then we went up to go to the narrows. We didn't really hike it this time, we mostly just let the kids play in the water, some of them liked it, some of them didn't. It was fun though. Timmy was my hiking buddy that time, man he is such a cute little boy, I adore him. He is going to be such a heart breaker one day, he has blonde hair and blue blue eyes. Davy and Jamie wanted to go up the river a little ways so I took them up about 200 yards. It took a while, but they were really good and enjoyed it. It started getting too deep for me to be comfortable with them continuing, plus I didn't have shoes on and the rocks were starting to hurt, haha.

Kristi and Rylee and Timmy and Me

Jami

Hiking buddies!!!

The rest of the day we just did whatever, it was great. Then Sunday morning we woke up and broke camp and headed back up to home sweet home. I love camping, but I also really really love the post-camping shower. Such a feeling of complete cleanliness, so great. :D

Here are some random pics from the rest of the trip:

This sums up Mikey for the whole trip

Me with Dallin and Addie

Addie rockin' Kristi's shades

The group at the Lower Emerald Pools

Rylee wearing my camo bandanna with her dad

The group of us that went to Checkerboad

mesa on Saturday night

Rylee and Tim on the rock that served as a rocket ship,

a bus, a train, and many others

Kristi and Me

Troy and Davy on the tram

Rylee and Mikey. Yes she is twice his age and he is

her same size pretty much

The whole fam eating ice cream, thanks Dad!

Okay, on a bit of a side note: I rushed home on Sunday morning from the trip so I could be there for this boy's welcome home. This is my twin Robert. You would be amazed at how many people we had fooled into believing that we really were twins in high school. He just got back from his mish in Australia and it was so fun to see him! One more friend, Coley, and then all my favorite boys are back! (Other than Travis, but he is a different category.)

And that's the end of my summer vacation. :D