Zions!

David's month off has finally arrived, I really thought it would never come, but it has and nobody is happier than I am about it. So for our first adventure with Daddy we took the kids up to Zions National Park to go camping and we had a blast. We got up there Thursday after noon, set up camp and then headed out for a hike. We took the kids hiking up to the Emerald Pools. The kids enjoyed the hike, even Talli. Although camping with a 17 month old results in a lot of falls & tumbles and therefore makes her look like she's been beaten. She is covered head to toe in scrapes and bruises, but the girl loved camping & hiking and did not appreciate having to be held more than Dutch & Maylee.

Riding the shuttle up to the trail. This is probably the best thing about camping at Zion's. It's a no brainer on things to do. You hop on the free shuttle it carries you to all the different trail heads and drops you off. The kids loved riding the "train bus" and Dutch was always in charge of the map and making sure we got off on the right stops. Walking to the trail.

The start of the trail.

Wow trying to get a decent group photo, is no easy task.

The kids loved these caves. At the lower emerald pool. And about every five feet Maylee just could not resist the urge to sit down and play in the dirt. I'm not sure if it was because it was the super fine, powdery dirt or what but the girl just had to run her fingers through it. At the middle Emerald Pools and that's as far as we went. Hanging around the campground. On Friday we took the kid to the Narrows to play in the water.

And again Maylee could not help herself from stopping to enjoy the wonderful dirt they have there. The girl was filthy. Playing in the water. The water was freezing on Friday, Dutch jumped right in and quickly hopped right out, it was too cold for swimming, but perfect for throwing rocks. So here at Zions they have a TON of squirrels and they are not afraid of people at all, because way too many people feed them. And not only are they not afraid of you, they are a bit aggressive. While we were playing in the water we turned around to see a squirrel running away with a sandwich bag of PB&J. After that the squirrels knew there was food in our bag and would not stay away. There was about five of them coming after it. And there isn't much you can do to scare them off. We kept yelling and chasing them and tossing rocks at them but they wouldn't run away, they'd back up about 2 or 3 feet and then come right back. Well the kids were eating lunch and Talli had a cookie in her hand. David and I were trying to keep the squirrels back, well at one point one squirrel was about to grab the cookie right out of Talli's hand (and being concerned that it would bite her in the process) David threw a rock at it to scare it away, well the rock landed a little to close, like on its head close and killed that squirrel, I screamed because it freaked me out and David wanted me to be quiet because he didn't want people to think he killed it on purpose (the squirrel was still twitching) so we quickly packed up the kids and got out of there. Hopefully it taught the other squirrels a lesson, but I'm kind of thinking it didn't. On the shuttle ride back to camp after hiking around the Narrows, everyone was wiped out. Dutch and Maylee instantly fell asleep on David's lap and David fell asleep too and it was so funny watching his head roll back and fourth. After playing in the water we had to drive into Springdale to take the kids shoes to the laundromat to dry, so we stopped and got some ice cream. Taking a walk around the camp grounds. Saturday we headed to a different part of the river to play in. The day was hotter and the water felt warmer so we had no problem playing and getting wet. David found a bunch of little frogs and was helping the kids catch them. Of course Maylee fell instantly in love with every single frog and cried each time she had to let it go back into the water. I did a long run through the canyon Sat. morning and I was having a hard time cooling down afterwards, so I was excited to being playing in the water. Talli loved the water. I think people around us might have thought we were torturing out kid because every time she had to get out of the water, or pulled back into safety because she is so fearless she would scream and throw a fit, but it seemed like we were forcing her to play in the water. So not the case, we could not keep her out of it. Maylee with her frogs. David sat on this rock and held onto to the kids while he put them in the rapids and let them body surf the rapids, they loved it. We took Rue on a walk down to the river by our camp. The dog loves the water, she could care less that it was cold, she just jumped right in. Rue wasn't allowed on the shuttle or trails, so she spent a lot of time in her kennel in the tent, she was always excited when we got back to camp. The weather was great up there. During the day it was nice and hot (just how I like it) but it cooled down to about 70 and got insanely windy at night so we were able to sleep very comfortably. It was so much fun.

David and I kept joking about how we were probably the people that everyone hates having as camping neighbors. The kids would fall down and cry or fight over the dirt and cry, or Talli would cry at bedtime. We wouldn't have wanted to camp by us :) The kids really did very well but regardless they are 4, 3, and 1 and each had there moments. Plus we were all so disgustingly dirty, we looked so trashy (or so we thought and felt). And 3 different times we had to have someone jump start our van because the kids would play in there and leave on a light or something and kill the battery. David and I were feeling a little embarrassed of our looks and situation at some points but it also made us laugh pretty good too.

Sunday we packed up and headed home. We had a lot of fun taking the kids camping. Although David and I learned something about camping with a 4, 3, and 1 year old. Not only do the kids get disgustingly filthy but we do to. Having to hold them and take care of them, I'm pretty sure I have not been that filthy camping since I was the kids age. But we had fun and we can't wait to take them again next year, we are thinking that this is going to be our Labor Day weekend tradition. We asked the kids what there favorite part of the trip was, Maylee's was catching the baby frogs and Dutch said he enjoyed catching the frogs as well (he was agreeing with Maylee here) but he loved being the leader on all the hikes to make sure everything was safe, following the map and his most favorite he said later was riding on the "train bus". I think it's safe to say that Talli's favorite part was playing in the water. David said his favorite part was playing in the water on saturday. And as for me I'd have to say my favorite part was playing in the water on Saturday as well, running through the canyon and just watching my kids have fun.