Finally A New Post...

Easter and Our Trip to Zion National Park

During Jacob's spring break from school we took a family vacation down to southern utah and went to Zion National Park. The trip down was not too bad until Kera started to get carsick. Luckily we were pretty close to our destination, with about a half hour left to go. And even luckier than that, no vomiting, just a lot of false alarms. She had her barf bag ready to go just in case.

So we got to Springdale, just outside of the park entrance, and checked into our motel. We wanted to give the kids the chance to camp, but since we have a 7 month old, I didn't want to camp for more than one night. Dave would've liked to camp the entire trip, but we compromised by camping out one night and staying at the motel the other two nights. And we're glad we did because Saturday it rained all day, and it was nice to be in the motel room during the stormy weather. Camping out friday night was just fine. We got to Zion thursday so that on friday morning we could wake up early and go find a campsite. The ranger told us when we got there thursday night that we shouldn't have any problems finding a spot, as long as we got there by 8 am. So at 8 am friday morning we were driving around the campsite searching for a vacant spot. We drove around the campground probably 7 or 8 times and were getting quite discouraged. This was a first come first serve campsite, but people had all come and "claimed" their spots by putting tickets on the site number. And there were even a few people standing in their spots claiming their sites waiting for the rest of their parties. That ticked me off a little. But we perservered and finally found an empty spot. I got a good laugh when Dave was searching for a spot on foot and found one, then came running over to the van to get our ticket quickly before anyone snagged our spot. We were tired of searching and we were determined to get that site!

We set up camp that morning and got to work setting up our new dutch oven and cooking a late breakfast. And by late I mean we ate around 11 am. It was our first time cooking with our dutch oven and it takes quite awhile for those coals to get hot enough to cook the food! We also didn't have enough coals on at first and had to heat more and add them to the dutch oven. By the time our trip was over we cooked three meals, and by the last one, a yummy peach cobbler, we felt like old pros. Okay not quite, but at least it didn't take quite so long to cook that dish. We had a hash brown and egg casserole the first day and then made chili that night and the peach cobbler for breakfast the next day. I really liked the taste of the dutch oven. If any of you are still reading this , I'd love to get some good dutch oven recipes that you may have tried and liked. We plan to use ours a lot.

Okay, so the night of camping was fun, and we did some hiking when we first got there thursday, then again friday afternoon. The one friday was nice. We took a shuttle bus up to the top mountain point and got out at the riverwalk trail where there was a great view of the canyon and the kids got to play near the river. Michael did great on the hike in the backpack (as seen in one of the pictures). He liked to be positioned in the backpack with his face pushed up against the side and was sucking on the nylon for most of the time.

Saturday it rained all day, so no hiking that day. Sunday morning we got up and packed the van. It being Easter morning, and my birthday, Dave went and got us some danishes and hot cocoa for breakfast and they all wished me a happy 31st bday. They had a little park outside the motel, and I went and hid some eggs for the kids to do an easter hunt. That morning the sun was out and it was beautiful weather. It's too bad the weather wasn't like that the day before! After the kids did the hunt we drove home. Overall we had a wonderful trip. Just a few little bumps along the way, mostly when the kids were tired and whiny. Spending so much time together in a confined space can be a bit wearing on both the kids and the adults. But what's a family vacation without a little arguing and whining, right?

Our next big family vacation will be in June when we drive to Texas. (I'm still waiting for some great deals on flights to Texas, but with having to buy 4 plane tickets and paying for a rental car, the odds are stacked against that one). So it looks like 2 days of driving in a car with a baby and two, often times bigger babies, here we come. We're also planning a trip to Oregon in August and we'll be driving there too. I'm thinking about stocking up on valium. :) We are looking forward to visiting Dave's family in Texas and my brother and his family in Oregon. It will be our first visit to Oregon to see them.

I will take lots of pictures and be sure to post about the trips later.

Dad with the kids after the easter egg hunt at the park
Kera and Jacob with their baskets

Mom and the kids

See our great easter baskets

Jacob and Kera holding hands during the hike-I wish they would stay like this all the time

Mom and the kids on the overlook trail

The whole fam

Mom and the kids-can you say cheese!


Fun on the red rocks

Mmm, this backpack tastes great

Dad and the kids

Silly face time