Zion National Park

Over the boys' spring break from school we headed to Utah for a week of camping with Mimi and Papa.  I had sort go been dreading the 8ish hour drive, but it turned out to be a breeze (which I can say because Brian drove the whole way, thanks babe.).  I packed plenty of snacks, new toys and activities and movies to get us through and barely had to tap into them at all.  We could have made it all the way in one day but we needed to stay out of the park until Mimi and Papa got up bright and early and secured us a spot the next day, so instead of getting all the way there we stayed in a Walmart parking lot over night in St. George.  Fun fact: Walmart allows RVers to camp in their parking lots overnight, so now that we've done that I feel like we've earned our stripes and are real life RVers now.

Anyhow, the next morning we drove the last hour and met up with Mimi and Papa in Zion.  

We headed out on our first hike of the week only an hour or so after our arrival.  The boys biked it, it was pretty awesome.

We brought our picnic and lunched by the river near the end of the trail.

Back at the campsite getting ready for dinner.  The boys are really in their element when we're camping.  Its so fun!

When we arrived at the park and stopped at the visitors center the boys each received a junior ranger book that they needed to work on and attend a program in order to earn their junior ranger badges.  Scott worked so hard on his book, he was required to complete 2 pages, and ended up doing much more.  Then we went to turn it in and he answered all the rangers questions (pretty big deal for my sometimes shy guy) and even took his junior ranger oath.  When we were walking away with his junior ranger badge I told him I was so proud of his hard work and he said "Yeah, I'm proud of myself." It was definitely one of those parenting-win moments, all you want in the world is for them to work hard and be proud of themselves.

The next day Scott helped Owen work on his and earn his badge also.  God help me if I ever lose those badges by the way, they have been in the boys' special drawers since we got home and they look at them and wear them frequently.

Mimi and I strolled around the campground that first night just to get some great shots of the sun setting against the canyon walls.

Stunning, no?

Then it was campfire time.

This guy was such a helper this trip and did all the dishes from dinner many of the nights.

Smores:

The next day we faced the freezing temperatures and hiked up Weeping Rock and the Emerald Pools. The boys were AWESOME hikers doing at least 5 plus miles that day.

Scott and Papa at Weeping Rock:

Mimi and Papa and the boys:

On the way up the Emerald Pools hike:

Love adventuring with this kid.  Also Papa in the background looks a bit like Indiana Jones to me!!! 

Baby dude hiker:

Brian at the top of the pools.

The next day we headed into town and I ended up getting sick, I have nothing to show for that whole day, though I'm sure everyone else managed to have some fun around the campground while I laid in bed.

The following day we did the riverside hike and then stayed to play in the river for a while after our picnic lunch.

Reading by the fire that night...perfection:

We had planned to move onto Bryce Canyon mid week but we had heard they had lots of snow on the ground and we were already facing pretty cold and windy conditions so we decided to stay put instead of head out for a 5,000 ft elevation increase.  The day we headed home we decided to detour to The Valley of Fire just north of Las Vegas for lunch and a little hiking.

The boys had tons of fun in the caves.

Lunch spot.  Brian busted out the grill right there and cooked us a great meal.

Cave people.

Petroglyphs on our hike:

Daddy and Owen high up on the rocks:

Scott turned out to be quite the little climber.

It was an amazing trip.  On the way home we made a list of our next places we want to visit.  The lists seems to be getting longer and longer and I'm excited for all our adventures to come!!!!