We were determined to go camping one last time this season but our plans of going to The Little Sahara and rock-hounding at Topaz Mountain were ruined by the weather. This came to no surprise, as this is our life. The weather forecsated the lows in the 20's, so we headed south. Zion's it was. Of course by the time we figured this out, it was too late to make reservations anywhere...again, this is our life! We are so spontaneous!
We took off Friday around noon, after Hannah's first kindergarten field trip! She went to the Nature Center and got to ride the bus!!! YIPPEE! She had a great time!
After a few stops for last minute things (firewood at the neighbor's. oil at Checker, and back home for some bungee cords and booster seats) we actually hit the road at 1:00. Not too bad, considering!
We got to the park around 6:00 or so and found the campground full. Our back-up plan was a commercial RV park about 1/2 mile outside the park. For any of you who know Randy, this goes against everything he believes in. Luckily, we go the last tent site by the river. Of course, not long after arriving, Nathan fell in the cold water. Luckily there was not much water in it.
We spent Saturday hiking around the east side of the park and exploring some cool washes. Hannah came across the freakiest looking bug we have ever seen. We thought surely she had discovered a new species. We were thinking of names for the new insect when our plans were dashed by the ranger who identified the Jerusalem cricket. Here is a picture of the giant creepy thing:
Saturday night, Casey slept in a shelter he made down by the river. Randy and I ended up with Nathan and Emma in our bag and Hailey and Hannah shared a bag because we inadvertently forgot one of theirs. And we all froze.
Sunday we hiked to all three of the Emerald Pools. We were proud of the kids for making it the whole way. Never mind that Randy and I each had a kid on our back the whole time. After lunch, we hiked the Riverside trail to The Narrows. Randy took four of the kids up the river a ways and I stayed back with Emma (who FINALLY fell asleep) and Casey. We opted out for the reason that the water was FREEZING! We were still trying to thaw from the night before.
Sunday night, I decided we needed to huddle together to stay warm so we did a little musical sleeping bags. All 8 of us slept in one half of the 8-person tent. And we stayed warm!
Monday before we left, we did some more exploring on the east side again. We had heard we might be able to see some some big horn sheep there. It was sure nice of the rangers to put a stuffed sheep on top of this rock by the road! It made for a really cool picture...
We found a really neat wash with a giant fallen tree, and a tunnel that went under the road to another canyon. We hiked up that one until it got too narrow to go any further. We found lots of pools of water and some fun climbing rocks. The thing that is different about Zion's versus Arches that we are use to, is the vegetation. There are trees and other plants all over Zion. And Nathan stopped to pick up every stick, pine cone and cool rock he found! He trailed behind singing as he dragged his sticks in the sand. I called him 'Giddy Boy". He was so happy to just be him. It was hilarious! The kids all worked on their climbing skills and Tyler amazed us a few times with his "spider-like" abilities. I must also mention that he started the fire on Friday with 1 match. Every fire we started was the remnant of that first fire. He was pretty proud of himself and his "magic match". He also got pretty good at chopping logs with the hatchet.
We discovered something new on this trip. Apparently, we are a tourist attraction. 'We' meaning, our family. I guess people haven't ever seen a family with six kids- let alone all with blond hair and blue eyes. My favorite (I regret not snapping a picture myself) was the Japanese tourists. Randy had gone to park the car and we were sitting on a rock wall waiting for a shuttle. Two Japanese ladies come up and in broken English and a heavy accent ask, "Seex? Seex?" I nodded. She points to all the kids and then to me as if to gesture, "Are they all yours?" "yes," I replied. She pointed to her camera and asked, "OK?". "Sure," I said. She snapped a few and then along came her buddies. They each snapped a few and then one of them decided he needed to pose in the picture with us- I guess to prove to the guys back home that he really saw us! My kids were soaking it all in like movie stars. You know how hard it is for me to get all of them to sit still for one pose? They sat there through an entire photo shoot! I should have asked for their e-mail so I would have a picture for my Christmas letter this year!
They weren't the only ones staring. Everywhere we went, every time we boarded a shuttle, people looked, and counted and I heard a lot of whispering, and some out- loud comments. They were mostly good and I felt proud of my little brood.
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