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| At the top of the "Canyon Overlook" trail at Zions |
Okay, this post probably has the most pictures of any I've ever done, so I apologize, but there were so many good ones and I just couldn't choose. So, I used a lot of them.
Over Spring break this year (April 5-9th), we took a trip to Zion National Park in Southern Utah. We have been trying to plan this trip for a long time and this turned out being the perfect week to do it. The weather was nice- not too hot but warm enough to swim. We had to wear jackets a few times, but that was okay. And, we aren't sure how many more vacations we will be able to take this summer after the baby is born so thought we'd take advantage of this break when I was only 29 weeks along.
It got kind-of stressful a few days before the trip when we tried to reserve a campsite and realized that every site in the whole park was reserved- through the whole summer. I had no idea that it is so popular and hard to reserve! So, we got panicked and ended up calling a few of the RV parks close by and Aaron landed the LAST site at a place called "Zions River Resort" in Virgin, Utah, only about 6 miles from the park. We considered ourselves very lucky. The RV park costed a little more than a regular campsite in the National Park, but it definitely had it's perks. The main thing was that it had a really nice heated pool for the kids to swim and we took full advantage of that! I think this was actually one of the kids' favorite parts of the trip.
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| Erika and Heidi relaxing after a good swim |
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| Kyle was like a little fish- loved the water! |
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Erika and Kyle had fun having
Lucky pull them on their scooters. |
Going to Zion National Park, a place with beautiful hikes, we knew we probably weren't going to be able to do most of them with 4 little kids, but we were able to do 4 that were fairly easy- Emerald Pools, Pa'rus trail, Canyon Overlook, and Weeping Rock. Most of these were pretty easy hikes, on two of which we were able to push the two little ones in the stroller.
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| One of our first hikes- on the Pa'rus trail, about 2 miles and almost flat- perfect with the stroller! |
The Canyon Overlook trail was the most strenuous, with steep uphill trails. Aaron carried Jared most of the way and Heidi was such a trooper. I held her hand the whole time and she was so tough. She kept saying, "I'm tougher, mom! I'm a good climber!" I think I enjoyed that hike the most, simply because it was so beautiful! And, there was a beautiful view at the end.
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| Yes! We made it to the top! |
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| Man, you guys are strong! |
Celebrating Easter this year was a little different than in the past. The kids were glad that he was still able to find us while camping. He hid eggs and baskets outside our trailer that morning. The older kids also got to go on a flashlight easter egg hunt in the dark the night before. We were able to attend a nearby church at LaVerkin, Utah and enjoyed a nice, quiet Sunday together.
On our last day we went on a short hike up to "Weeping rock". It was a beautiful evening and we actually saw at least 7 deer around where we were walking.
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| Can you see the deer in the background? The kids wanted a picture with it. |
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| Erika got pretty close to this deer! |
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| Weeping Rock is really unique as it is constantly dripping with water and was really beautiful. |
Our trip to Zion National Park was definitely a vacation to remember for us. It was so great to get out and enjoy God's creations and to explore a new place. We loved spending quality time with the kids and making good memories.
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| On the "Emerald Pools" trail |
