a break...for spring

Every few years we try to do a vacation that is JUST a vacation; no family, nobody we HAVE to see, nowhere we HAVE to go etc. This year we were in dire need. Ryan has been uber busy at work, like he gets up at 5 and after getting ready for the day and reading his scriptures he works until he leaves for work at 7. After the kids are down around 8 he works for 2-3 more hours and there is still more he could/should/otta do.

We went to St. George this year and it was so very nice! We drove up Saturday afternoon and spent Sunday after church visiting the church history sites in the area.

We started at Brigham Young's winter home:

The big old cottonwood tree

We don't have pictures at Jacob Hamblin's home but we did go and thankfully Nelson slept in the car for the whole visit. I did not konw that Jacob Hamblin holds the record for most miles traveled on horseback and most number of Indian treaties negotiated - very cool.

The St. George Temple is always so beautiful and the kids had a nice afternoon on the grounds and visitor's center.

The rest of the vacation was spent at Zion National Park. We had such a nice time. The park was not hot, not crowded, and, as always, very kid friendly! Hooray.

On day one Ryan tool the four older children on an eight mile hike up and down to/from Observation Point. It took them all day and they had a great hike and a spactacular view. Isaac was especially proud of himself.

Nice view, huh?

While the big kids were off with Dad, Sarah, Nelson and I did "lazy day in Zion's". We walked down to the river and ate snacks, threw rocks, flew our kite, I read a novel, and got our feet wet. When the need for a potty drove us back to the trailhead several hours later we sat in the car for about 45 minutes so Nelson could "rest" and then played in the creek for another couple of hours. I have to say, it was one of the most relaxing, pleasant days I have every had - happy kids, happy mom, beautiful world - so nice!

See, rock throwing HEAVEN!

Sarah was so excited to fly the kite and it was nice to have it all to herself. It fell in the river a couple of times and finally broke but it was magic while it lasted.

MORE rock throwing at the creek, also sand, sticks and a bridge!

Day two found us hiking Angel's Landing (Not the end part with the chains and dangerous stuff). Sarah was the trooper in this one, it was a steep hike with lots of switchbacks and she did great!

Here we are heading up "Warren's Wiggles" a set of 26ish short, steep switchbacks.

Heading down the wiggles. The kids had a lot of fun telling people "You're almost there!"

I love this picture.

We did some good scrambling on the way down. It was really nice to have our days planned so as not to be in a hurry, we could stop, climb, explore etc and nobody (mom or dad) got antsy.

 

I loved this view with the almost identical mountains marching off into the distance.

Our last day we did a bunch of shorter hikes strung together to fill a day. We started with the river walk and it was a very chilly morning, seriously cold, especially for those of us in shorts. Once we got back out into the sun we were happy hikers once again.
 

Poor Sarah was the most scantilly clad, shorts and a very flimsy sweatshirt, she was a champ and didn't comlplain nearly as much as a few of the other kidos.

Ahhhhhh, sunshine for those poor Arizona children.

It was a fantastic trip and I'm so grateful we got to go. Ryan had several people at work comment that he seemed so rested and relaxed! SUCCESS!

Hope to see you again soon St. George.