A few more shots of our trip to Zions

This one's for Marcia.

If you drive up Kolob canyon (you can still take cars up there), there is a really cool tunnel you drive through. It is really long. Took us 3 minutes and 45 seconds to get through the entire thing. And it goes right through the side of the mountain.

Here we are entering the tunnel.

This is what the tunnel entrance looks like from up above.

As you drive through the tunnel there are several "windows" so you can look out over the valley. There are some great views, but you're not allowed to stop in the tunnel so you have to look quick!

Down the canyon a little, you get a glimpse of that window that we were looking out. This tunnel seriously goes right through the side of a huge sheer cliff. Cool. You have to understand my family really gets entertained by tunnels. That was one of the funnest things of our trip last year-all the tunnels on the west coast.

This is canyon rim overlook. We hiked up 1/2 mile to overlook Kolob canyon. Watch Mr. No Fear at the end as he climbs right up to the edge of a drop off.

Here we are having a picnic at the Grotto.

A quick shot of the lower emerald pools. The best place to cool off in the middle of a long hot hike.

And now we are home and back to work for the last gruelling week of school! : )

The Touch of the Master's Hand

Way too many awesome pictures today. I narrowed it down to 20 that I really wanted to post, so I made some collages in order to fit them all in. Click on them so you can see them bigger and hopefully get an idea of the beauty that surrounded us today.

We went on a "brutal" hike today. We will all feel it tomorrow I'm sure. But it was well worth it. The cliffs up here just leak water all over. You can stand under the water and get a cool shower, which feels great after hiking in the heat. But the waterfalls that are created are incredible.

Towards the top of our hike we were surrounded by sheer cliffs as high as we could see.

This is the end of our hike - Upper Emerald Pool. It was so incredible up there.

More water pictures. Some are the Virgin River. Some are the Lower and Middle Emerald Pools.

Our view as the sun went behind the cliffs. Thank goodness for the shade of those cliffs!

More hanging gardens. It's hard to get a good picture. On the right there is a waterfall coming right out of the rocks, but because of the lighting you can't see it very well.

The canyons are just beautiful. So green considering we are in the heart of the desert. Some places we hiked today reminded us of when we were in Oregon.

We found this quote in a museum we went into:

To view the wonders of creation

Is to look into the heart of God.

Michael Fatali

Well said.

Day 2 - River Walk

Saturday we actually went into the park. You can't take cars into the canyon anymore. You have to ride buses. So we pick up one bus outside the RV park which takes us up to the canyon entrance to get on a tour bus. Needless to say, the buses were standing room only today. We got lucky and got seats, though. Good timing I guess. Jarod wanted to stay on the bus all day. Who wants to hike when the bus takes you all over the place?!!??

Water child again. We walked down the River Walk trail which takes you into Zion Narrows. To hike the narrows, you actually have to get into the Virgin River. The water is too high right now, so the narrows are closed. But we did get to play in the water a little at the mouth of the narrows. That is some seriously cold water. Didn't bother Jarod one bit. He is the only one who went wading.

This is so cool. They call it a hanging garden. Flowers just grow right out of the canyon wall. The rocks "weep." Water pours out of the rocks which allows the flowers to grow.

Here is a close up of the flowers in the hanging garden. They are sooo pretty. We were lucky to be here right when they are blooming.

So we've been camping enough to see lots of squirrels. Some very brave ones too. But I have never seen anything like the squirrels here. They literally just sit in the middle of the trail and wait for someone to feed them (which is illegal by the way). We ran right up to them, jumped over them, yelled at them. They just sit there. Even if you are about to step on them. They don't care at all.

And here is my monkey. He climbed on EVERY rock along the trail. Then he told me I needed to put every single picture on the blog. So I had to create a collage. You can't see them very well, but maybe if you click on it it will enlarge. I don't really know how to do that.

It's really pretty here. Looking forward to (fighting the crowds and) seeing some more cool stuff tomorrow.

Zions Day 1

Oh my goodness! I think everyone in the western United States is here at Zions! WOW. I have never seen so many people in one place at a time. But we knew there would be a lot of people, so we're dealing with it.

It was a long drive and VERY windy. There were a couple times we thought the wind might just blow our trailer right off the road. But we made it thank goodness. It was good to get here and get settled. The boys enjoyed playing on the playground while we set everything up. It's right next to where we are camped.

Just hangin in the trailer. Pretty sure Jarod is aiming that little foot right at his brother's face.

Here is where we are camped. It's an RV park, so neighbors are right out your door. We have neighbors in this empty spot now. But no annoying neighbors thank goodness. We are about 100 yards from the Virgin River. It is running high and fast right now, so we are keeping the kids away from it.

Didn't take the kids long to hit the pool. It's not too hot here, but hot enough that an afternoon dip is nice.

What????

Serously? Snow at the end of May? There go my tomatoes. Again.

Bed for sale

I am really not sure why we have spent money on a bed for Jarod. Here is where we found him sleeping last night. Pay attention to what is under him: Yes that is a LAUNDRY BASKET. Can that really be comfortable? Sleeping in a laundry basket? And yes, he was still there when I woke him up for school this morning. My son is so strange.

By the way, the laundry basket is full of his clean laundry that he was supposed to be putting away before bed.

Mmmmm....

This one is especially for Grandma and Grandpa. : )

Sunday night is dessert night. We try (try being the key word) not to eat dessert any other night. Well, mom was getting kind of tired of things that come from a box like brownies, cupcakes, etc. When I was at the store I found that strawberries are in season. I thought it might be kind of fun to have chocolate dipped strawberries. Oh my word! My kids went nuts!!

Here they are all digging in.

DJ managed to get chocolate ALL OVER the place. I think he just started dipping his whole hand in the chocolate.

Lindsie had it all over her face. Notice she is no longer dipping the strawberries - when they were gone she just got out a spoon!

Jarod just dipped the strawberries and licked the chocolate off them. I thought he was just eating slow and enjoying it until Dean pointed out that he wasn't actually eating any strawberries.

Well Grandma and Grandpa - only 103 days until you come home. We'll have you over for some nice fresh (thawed) strawberries dipped in chocolate!