Trip to Zion

A few weeks ago we took a family trip (with Grandma and Grandpa Sugar) to Zion National Park.  I was very apprehensive about going on this trip with a 3 month old baby, but especially because of Aspen's car issues.  Aspen screams at the top of her lungs the entire time we are driving in the car.  She says, "Too Tight!" and "Get Me Out of Here!" because she doesn't like being buckled into the carseat. So in preparation for this trip I bought the girls some prizes from the dollar store (a puzzle, coloring book, special treats, a My Little Pony, etc.).  I set a timer for every 30 mins. and if Aspen could make it that long without crying they could pick something from their prize bag.  (Isaac thought this was a bit ridiculous, but I would just say, "Do you really want to listen to her scream for 4 hours straight?".  And in the end I think he came around to my method of bribery.)

Isaac found a really nice home in LaVerkin to rent (because we weren't going to camp with a tiny new baby).  We got to the house around 9pm.  Sophie and Aspen quickly ran in and made themselves at home.  They were so excited and Sophie kept saying, "This is a really nice house!".  Renting a home cost the same as two cheap motel rooms would have, but it was so much nicer.  The house had a huge master bedroom and bathroom (that my parents slept in).  And then there were two other rooms, one with a queen bed for Isaac and me, and one with two twin beds for the girls.  There was also a nice little kitchen and eating area and tv room.  With young kids who nap and go to bed early, it is so much nicer to have some separate rooms so we can still watch a movie after they go to bed.

As we were unpacking the car that night, Sophie ran outside and pointed to the stars and said, "Look I see the Big Dipper".  She has learned about constellations on some of her PBS shows, but I was floored that she could translate that to the actual sky that quickly (especially because we don't often see the stars clearly in the city).  That kid is so crazy smart it scares me.  I don't think we challenge her enough.  And she remembers everything.

The first morning we all piled into our van and drove to Zion.  We took the shuttle up to Weeping Rock and did that short little hike.  Isaac was explaining that the word "weeping" meant "crying", so the rest of the hike Aspen was talking about the crying rock.

Once we reached the top, my dad made the girls re-create a photo of him, Jamie, and Jason from many years ago.

Then we took the shuttle up the rest of the canyon to the Narrows.  I didn't remember it being such a long hike to the exit of the Narrows.  But the girls were getting tired and Luke needed to nurse, so we didn't make it the whole way.  Aspen was a good hiker, but kept stealing Grandma Sugar's walking stick.  And so many people commented on how cute the girls were with their own little Camelbaks.

We then took the shuttle back to the Zion lodge where we ate lunch and Grandpa bought us ice cream.  It was a really nice little treat.  The girls were exhausted so we drove back to our rental home so Aspen could take a nap.  Sophie and Aspen started calling the house the "neighbor house".  It was really cute, but then one time Aspen started asking about the "egg house".  We were all really confused until my mom remembered some weird little shed with eggs in it along the side of the road.  When we drove by she asked Aspen if that was the egg house and Aspen looked at her like she was crazy.  When we finally got back to the neighbor house we noticed a basket full of ostrich-size eggs on the kitchen table, so we figured out where "egg house" came from.

Aspen napped until really late that afternoon, so we didn't have time to go back to Zion.  Instead we went out for dinner at a pizza place.

The next day we decided to hike to Emerald Pools.  We took the Kayenta trail down the canyon to the pools.  It was a really nice trail with great views.  We got to the middle pool and my mom decided to rest while the rest of us went on the more strenuous trail to the upper pool.  The girls took off and were really enjoying scrambling over the huge boulders.  They were such great hikers and on this trail they left Grandpa in the dust.  Once we reached the upper pool there was a huge crash of thunder and it immediately started hailing.  Sophie and Aspen started yelling that we needed to hurry back down to the egg house.  The hail was pelting us pretty hard, and we all left our jackets with my mom at the middle pool.  I was worried about Sophie's arms because she wasn't wearing a jacket, so I let her wear mine.  But by the time we made it back to my mom, my arms were sore from all the hail.  Aspen was in the pack on Isaac's back and saw a piece of hail and said, "Look a coconut".  She's crazy.  I was worried the girls wouldn't be happy with the weather, but they were laughing the whole time.  Luke was the best trooper of all.  He slept through the entire hike and didn't even wake up when the hail started.  He was nestled snugly in the Baby Bjorn with his big, warm coat on.

We debated whether we should keep hiking or wait out the storm, but we decided we needed to get back as soon as possible.  I held Sophie's hand most of the way so she didn't slip in the mud.  But I was the most concerned about my mom with her bad knees.  The girls did such a great job, but near the end of the hike Aspen was looking cold and tired.  And as I was walking I kept hearing Sophie sniff.  I thought her nose was running from the cold, but when I looked down she was quietly crying.  I asked what was wrong and she said she was tired.  I was so impressed that she wasn't whining or anything.  But Isaac then picked her up and carried her the last 1/2 mile to the lodge.  We all went inside for lunch and were all soaked and tired.

We went back to the rental house for naps and when Aspen woke up it was really windy, so we decided not to go back to Zion.  Isaac took the girls for a short bike ride around the neighborhood while I fed Luke.  We then cooked dinner and had a nice relaxing movie night watching the new Star Wars movie.

On Saturday we decided to skip Zion because it was windy and free national park day.  So we drove to Snow Canyon by St. George.  We were going to let the girls play in the sand dunes, but it was so windy we decided to skip that.  It was also too windy to bike the trail we were hoping to do, so we walked around the petrified dunes while having sand blow in our eyes.  We ended up doing a short hike to some lava tubes.  We forgot to bring our backpacks with water and thought Aspen could walk, but after a short way it ended up being a disaster because both girls were exhausted and wanted to be carried the whole time.  We eventually made it back to the car and had lunch in a little grove of trees out of the wind.  The girls were done and it was time to drive home.  Thankfully Aspen was so pooped she slept half the way home.

Overall it was a really fun trip.  It was nice to have my parents there to help with the kids a little.  We had a really nice place to stay so we were able to relax comfortably when we weren't hiking.  Sophie and Aspen were hiking champs, and Baby Luke was a complete angel and didn't fuss the whole trip.