Zions

 I will be the first to admit that I am terrible at taking pictures- not that I take poor quality pictures, but that I forget to actually take pictures! 

So for your viewing pleasure here is one of the three pictures I took on our recent trip to Zions:

Playing in the dirt.  Why else do we drive several hours and camp?

I guess it is a good thing that I actually keep a journal since our pictures are hit and miss!  Our trip was lovely.  It was an adventure: Paul went backpacking with Joseph and Rachel along the West Rim ending up with a climb to Angel's Landing and I camped solo with four kids.  We met up after the backpacking requirement was fulfilled (15 miles, 2 nights, etc) and enjoyed a perfect week hiking the Narrows,visiting weeping rock, kayaking at Posey Lake and camping in Capitol Reef. 

In no particular order, here are my top eleven favorite memories from this vacation:
1) Listening to Bananaphone by Raffi about 50 million times
2) Picking apricots in the beautiful orchards in Capitol Reef
3) Kids loving the dirt and gravel so much that they literally rolled in it
4) Discovering the Zion movie playing in the old visitor center which had AIR CONDITIONING, as opposed to the new visitor center which has environmentally friendly "air cooling towers."  We watched the movie twice and considered bringing our sleeping bags down and sleeping there
5) Katie, on her back, hands behind her head and her legs crossed, floating down the green pools of the Narrows
6) Rachel telling me that the first part of their backpacking trip was more spectacular than Angel's Landing
7) Naughty squirrels in Zions that chewed holes in our tent twice.  grrr.  The animals in the national parks have no fear of humans ps we caught them in the tent once which was rather hilarious except now we have to disinfect everything for hantavirus;-)
8) Eating fresh fruit pies and homemade ice cream from the pioneer home in Capitol Reef- for breakfast! (will the kids remember that? I hope)
9) Perfectly beautiful restrooms in all the campgrounds, need I say more?
10) A rock that weeps despite the lack of rain and terrible fires
11) A peaceful ride on the Zion bus after we hiked the narrows.  Everyone was exhausted and 6/6 kids were asleep.  Small sweaty heads leaning against me and beautiful Zion out the window= Zion indeed

Only two children would smile for this picture.  Three were too cross to even get in the picture and one would not look at the camera.  And what had we done to deserve such joy? Forced the children to hike (less than a mile) through a totally flat wash to see the pioneer names inscribed on the wall of the canyon!

Two happy kids!