March 21, 2016

Zion Trip Day 2: Emerald Pools Trail

Here we are on day 2! My mom had matching shirts made for everyone which we got A LOT of comments on.  Everyone loved them, especially because our group had so many really little kids hiking on their own!
 Amber took forever getting ready so we had the kids work on their junior ranger badges while we waited.
...and went to the museum for lunch

 ...and we're finally off!
 This hike started out an amazing adventure again, here we are hiking under a waterfall.
 Here is a fun crevice I imagined hiking through a lot more.

 We had a late start so we had a late lunch break.  Everyone was very hungry and tired and I kind of wanted to turn back, but Mom insisted we make it to the waterfall at the end... I was glad she did.

 The hike was pretty intense for our little hikers, but they did really good.

 Here is the awesome canyon we hiked into.  It was well worth it!  The kids played around in the sand and water for an hour!




 Our group that made it to the top!
 Tommy was leading the group on the way up and I was bringing up the rear.  When they stopped for a break I caught up to realize they had let Tommy go off the wrong way without stopping him so I had to chase after him with Tucker on my back.  I was SOO exhausted at this point and their was loads of people in the way on a one way trail so it took forever to get to him. I finally got to Tommy and we tried to race back to get to the rest of the group, but they didn't wait so I had one upset Tommy, and an aching back... I definitely was missing Vic at this point! Here is a cool waterfall, but Tommy wasn't about to smile for a picture. He was determined to catch up to the rest of the group (which we never did!) 
 Tucker was so warn out that he fell asleep in my pack and here is proof that I finally made it back to the road!  It was a rough trail back and we took lots of stops!
 Back at camp, after a good long rest we decorated cookies for Easter. They all turned out really cute!

March 20, 2016

Zion Trip Day 1: Canyon Overlook Trail

Vic started a new job and didn't have vacation time so my mom and Mark talked Amber and I into going on vacation without our husbands!
We left Idaho Falls at 8pm and drove through the night and then again early in the morning so we had plenty of time to hike on our first day.  Here we are at our campsite all ready to go!
 We had to stop by the road for this picture as I felt like we were in the movie of "Cars" and this was the Wheel Well Hotel behind us!
 First we stopped at the visitor center and got our Junior Ranger book for the kids to search for animals and good deeds to do.  Then we were ready to go!  This is Canyon Overlook Trail, it was probably my favorite hike.  The entire thing was a rock climbing adventure.

 There was lots of lizards for the kids to spot.



 This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
 The hike never got boring!


 We made it to the top!





 Amber was supposed to join us in the morning, but didn't get there until night so we went for a late walk when she got there.
 The moonlight was beautiful over the canyon walls!

March 8, 2016

March happenings

This year St. Patrick's Day was only a week before Easter so we didn't decorate for it, but we did a fun FHE night about finding our treasure in heaven.  The kids love any sort of craft and sugar so we had a fun night :) 
 Our finished pots of gold.  We all wrote what things we treasure.
 We made a new treat this year with limited edition Lucky Charms. They were easy and yummy so we'll be doing those again!
 The kids made these rainbows with their finger prints.  It was messy, but fun.
 We went to my mom's house for dinner.

 Tommy is starting to play with his trains less and less.Whitney and Tommy took these pictures, but I need to keep them to remember what my basement looked like for 5 years... covered in train tracks!

 We made some cute cupcakes and threw up a few decorations for Mom's birthday.  The kids love "a party" in any small form!



March 7, 2016

Frozen on Ice

We love Disney and the only way to get a little fun in this winter was to go to the Frozen show in Salt Lake City!  We got a hotel right across the street and made a weekend of it.  The kids loved it!




We hadn't been to Temple Square for quite awhile so we went down there as well.


After SLC we went to Ogden for the train show.  Tommy was super excited for that so Vic took the boys while Whitney and I went shopping!

 I was happy to see that he STILL loves wooden track sets :)