First family campout to Zion

We had a GREAT weekend. We left here on Thursday morning and went down to my parents. The kids were so excited to go to grandma and grandpas. They had fun just playing and being there. That night we celebrated my 32nd birthday, yes I am 32 – every year I can’t believe how old I am getting. My mom made a yummy dinner - Thanks mom! Everyone sang to me and I blew out my candles; I blew all but one out – dang! We played some Dutch Blitz – a vonderful goot game! It was the first time I had ever played, it was fun, but maybe that’s because I won! Then my mom and I went to "town". We went to the most awesome place in Cedar to shop – Wal-Mart. I found myself some cute Bermuda shorts, I am way excited about my new shorts. Too bad my legs are whiter than a ghost!

That night Kara did not sleep well. First of all Trent threw up and he was so out of it that he laid back down in the bed where he had just thrown up and fell a sleep – sick! My mom came downstairs and told me that he had thrown up. I went up there and it reeked! I had him take a bath and he didn’t want to wash his hair but I made him because it was covered in throw up – I seriously was sick to my stomach. Anyway, the commotion woke up Kara. I got everything cleaned up in the bathroom and my mom took care of cleaning up the bed. We got Trent back to sleep and I held Kara and fed her for a little while. Then we went back down stairs and she would NOT go to sleep. She would cry, then calm down and start playing. Finally at 4 a.m. I took her and we went to another room. Needless to say, it was a long night and so we slept in until about 8:30 a.m. Then we got up and left for Zion.

When we arrived in Zion we set up our camp. Trent and Tyler made their own little fire pit and pretended to roast leaves. It was a beautiful day!We road up to Weeping Rock on the shuttle bus and then hiked that. Afterwards the kids went down to the river and played in the water for a bit. Then we road up to the Temple of Sinawava. Then hiked the Riverside Walk trail – which was the perfect hike for me. It is mostly flat and is 1 mile up (and of course 1 mile back). It is where the Narrows trail comes out. When we got there the boys and Ray played in the water. I didn’t get in the water, but Ray said it was cold. I remember one time I did get in it and it was FREEZING! Kara was ready to go and kept pulling on me to go and she wanted to get into the backpack. So I got her ready and she kept saying "GO!" that is one of her favorite words. Anyway, we headed out. She ended up falling asleep on the way back, which was good , she needed a nap. Then we road the shuttle back to the starting point and walked to our camp site. Then we went out to dinner at a Pizza and Noodle place in Springdale. It was good pizza! When we got back we stared a fire and roasted marshmallows and made smores. The boys had a blast roasting marshmallows, who would of thought? It was starting to get dark so we got ready for bed. Ray and the boys slept in the tent and Kara and I slept in the van. We folded down the middle and back seats/bench and put an air mattress in there. Kara slept good, I kept waking up cold, for some reason my blankets kept falling off. It also got really windy in the night. I did sleep better than the night before, so that was good.

We got up around 7 a.m. and Ray cooked us some "mountain man breakfast" in the Dutch oven. IT was REALLY good. After breakfast we cleaned up camp and went back to my parents. We stayed there a couple of hours then headed home.

We had a really good time. This was our first time camping as a family, I am sure there will be many more!