Jamie and Andy's kids had spring break the same week we did so we decided to meet up in St. George for part of the week.
We left Saturday after Dan went skiing for a couple hours. We had just been there the weekend before so it was easy to pack up the car again and make the drive. Olive is at a kind of difficult age for road trips but she's happy for the most part:
We got to St. George and met the Marinos's at Pioneer Park where they'd been playing for a while. Dan took Andy and the boys to the crack in the wall while the little kids played. He took a picture of this chuckwalla he saw (you have to make the picture big to see it). It was a huge lizard and we'd never seen one before.
We grabbed some dinner and went to the house to turn on the hot tub. My parents were coming the next day and using the condo so the Marinos's got to stay with us at the Brower's house, which was much more fun than being in separate houses!
It was conference weekend so on Sunday we all sat down to watch the first session of conference. We packed lunches and snacks so we could leave for Zions right after it ended. We met my parents in the park and went to easy hiking trail that leads to the Narrows. It was a beautiful day and not as crowded as I thought it might be for spring break.
We stopped by the river to play:
My dad always has his camera with him and set it up so we could take a family picture.
He didn't have the right lens for portraits but they're still great pictures!
We made it to the Narrows and, as predicted, the water was
freezing. Dan, Andy, Jackson and Max hiked a short way into the canyon while the rest of us turned around and they would meet up with us later. We knew hiking back with these ones would take a long time:
Olive does not like to be carried in the ergobaby and she is one slow hiker!
Alta and Carter slid down this rock face over and over:
Carter, Alta and Ellie had a lot of fun playing the whole trip. My mom took this picture while I was behind with the slower ones:
We all made it back and drove home so we could have time to cook dinner and hot tub again.
We decided Monday would be our razoring day. We weren't sure the Mazda would be able to tow both rzrs, and on top of that we forgot our trailer hitch. Dan eventually got it all figured out and the mazda towed better than expected. Dan, Andy, Jackson and Max headed out to the sand dunes first while we had some downtime and Olive napped. My parents came to hang out and play some games:
We all drove to Sand Hollow to meet the boys and take turns on the razors. Grandpa had suckers to keep the little kids happy:
I'm pretty sure Max threw up after riding too much but he and Jackson both had so much fun:
Quinn was hooked and got mad when it was anyone else's turn:
Uncle Dan and Carter:
I think my mom took this picture, she loved her turn on the razor too. And the scenery around there is just gorgeous!
Even my Dad got a ride. He said he liked driving better than being the passenger; I think Dan was driving a little too fast!
The kids all loved playing in the sand and on the shore of the reservoir. It was the perfect place to hang out. Olive likes to do the splits "just like Ellie":
We stopped at Jalapeños for dinner (the second time that trip) on the way home.
The last thing on our list was to hike Angel's Landing. My mom offered to watch the younger kids so that Jamie, Andy, Jackson, Max, and Dan and I could all go. We got up really early to make it to the first shuttle into the park (although we were running late and missed the very first one). It was surprisingly cold on the trail and we hiked pretty fast to stay warm! There weren't many people on the trail this early which was nice.
Jackson about to hike up Walter's Wiggles:
Starting the chains. Jackson learned the hard way that he's a little scared of heights!
My Dad had left in the middle of the night to get some star shots in the park and then told us he'd get on the first shuttle and meet us. Since we'd been late we knew he was ahead of us somewhere and kept thinking we'd catch up to him since we were setting a fast pace, but he completely beat us! We finally found him past the first section of chains.
He was worried about his joints and decided not to go to the very top so he turned around and we met him later.
My knees were killing me by the end so I was glad he turned around when he did.
Some shots from the way up:
When I did this hike a few months earlier we had gone at a different time of day, plus a different time of year, and it was cool to see the rock faces completely lit from the sun at this angle. It actually made slightly more nervous since you could
really see how steep and tall the cliffs were.
At the top:
Dan doing this made me want to throw up:
We don't have any pictures of all of us together but we did all make it. By this time there were more and more people coming and it took quite a while to head back the other way on the chain section. Everyone had to take turns since in most places there isn't room for two-way traffic.
Walter's wiggles was so much more crowded on the way down. It was funny to watch everyone so Dan took a time lapse:
We met my dad at the bottom and took the shuttle back to the main entrance. As we were getting off the bus driver said, "Everyone give yourselves a pat on the back for getting here early and being smarter than the lines of people outside". We got off the bus and the line to catch a shuttle went on and on and
on. I have never seen Zions so crowded; it was nuts! Just a glimpse at the beginning of the line in the background:
We checked in with my mom and everyone was happy:
So we grabbed lunch at Oscar's and then headed back to the house. We cleaned and packed and all got in our cars and drove home, very exhausted. It was fun to share our St. George favorites with the Marinos family and my parents!
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