St. George Vacation

We just got back from our little vacay to Southern Utah! And although driving in the car for 10+ hours is not my ideal "fun" we still enjoyed ourselves. The kids did really well on this trip, though I am not apt to get into a car with either of them for a long ride anytime soon! The stress of packing and getting out of the door by myself was almost enough to make me not want to go, but we made it! My generous Aunt and Uncle allowed us to stay in there second home down there, it fit our needs perfectly! (Thanks Kent and Lisa!)

The first day we went to a dinosaur museum. It was really amazing! The building was built over the site that the fossils were found! It was a retired Dr. who was clearing his land. He was cutting out large rocks to sell as landscaping rocks and one of them fell off his backhoe. It was then he noticed a large dinosaur track on the back. The rest is history! They have a huge stone with many dino tracks and can tell a lot about the animals by how close their foot prints are, etc. Truly amazing! Too bad the kids weren't as intrigued as Dave and I were!

The next day the Allen's came and we went to Zion National Park for a hike. We put our girls in the double stroller and had 2 back packs for our baby boys. After a picnic lunch where Hailey got bit by a horsefly and had to freak out about it, we prepared for the hike. We left our map in the car (that was our first mistake) and were relying on someone elses map on the bus ride. We found one that looked leisurely enough to push the stroller on. We crossed the bridge and had the option of left or right. A nice British girl who had just hiked both told us the left would be better for us. (that was our second mistake, listening to a young girl whose belly was hanging out of her cut-off shirt! She odviously has no idea about kids and strollers needing to roll on relatively flat surfaces!) We headed off and the hill got really steep, we kept on thinking it would get better and easier when we got to the top...it only got more challenging to get over the roots and rocks in the trail. Dave and Jeff were lifting the stroller over all the obstacles and it got to the point that we were carrying the stroller more than pushing it! We kept thinking, "it has got to get better, let's just keep going!" We finally gave up and ditched the stroller on the side of the mountain, taking out only waht we needed. The girls were now forced to walk. After carrying them for part of it we got to the middle falls. I let go of Hailey's hand to turn and get water and Hailey bolted for the edge of the cliff that drops off to the lower falls! Luckily Jeff was right there and grabbed her arm before she went off the side! I think she just wanted to play on the chain that keeps people from going over the edge, but it scared me! Hailey and Deon loved jumping in the puddles and then Hailey fell in! Everyone aroudn her laughed and we had to take off her wet pants and socks. Dave, Erica and I went the other way down and Jeff went back to get the stroller. As we went down the other way was so much easier! A nice, large paved gently rolling trail that we could have pushed the stroller down!! UGH! The primary song came to mind "Choose the right!" We should have gone right in the first place! Oh well! The girls did well and we only had to carry them all the way down! It is funny to laugh about it now!

Thanks to the Allen's for such a fun weekend!