Utah Trip

Over the boys fall break we took a week long trip to Utah.  We had been hoping to do it for a while, and the bigger boys were anxious to go back, but we weren't sure with Mark's schedule if that would happen.  When we finally got the word that we could go we were excited to pack as much in to our week as we could while maintaining our travel motto "When it stops being fun, we stop.". The car ride was a bit tricky with a fussy baby not used to being in a car that long, and a car sick William, but we got there in the end, and were so grateful to not be driving any more. 

Our first few days were spent exploring Zion National Park.  We had some hikes planned that we wanted to try, but stayed very flexible for when the boys got tired, or things got longer at one place that we anticipated.  Every day we packed our lunches and found some beautiful spots to stop along our hikes for lunch breaks.  

On our first day we were all excited to see that a deer wanted to stop by and visit us at lunch.  

Peter was much more excited than he is letting on here.

We also had to battle wasps that kept wanting to invade our lunch boxes and had us relocating several times.

The views were beautiful and we kept our eyes out for all sorts of little creatures on our way from potato beetles and lizards to frogs, deer and wild turkeys.

More deer

Wild turkeys

The boys were all such good hikers,

and even Peter seemed to enjoy all there was to see and the "big rocks".

Peter spent most of the time in his special hiking backpack which got lots of comments from those hiking around us.  Many thought he was cute as could be, and were very impressed with his canopy and luxurious hiking arrangement.  I was very impressed with Mark and his ability to carry him up and down the trails for so many days!

Nap time on the trail for Peter.

One of our many beautiful lunch time stops.

The entrance to the Narrows. 

Hiking to the hanging gardens.

The waterfall by the hanging gardens

My favorite hike on the last day in Zion.

Throughout the trip the boys worked on their Junior Ranger requirements, and on our last day they turned in their work and earned their Junior Ranger badges.  

We had our first experience with using Airbnb on our trip as well.  The first place we stayed was amazing and just what we needed.  It was a little tiny house with a fire pit, big yard for the kids to run around in, a kitchen and laundry, and the boys got to sleep upstairs in the loft.

The best part for them, and the thing they keep talking about as one of their favorite parts of the trip, was the ladder they had to take to get up to the loft from downstairs.

Bryce Canyon

By the time we headed to Bryce on our fourth day we could tell the kids were getting a little tired of hiking.  Keeping with our promise to stop when it stopped being fun we decided to cut our two days at Bryce Canyon down to one, and our four hikes to one hike that combined several sites.

Bryce was stunning, and the boys were a bit impressed but at this point they were questioning why anyone bothers hiking and isn't just happy looking at pictures.  We decided to give our hike a try with the promise that we could head back when they wanted to.

So off we went to explore the hoodoos.

Our hike took us from the top of the hoodoos, down to the bottom.

We went through some impressive cut outs in the hoodoos, 

and up through some incredible slot canyons.  

Then we had a formidable hike back up to the top of the hoodoos.  The boys were amazing troopers, and by the end they were glad they had done it.

We finished off at the Visitors Center where they explored the museum 

and earned their Bryce Canyon Junior Ranger badges.

The next day took us on our last and final adventure of the trip, Provo.

When we got to Provo we spent some time visiting the BYU Dinosaur Museum for Peter, who has a new found love of Dinosaurs.

Then we headed to the Bean Museum for some more animal fun.

After heading to the BYU bookstore to stock up on all things BYU, the boys were ready for one of the most anticipated part of our trip- their first BYU football game!

The game far exceeded anyone's expectations when a kind man approached them at the entrance and asked them if they would like to join him in his VIP seats.  When the boys arrived they found treats and drinks waiting for them, along with light up sticks to cheer with.  At half time they were treated to a trip to a heated tent where there was popcorn and ribs, fondue and drinks, dining tables and big screen TV's.  After the third quarter BYU creamery ice cream was served to them in their seats.  By the time I picked them up at 11pm, to head back home to California they had huge grins on their faces and couldn't wait to tell me all about it.  They said they weren't sure they would ever be able to go another game without being able to be in VIP seats again.  After a long overnight drive home hoping to avoid the car sickness and baby craziness, we were glad to be home and were grateful for such wonderful memories.