Zion Part One!

It's been 2 1/2 years since my last blog post, so that means Zion must be pretty great if it's pulling me out of a VERY long blogging hiatus. Truth be told, I just have WAY too many pictures that I love from the trip to share via Instagram, so this is much easier. So, without further ado, here are some highlights from the first half of our trip to Zion (because I even have too many photos to do the whole trip in one part).

We stayed at Zion Ponderosa Ranch during our trip, which is just outside the East entrance of Zion. It was a super fun place to stay with all kinds of activities including miniature golf, a pool, a zipline and rock wall, a playground, tons of open space, and Jeep tours. The kids would have been happy just staying there the whole time and never even going into the park. The parents vetoed that idea, but we did spend more time than we expected to just hanging out there. The one downside of the place is that the East entrance is a bit of a drive from the main part of the park. I'd still stay there again in a heartbeat and recommend it to anyone with kids!

My sister's family and my parents joined us for this trip, so the kids ended up riding out most of the way in my sister's RV so they could be with their cousins. When we got there, we discovered that Junia had turned her face into a canvas while driving. After arriving, Silas quickly jumped on his bike and spotted deer everywhere.

We stayed in a glamping tent at the ranch and loved it! Here's a couple pictures to give show what they're like.

We obviously kept it super clean.

On our first full day, we headed down into Zion to take the shuttle up the scenic route to the Zion Lodge for lunch. There is a giant grassy area there that is perfect to rest and eat surrounded by the giant Zion cliffs.

After lunch, we went on our first of many hikes to the Emerald Pools. Now here is where the picture overload starts. You've been warned.

Nick's sister and her husband joined us for a day to hike with us! Here we had made it to the lower pool.

Now off to the Middle Pool!

We stopped for a quick rest here and then were off to our final destination, the Upper Pool!

There was not a lot of water, and it didn't look like so many of the pictures I'd seen of this hike. BUT, we were not disappointed! The views were amazing, and it's truly incredible to see it all in person. 

The hike back down...

Part two coming soon (if I don't lose steam....blogging takes longer than I remember 😝.)

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Rock Creek Lake Camping: Part Three

The final part of our camping trip included our longest hike up to Ruby Lake. This was our favorite hike of the trip and included some really amazing views. Along the way, Nick was lamenting the fact that he had forgotten to bring the polarizer for our camera. Suddenly, out of the blue, Eddie (my brother-in-law) stopped and said, "Is this what you wanted?" And there it was. A gift from God above...a polarizer sitting on a rock as we hiked past. The perfect fit for our camera.  And now, we have some pretty spectacular pictures, thanks to the Lord's favor and Eddie's keen eye.  Do you see the rainbow in the clouds above? See....God was smiling on us.

Once again, we took a rest and ate lunch once we got to the lake, and a couple people took a quick dip...a REALLY quick dip. I also attempted to take some pictures with Silas, who was not exactly the most cooperative kid at the time. He became obsessed with putting his finger in my mouth and my nose and eventually wore himself out so much that he just rested his head on mine.

And then Silas took his afternoon nap. 

And rested in the hammock when we got back to our campsite.

The next day we packed up camp and headed home.

The End.

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Rock Creek Lake Camping: Part Two

Nick's birthday was during our camping trip, so he got to choose the festivities for that day.  We drove to Mammoth (not too far from our camping spot) and did a hike to Rainbow Falls, which was a fun swimming spot, if you don't mind cold water. I did not swim, but you probably already figured that out. I'm proud to say that this time, I did the first half of the hike with Silas on my back. It was Dad's birthday after all.

On our drive back to our campsite, we passed this cute little church, so we had to pull over to take some pictures.

Once we were back at our campsite, we celebrated Nick's birthday.  We also had a mini celebration for Silas's birthday, since some of the family will not be able to make it to his 1st birthday party at the end of the month. We enjoyed a delicious peach cobbler cooked over the campfire and Nick and Silas got to open some presents.

I'm almost done with the camping posts. Just one more, I promise.

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