we decided that since both david's vacation weeks were eaten up with surgeries, we needed to take a long weekend and get out of utah county. phew! what a much-needed breather. we love southern utah, and haven't really done much traveling since having kids, so we were excited to give st. george a try. i was nervous; we haven't traveled much because the boys don't really travel well--they are done after an hour in the car. and after pace's recent carsick episode after driving just 45 minutes, i was bracing myself for having to clean up more carsickness, minus a conveniently-located walmart. everyone tells me they don't travel well because we don't travel a lot; but we don't travel a lot because they don't travel well...vicious cycle.
we thought if we packed everyone up at bedtime and hit the road, the boys would happily sleep while we made the drive. they slept about 1.5-2 hours of the drive, and then woke up cranky because they weren't in their own bed. we finally made it around 1230 (no carsickness, thankfully), and got everything moved into the condo we'd rented. i thought everyone would be happy to snuggle in and fall asleep, but boy was i wrong! max vehemently hated his pack-n-play and screamed like we were pulling out his toenails. so into the bed he came. he kept kicking and playing, and david wanted to "get up early" to go on a bike ride, so i brought max out to the couch, trying to get him to fall asleep. then pace trailed behind...pace finally fell asleep around 330, and max around 4. and then david's alarm went off at 530. needless to say, it was a long night and an even longer day...
(the ride back was made much more manageable by david finding a dvd player with two screens at walmart, and a 4 hour richard scarry movie!)
we hiked snow canyon the next day--perfect weather for hiking--overcast and cool, and only slight sprinkles. pace was really into adding to his rock collection, and david gave him a geology lesson. pace now can tell you igneous rocks come from lava and sedimentary rocks come from "sand squished gedder, like dis" he says, as he squishes his hands together.
max, after sleeping 1.5 hours and not taking a morning nap (and he also wouldn't sleep that afternoon...). at least he was happy feeling the rocks. we made him wail cry himself to sleep later that night in the pack-n-play.
pace is really into "pace-size" things--he was ecstatic when he saw these "pace-size stairs"! and although it isn't terribly in focus, i love the photo under the pace stairs. david caught pace's nonchalant but determined face--his "do it myself" face!
at the end of the butterfly trail there was a outcropping of rocks to climb up for a great view. i stayed down lower with max while david carried pace to the top. he got some amazing photos from the top! can you spot max and me waiting?
sunday, after finding a ward to visit for 9am sacrament meeting, we drove out to zion's park for the afternoon. we rode the bus around the park (for as long as max would let us before he got crabby), and then got off and hiked the emerald pools trail. it was another beautifully overcast and cool day, and was ironically pretty humid for the desert. even though it was the afternoon, the clouds stayed low over the mountain tops and david got some great photos!
the emerald pools trail was quite the workout! it was a very steep trail winding through the mountain side, and was a gorgeous hike. at the very top of the trail is a little mountain pool, and the water trickled all the way down the mountain in little waterfalls. pace loved the waterfalls!--and we even got splashed a little!--i love pace's look in those photos!
there were tons of europeans on the trail, and they were all impressed with us each carrying a little traveler on our backs. everyone in passing gave us huge smiles, and reached out to pat the boys, wave, coo at them, or say wow to us. we had no shortage of willing hands to take a photo of all of us!
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