The first week of October we went to St. George with Kate and her family, we originally planned this back in March and had all summer to look forward to it! We left Sunday morning and by the time we got to Farmington we already had problems… We were less than a mile from the Lagoon exit when there was a weird and loud noise on my car, Preston thought I had run something over but I didn’t ever see anything… I was just praying it wasn’t a flat tire! We pulled over, and he checked to find out it was one of the belts on my car that was off or ripped (can’t remember exactly). My uncle Kerry lives in Farmington so we cautiously drove there and luckily he was home to check it out for us. He drove Preston to Kaysville so they could buy a new belt and I took the boys across the street to my Grandmas house. Altogether it took about 45 min but thankfully was an inexpensive and fairly easy fix, then we were on our way again! Kate had pulled over at park in Bountiful and was waiting for us, we eventually caught back up to them in Lehi, and we drove to Cedar City for lunch at Chili’s. The boys were so good in the car the whole way there, I was really impressed!
After lunch we went to Kanaraville Falls and got the kids ready to hike. It was probably my favorite part of the whole trip, honestly. It wasn’t a super difficult hike, wasn’t super busy, and was so incredibly beautiful! We hiked in and stopped when we got to the ladder/waterfall part. It was a log with metal I beam strips nailed to it, and a little rope on the side of the canyon wall to hold on to. There was NO way I was going up that with Emmett in a carrier on my back for sure, but Aiden didn’t even hesitate! That kid is so brave and it makes me so proud! Preston held on to his shirt/arm and helped him up the ladder and they went to the top with Kale and Emma. Kale was nervous and Emma got about halfway up when she went hysterical, and Kate was yelling at Preston from the top to just grab her and pull her up. Sophie practically ran up the ladder too, no fear I tell ya!
After that we drove to the hotel in St. George and just hung out. I was worried about how the kids would sleep because neither of them are great sleepers when we travel in general (which is partly why we don’t travel – ha ha!) I brought a camping cot for Aiden to sleep on in our room and a pack n play for Emmett. The first night they both slept through the night – hallelujah! But after that it was pretty much crap. Emmett was up several times a night the rest of the trip because he got a little cold somewhere along the way, poor fella.
Monday we hiked at Zions. That place, it’s beautiful…! We hiked Emerald pools first, but because of a rock slide you could only get to the lowest of the three ponds, which was a bummer but still so pretty! We had lunch at the lodge, and then hiked the weeping rock. It was short but steep hike, and the view was amazing at the top. It was a giant half circle like canyon – I’m terrible at describing it, but at the top there was water just seeping out of the rock, all around and above you at the top of the trail. Aiden loved touching the mossy/wet areas of the rock and thought it was so cool.
the view looking out from the weeping rock
The last hike we went on was the Riverside walk, which was Kales favorite and my close second (next to the Kanarraville falls hike) because it was mostly flat, there were tons of squirrels on the trail that weren’t shy at all (one tried to nip at Aiden’s hand actually, it was terrifying) and at the end of this hike is the beginning of the Narrows! I would love to hike the Narrows… so I think. But I have to admit that the more I read about it it’s actually very intimidating. I am super claustrophobic so I don’t know if I could do it. Plus the thought of a flash flood while you were hiking it? Scary. But the views are immaculate even on these simple hikes we went on so I can’t even imagine the views on a hike like that or Angels Landing! One day… Maybe. Ha ha!
I really want to go back just Preston and I one time and hike the harder trails without the kiddos to bring along. I would love to do the Subway, The bottoms up Narrows trail, and observation point just to name a few!
Tuesday we went to the Childrens Museum, Wednesday we went to Disovery park and the aquatic center, and the last day we spent the morning at Thunder Junction park before making the drive home. It was supposed to be rainy and overcast all week and it didn’t rain once the whole time we were there, there were a few times where we saw some thunder and it was cloudy but it was nice overall and I’m so glad! Kate and Kale watched the boys one evening so we could go out to dinner and we ate at the Cliffside restaurant. The food was good – not overly amazing, but the view was spectacular. We ate outside on the patio and got to watch some thunderstorms and saw a few rainbows, it was such a fun night!
The drive home was good up until about Provo, when the boys both lost it. Emmett cried which led Aiden to crying… it was great. Then we hit some torrential downpour and a bunch of traffic all at once to top it all off. Overall they did SO great on the way down and back and it was such a fun trip with our boys! We got home Thursday night about 8:30 and Preston left to go hunting the next morning with dad and Jeff. To say I was tired was an understatement.
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