ZION all day!

Let me preface this by saying yes, I know I skipped a day blogging yesterday. But we were SO tired about our resort was a less than appealing place to set-up shop to blog from :)

Today I have to tell you ALL about Zion National Park though, because, well, WOW! It's stunning.

(there we are, little people on a bridge!)

I will preface this by saying that the pictures absolutely will not do this park justice. It is just astoundingly majestic. The cliffs are towering and the foilage so green, plus the Virgin River. Ya'll, it's gorgeous.

Also, let me just stop for a second and show you my current view, from our new digs in Page, AZ, which is also doubly inspiring:

We will be here three nights, and I am sure I will have a lot more to update you on tomorrow and the next night!

But back to Zion....

We started the day at 5:30am! Woohoo! ha, NOT. It was literally 40 degrees outside, and around 50 degrees in our canvas-covered wagon. Yea, brrrr. Thankfully we had prepared everything the night before, knowing that we would have to get on a shuttle at Zion and not see our car for 8+ hours. So we were able to just basically grab the kids' stuffed animals, make a bathroom stop, and on our way we went. (yay to my sister-in-law for coming up with the smart idea for the kids to wear to bed what they plan to wear the next day! one less clothing change required!)

We arrived to the Visitor's Center parking lot around 6:20am. It was absolutely freezing/windy outside there too, so we had a hard time getting out :) lol. Our next obstacle was finding where to get on the shuttle bus in pitch black dark with only a few parking lot lights. Smart Erin here thought she could rely on the lady in the car next to us to point us the right way because said lady had ridden the shuttles the day before. Lady pointed all the way up a hill to another parking lot with lots of buses. Okay, so we head that way in the cold and wind. We get up there (after I almost literally ran into a mule deer in the woods! those things are not scared of humans at all), and it's a parking lot for all the buses to get repaired, gas, etc. Um, yea. So I run down a maintenance guy. Maintenance guy says the shuttles are back right next to where we park. Insert: cursing the lady from the parking lot. So we walked all the way back and finally made it on the bus :)

Our first stop was the Emerald Pools trail. Because Joe had to run back to the car and did not make our bus, we decided to wait in the historical Zion Lodge. Aaron and Noah played chess, while the rest of us tried our hardest not to fall asleep on the super comfy couches. :) After another restroom break (you can never have too many!), we started on our journey that would continue for the next three hours -- dragging along freezing kids to see the "beauty" of Zion. LOL. Sigh. It was beautiful though!

(so many wildflowers!)

(and more!!)

(also a ton of wildlife! Here's a bighorn sheep)

(I think I took this picture because there was some wildlife?? lol not seeing it now...ya'll see it?)

(mule deer!)

We also hiked a very steep .3 miles up to Weeping Rock, which was pretty, but I forgot to take pictures...either that or my legs were killing me and for ONCE I could not be bothered to pull out the camera. haha

After our two hikes, it was still cold outside. But our main goal at Zion had been and was to hike the Narrows. The Narrows is the Virgin River that runs through narrow canyon walls for 14 or 15 miles. You can hike as much of it as you want. We even bought neoprene socks and waterproof cellphone cases for the occasion! So we were still determined and off we went.

However, we were less than determined at the end of the mile hike out to the Narrows trailhead when it was still extremely windy and cold. Hmm. What to do? The kids were miserable. We plopped ourselves on the sand and rocks next to the river and ate lunch. Still cold. We pulled out the kids' Junior Ranger booklets and they completed them. Still cold. Hmm.

Finally, we saw the sun creeping down towards the river and our bank of sand. So we decided to wait and see if the sun would warm us up and lift our spirits. After about 20-30 more minutes, the sun hit us and BOOM it was like instant rejuvenation. We all got a burst of energy and motivation to enter the crowds in the Narrows.

Timidly, we entered the narrows. Brr. But not undoable. I told Aaron later that I think because our feet were so numb and cold, it made the rest of us (arms, torso, etc.) not seem as cold! lol. Win!

Well, about 5-10 minutes in, the kids were LOVING it. Oh my gosh, I have never seen Brie so happy on a "hike". She became extremely confident and was going by herself pretty soon with many "I got this mom" 's :) Her new favorite phrase. And guess what else? Soon we were in the sun and everyone took off their sweatshirts! It was so much fun. It definitely did get a little treacherous in places, and you were constantly scoping out the best way to go, making sure you go slow, and not tripping over rocks. In the end, I fell (thank goodness my phone was in the waterproof case!), Grace fell, and Noah fell. Brie started to fall once but I stopped her from going all the way. Here are some shots from our adventure in the Narrows!