Our kids most favorite thing about vacations is visiting cousins. They wasted no time in playing together.
There are girl cousins.
There are boy cousins.
The boys love to rough-house outside. When the girls try to play with them, someone always gets hurt, it seems.
The girls always enjoy a game of dress up and make-believe.
SLEEPOVER!
Amara and Aleya were lucky to have so many cousins sleep over at Grandma's house.
We started at Arches National Park.
Balanced Rock.
We took the short trail to the famous arch, because the long trail would have taken us 3 or 4 hours to get close to it.
It was quite a blustery day and we were getting blown to death.
More arches.
Even more arches.
I convinced the family that since we drove all the way to Moad, we HAD to go biking.
The kids tackled this soft and sandy erosion hill. They would climb all the way to the top and then run or fall down it again. They were pretty dirty.
The kids enjoyed the indoor pool and hot tub at our hotel.
The next day we headed over to Canyonlands.
Suddenly, a snow storm rolled in and it was a total white-out.
We were not prepared for snow.
So much for seeing the beautiful canyons.
Maybe we'll see more another year.
This has got to be one of the nicest places to stay in Southern Utah (and reasonably priced). It is located on the east side of Zion.
We love the cabins. The are just the perfect size and full of charm.
Our kids do the ritual bed hopping in EVERY place we stay. Joseph really got some air.
We heard an owl at outside our cabin and were trying to pick him out in the twilight.
It was a beautiful night.
We treated the kids to buffalo burgers at the restaurant on the ranch. Delicious. Speaking of buffalo . . . did you ever hear the "run of death" family tale? Christian had gone running this morning on the roads behind the cabins and came upon the herd of buffalo . . . outside the fence. The herd began following him and as Christian sped up . . . so did they. His heart raced as he tried changing directions. They continued to follow at a quicker pace. He decided to stop and wait it out. Finally, they stopped following him as a pick-up truck came up and began herding the bison back over the fence. They can jump up to 6 feet high. Apparently, they're pretty clever and get out a lot. Sometimes lodgers awaken to find the herd surrounding their cabin.
Our kids love scaling the interesting rock formations at Zion.
We took a different path this year and erosion continues to make it more difficult to get all the way to the top.
There was a great view from up here.
Our favorite part of Zion is in the upper right hand corner . . . "SE-CRET TUNN-EL!" There is a really long tunnel where you literally drive through the mountain. Our kids sing "Secret Tunnel" which is the chorus to a song from Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon series.
It was a beautiful day for a picnic!
We love hiking up to the lower and upper falls.
Lower falls.
We got a bit wet and muddy.
Upper falls . . . and our camera is working this time!
Joseph climbed as close as he could . . . and got soaked.
On our way back, there were a lot of cool shadows.
Next, our family set off on a bike ride.
Aleya pulled up the rear, so I hung back with her as the rest of the family road at their own pace. We wish we could take more family bike rides together, especially at fantastic places like Zion.
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