Zion's National Park

 When I was young, my parents took us camping at least every year in the summer.  I loved it.  David and I have taken our family camping a few times in our 10 years of marriage, but the more children we have, obviously, the harder it gets.  Rachel is 9, and the need for family time, and making memories seems to be going faster than I like.  We planned a lot this summer.  David's job makes it hard to vacation during the school year, so most of our adventures will happen in the summer.   This is our trip to Zion's National Park, and our family loved it.

 Loading up our van is always tricky.  7 people, 2 tents, 7 sleeping bags, 3 air mattresses, a grill, 7 pillows, 7 bags of clothing, 1 cooler, 3 boxes of food, paper products, and cooking gear....plus whatever else we needed took up a lot space, but it fit.  David is an amazing packer.

 At Zion's National Park, they have a shuttle bus to trasport people to all the different locations.  It was probably one of the highlights for the kids, they loved riding in it.

 Just one of the majestic pictures of Zion's huge moutains.  I was continually amazed and awed at the scenery, it was beautiful.

 Bekah and David on one of our hikes.  The trails we went on were paved and it made taking Bekah in the stroller easy.

 Rachel, Nathan, Katie, and Sarah.  They posed for about everything.  There were a lot of fun trails just right for kids.  I told the kids to stay on the trail, and Sarah said, "I just want to explore."  And it was a great place to do that.

 We set up two tents, Sarah, Katie, and Rachel, got a small two man tent.  They spent most of their time giggling themselves to sleep, but, for those of you with sisters, that is what you do, right?

 Tadpoles, the kids were fascinated with them.

 This was the Riverside Walk, on the way to the Narrows.  It was beautiful, and full of fun water to play in.

 My camera abilities are improving.  This was a lone flower on the trail.  So pretty.

 Every squirrel we found, Nathan was chasing.  This is Nathan on his knees, trying to coax a squirrel to be his friend.  Those little squirrels were everywhere.

 Our campground was perfect.  It had enough shade to cool us down in the heat, and space to have a fun time together.  We only got yelled at once to keep our baby quiet.  The ironic thing was the people who yelled at us were the ones staying up till midnight playing really loud games.  I was tempted to poke Bekah awake to keep screaming through the night, just for fun.  David is more saintly than I, and was more dilligent in keeping Bekah quiet through the nights.

 The park has a nature station that is geared for kids.  They can try on ranger gear, play with puppets, take classes on animals, color, study insects with a magnifying glass...we didn't sign up for the classes, but I might try it next time, the kids had fun just looking this time.

 Fish

 Wild turkeys.  This was the only one we saw.  I tried to get a picture of Nathan and Sarah chasing it, but I was laughing too hard.

 Sarah is holding a tadpole.  She and Nathan found that they could catch them and let them go again.  They were pretty brave compared to the rest of us.

 We saw a lot of deer, and the kids never got tired of it.  This one was not afraid of anything, and came really close to us.

 Weeping Rock was a really short hike, but just beautiful.  We got kind of wet, but it was one of my favorite scenic landscapes.  This is just a picture I liked from the area.

 Okay, this little lizard was found in our tent when we were cleaning the tent out.  David caught it, and I have a feeling it might have been there with us for the whole trip, which kind of gives me the willies.  I like sleeping free of living creatures besides family.

 Katie found a fun whole in the rock.  All the kids wanted a picture in it.

Bekah was filthy for most of the trip.  I tried keeping her somewhat clean the first day, but after that day, I was too tired to keep up, and we were both much happier when she was dirty.

We really had a wonderful time.  I was excited by how much our family could do at this park, and how much fun each of our children had.  We traveled about 1 1/2 hours, and camped for three days.  It was worth it all, and we plan to go there again.