Zion's National Park

We went to Zion's National Park for the day and had a great time. The first hike of the day was at the Temple of Sinawava. It's a nice paved trail until you reach the end, then it's hiking through the river! It was very cold water and the river rocks were so big and slippery! The river was past my knees in spots, which made it past the kids' waist! What an adventure...

Our next stop was Weeping Rock. It was a short hike, but a little steeper than the first one. Shane sat this one out due to a hurt ankle (from a swimming pool accident). It was such a beautiful place.

It was like rain coming down! Water was dripping all around us as it came dripping out of this huge rock surrounding us.

Our last hike was to the Emerald Pool Trail. Shane sat this one out too, and we had accidentally left our camera in the bag that was with him. So, we have no pictures of that trail. That one took us about an hour to complete. It's a series of 3 pools, but we only went to the first pool. If we didn't have the kids with us (who were extremely tired by this point) I would have loved to go see the upper pool.

Hiking at Zion's made for a really long day. On the shuttle bus ride back to our car Leah was almost asleep and everyone was really tired. We hoped they would all sleep on the drive back to St. George, but once everyone got into the van they were all WIDE awake and fully of energy!?! They did sleep well that night though. We had a great day at Zion's National Park!

Seeing the City

On the schedule for the day was to do a tour of St. George and have the kids play at the city splash pad. We started by eating at the Bear Paw Cafe. I had some awesome strawberry crepes!

We took a few pictures while we waited for the tour to start

The St. George city tour was really neat. There were different actors who played the part of different historical people at each place we visited.
This was us on our tour bus

The St. George Tabernacle reminded me a lot of our Provo Tabernacle. It's amazing what the pioneers could build with what little resources they had. The balcony in this tabernacle was too high at first (those sitting in the balcony seats would not be able to see the pulpit), so they lowered the entire balcony--with only man-power! Amazing!The all-seeing eye

We also stopped at the courthouse and the Opera House. In the basement of the Opera House you can see the mechanism that the pioneers created to be able to lower the entire floor (to slant like theatre seating) for a play, but then raise it so it was level for dances and other things.

This is Brigham Young's winter home. He would travel to St. George in the winter to help alleviate his Rheumatism.
At the end of the tour here we were treated to some fresh figs, peaches and grapes from the orchards and vines on Brigham Young's property and Jacob Hamblin's property. So yummy!




Downtown St. George has a great little splash pad and stream for kids to play in. Our kids had a lot of fun playing there. It was the perfect way to cut through that southern Utah heat!

New Chicks!

These are the first two little chicks that hatched today.

Our Buff Orphington chicken has been faithfully sitting on her 7-8 eggs for the past 21 days.

I'm sure there will be more arriving later today,

but it's so exciting to see these little chicks!

The mommy hen is very protective and treating her babies nicely.

The white chicken in the box next to her should be

having her babies hatch within the next week or so.

Leah Won a NEW Bike!

The school called me today to inform me that Leah had won a new bike! They had done a drawing at the end of the school year for a new bike (they are entered by reading a certain number of minutes). Another little girl had won it originally, and it took them forever to finally get a hold of the family. When they finally reached this little girl's parents they said she had just got a brand new bike and didn't need one.

So, they drew another name...

Leah Lanier!

I told Leah to come sit on the front porch with me.

She knew she had won the bike, but I told her we couldn't pick it up until Monday.

Jon had decided to get it on his way home from work,

and she was SO surprised to see Daddy come home with her new bike!

Congratulations Leah!!

Fishing at Vivian Park

Caleb always gets a little bored while fishing.

You can see it on his face.

A ferret in the middle of the pond

Leah out-fished EVERYONE at the pond

She was catching fish left and right!

The dad's that were sitting next to us were very jealous of her!

She had the lucky spot!

When it was almost time to go, Caleb and Alex finally caught a fish!

I'm glad the kids love going fishing with dad. They always have such a fun time.

It's just sad that it's already July and we've only been able to go once so far this summer!

We'll be making more time for fishing throughout the next few weeks.