SPRING-BREAK MISH-MASH

Blame it on the baby or the weather or my laziness,
but I just couldn’t sit another day in the house staring at all the dirty corners.

so...we made a weekend run 
to Salt Lake for some
swimming and sleeping in
and letting someone else
make the beds.

my poor deprived kids have never had swimming lessons, however they all love the water and swim like little fishes.


"come on Wade...smile this time!"
                                                                                       "gee thanks...much better"

Brett's favorite past time was dunking and                      So Dean evened things up a bit
 torturing Lauren...

           One highlight was going to
 Liberty Park in Salt Lake
   and riding the Old-fashioned   
amusement rides.

The rides were rickety and scary,
especially the Ferris Wheel -

but the “Carnies” were friendly and accommodating.

We came home for a few days
of folding laundry
and watching the snowfall.






The kids were so good while being cooped up during their Spring Break.
So Dean and I decided to forego any Anniversary gifts and fancy dinner for ourselves
and take a last minute trip with the kids to the sunny South.

We headed on down to the land of ZION



We celebrated Kal’s 4th birthday along the way.



I believe it’s a parent’s prerogative to twist the situation to their own benifit.
So we exploited our little Kal.


We told Kal we were going to a hotel and swimming for his birthday.

He couldn’t believe his luck.

He was simply overjoyed with his happy meal.

and the few incidental presents he received were just a bonus after all.

Zion’s Park was simply beautiful.







The pictures speak for themselves.


















Weeping Rock... our favorite since 1994.
(Dean and I first visited on our honeymoon 16 years ago)

I was hoping that all the hiking and heavy lifting and fight refereeing and my toddlers walking vicariously close to the steep cliffs would jump start my labor...but no such luck.  

The lowlight was dealing with the French tourists speaking loudly in their foreign language

as they push past our kids pausing only for a moment to gesture annoyingly at the

 large size of our family

 and large size of my belly.

Maybe I’m just sensitive.

We did have one cute older man and woman who were from Portugal (I think) stop and stare at me and point to Kal and Quincy who were sleeping on eachother in the stroller.

The couple was smiling and laughing and shaking their heads and holding up three fingers.


I really didn't want to tell them that I had four more kids running up ahead of me on the trail.

Lauren chillin on "couch rock" as she named it. She's pretending she's comfortable.

Kal was so out-of-his-head tired. I said he had to stay back on the trail with me.

He laid down on "couch rock" soliciting sympathy from the passing tourists.


It's been tradition for us to stop off at this little fruit stand just outside of Springdale.

This time I was let down to see that it has transformed from a cute little mom and pop fruit stand to a yuppie, organic paradise. (like most things in Zion)

Quincy was so tired of the car...she refused to get back in her seat when it was time to go.

Here she is waving "goodbye" and blowing a kiss to all of us.   She finally decided to come.

We ended our weekend by stopping at
The Big Rock Candy Mountain,
which ironically wasn’t made out of candy like I had always hoped.



Kal and River were likewise disappointed.

Brett hiked up to this point before we realized how high he was.



Just as Dean yelled for Brett to get down...
Brett started slipping and sliding and fell head over heels all the way down to the X.




It was actually kind of frightening to watch.

 Brett was quite bruised up with a few cuts on his hands and knees.

But thankfully that was all.  

We decided to count ourselves blessed 

and pile all our ruffians back in the van and head home.

Around 8:00 pm as we pulled off the Payson exit homeward bound, I turned in my seat and looked behind me with my little ones sleeping and my not so little ones playing video games and I couldn't help feel like the luckiest person in the world.