Zion's National Park

This year we took a quick vacation down south to Zion's National Park/Reservoir. Due to the whirlwind of a summer with job change, house hunting, moving, we found ourselves almost to the end of the summer and without a family vacation. So Craig found us a great deal (we will later understand why) on a VRBO cabin rental in Kolob Reservoir, we cleaned the house so it could show in our absence and we loaded the van.

We packed quickly and made the drive listening to the first Twilight book on the way. Our van was as on all vacations filled with supplies piled all around everyone. We stopped in Cedar City to grocery shop. Our tradition is to give each child/pair of kids a days menu that they chose and have them shop for the necessary supplies. It has become a fun activity to plan and shop for our own menu ideas. It is probably not the cheapest and definitely not the healthiest way to eat, but it saves Mom from the responsibility of meal choice and lets everyone participate. Then at least one person likes every meal.

We loved the drive to the canyon with the red rock, cathedral like formations, plateaus, etc... It really felt like a different world. We struggled for a while trying to find the cabin as darkness approached. The directions were in a couple of different forms and at one point we found ourselves going down a steep and very muddy hill at the edge of a mountain. After a couple of hundred yards we felt that either we were going the wrong way, or if we were we would never get out.
Here are some memories from the first night as the family calls them out.

We got stuck, it was getting dark, we missed our turn, it was very muddy from a rain. We got stuck on the hill. We tried pushing, putting boards and rocks under the tires. We were caked with mud, mud would spit all over us from the smoking wheels. Finally, a resident came down in a big truck and hooked the van up to pull us out. Craig said that his window was fogged up, and the man was pulling him up through a shrub and at breakneck terrifying speed. I don't know how it felt but it was terrifying to watch him come through the trees looking as if he had no control at all. As darkness settled we found the little green cabin shaped like an A. Everyone had to use the bathroom SO BAD. The bath was so small. Craig spent the evening trying to get the water turned on, the generator turned on and everything working. Inside was a tiny bath, Craig said he felt like Sumo wrestler sitting in it, (there was just a shower head about a foot above the faucet and a nice loft and a gorgeous deck. When you went outside there were so many stars.
Craig spent a ton of time trying to figure out how to get power but there was an electrical line that was messed up so we never ended up having electricity. Luckily there were a few gas lamps and with careful useage of the generator we could get hot water and keep the fridge cold. It made the nights come a lot earlier, and made our experience a lot more like camping. It was a long first night but we eventually settled into the loft, the couches and the little bedroom. After Craig and I eventually settled into the hide-a-bed (you know how comfy those are) darkness had settled and the kids were finally asleep we hear the ear peircing sound of an alarm. We discovered that the carbon monoxide alarms were going on. We opened the doors and windows (which became a regular event since we had only gas lamps, tried calling the owners (which required Craig to stand very carefully in the middle of the room) and mostly worried if we were all going to die and sat waiting for alarm to stop going off.
Going without lights.
We had to leave the door open.
We played a lot of connect four.
Landen loved sighting the huge ravens, red tailed hawks, and turkey vultures.

We also liked taking walks from our cabin. This was an lookout point just a couple of minutes from the cabin with an incredible waterfall and vista. We were impressed by Landen's sharp eyes as he spotted a rattle snake and we all loved the bright orange bush growing out of the precipice.

Here is Landen preparing to go to the reservoir in his very patriotic lifejacket. The reservoir was cool, but we had a great time on our tubes and throwing rocks and just relaxing. Breck and Lan especially spent a lot of time together on the tubes.
Landen mastered a very fast belly paddle.

Weeping rock. We loved the cool overhang. Landen liked sticking out his hand and feeling the water that had entered the surface above it 1000 years ago. Talia said it was so slippery. Breck had the stomach flu on the hike day. Talia loved splashing in the streams and looking for tadpoles.

Our day at Zion's was wonderful. Hot and tired for sure, but also breathtaking and awe inspiring. Our favorite hikes were Emerald pools which was a challenging one for us. We were so very hot and some legs got awfully tired. We had brought mostly snacks-pretzels and fruit which ended up also being lunch. I was proud of the kids for making the hike to Emerald pools. I loved watching them play in the cool water in the shadow of such intensely steep and gorgeous rock cliffs.