Spring Break 2015 - Day 3

Our third day of adventure found us in Nevada.  Nate has always wanted to take the  kids to see where his mom grew up and also to explore the Valley of Fire state park.  So we headed to Moapa Valley, a desert if there ever was one.  We first stopped in Overton where Nate's mom grew up.  We found the cemetery where Nate's Grandma Andersen is buried.  Yes, it is a dirt cemetery. Too hot and dry for grass.  

Then it was on to the Valley of Fire.  This was a such a beautiful park.  Not very many people compared to our day earlier at Zion.  Our first hike we did was the Natural Arches trail.  We had a hard time finding the trail head only to realize that it was just a trail of following a dry river bed which meant it was sand.  It was a challenge to walk in, but the kids were good sports.  We were hiking with the end goal of see a double arch but after a couple hours and no arches we decided to turn around.  On our way back we encountered some people who told us the arches at the end and broken in 2010 so we were glad we didn't bother to keep going to the end.  This fact also made us realize why the trail wasn't very cleared marked or used.  :)

My climber.  No Fear.

Lots of sand...

Had to tell Nate to not attempt a jump to the ledge.  We didn't want to have to carry him back to the car because of a broken limb. :)

We did see many mini arches along the way!

Crazy from the desert sun!

Our final hike was a quick one called the mouse's tank to see some petroglyphs. It was obvious that this area was once filled with drawings, but has been weathered down to just spots of drawings here and there.  It was awesome.

Enjoying their prickly pear cactus suckers in the shade of an arch.

Knowing we would be heading home we made sure to visit the St. George temple after eating some yummy Hawaiian food.  The temple was beautiful as always. 

Sadly our trip ended with Gavin getting a stomach bug the night before we drove home.   Luckily no one else got it and we made it home without any throwing up in the car.  (thank goodness)

It was a great Spring Break and we were exhausted but happy to have General Conference weekend ahead of us to relax and listen to our Prophets.

Spring Break 2015 - Day 2

Our second day of our Spring Break get away was spent at the beautiful Zion National Park.  It was the first time we have been there and we loved it!  We spent the day hiking and enjoying the beauty all around us. Here are some pictures to highlight our hikes!

Our first hike was the Emerald Pools trail.  There were 3 different pools to hike too.  The first 2 were fairly easy hikes, but the 3rd upper pool was a little more adventurous.  We were, however, not alone.   There were lots of people hiking with us that day but can you blame them? The weather was perfect and the place is awesome!

Middle Emerald Pool

Upper Emerald Pool

We took a different trail down from the Upper pool called The Grotto.  It was a long path with lots of beautiful scenery along the way.

Gotta love Cactus!

The next hike was the River Walk which leads to the opening of the Narrows hike.  Someday when our kids are older we want to try out the Narrows hike.  It looks awesome!

 We took this picture as we exited the park after a long day of hiking, so of course we had to do our exhausted pose! :)

Spring Break 2015- Day 1

 I decided a couple months ago that we were not staying home for Spring Break this year.  We needed a good road trip away from home.  I decided we should head to sunny St. George and enjoy the beauty of our own state. We were only gone for 4 days, but it was a nice time away from life.  As I was going through pictures I decided not to throw them all in one post so I'll just take it a day at a time.  Enjoy!

We decided to make some stops on our drive down to St. George to break it up a bit.  Our first stop (actually second after a potty break) was to see Cove Fort.  We have driven by the exit for it many times so we decided to finally stop and check it out.  It was windy and cold, but a really neat, little and old historical place.  

After another stop in Cedar city for some food we headed to Kolob Canyons which is part of Zion National Park.  We wanted to get a hike done this day because we had been sitting in the car for too long.  It was a beautiful 5 mile hike to a double arch cove.  We were alone for most of the hike so it was peaceful with only the sound of the stream running next to us.  

Of course the pictures never show how beautiful everything is.  After the 3 hour hike we headed down to St. George and had some yummy pizza.  The kids insisted on swimming in the hotel pool even though it wasn't very warm.  They didn't seem to mind.  I just stuck my legs in the hot tub!! 

Ashlyn's 6th Birthday!

Ashlyn had her 6th birthday on March 31st!  Because her birthday always falls during our Spring Break we had a birthday party a few days before so everyone be able to come before their Spring Break trips.  Ashlyn chose a butterfly theme for her party.  Thanks to Pinterest we had some cute decorations and fun activities for the girls to do.  The girls painted wooden butterflies, made bracelets/necklaces, played pin the butterfly on the flower, broke the butterfly pinata, played musical butterflies and created butterfly cupcakes.  Whew! It sounds like a lot but it really wasn't hard and the girls had fun crafting.  The one thing I learned from it all is that girl birthday parties are SO much calmer that boy birthday parties! :)  

For her actual birthday we made a scavenger hunt for her to find her presents.  It helped make the present opening take longer. :) Then Nate and I took her to lunch to Zupas (yes, she likes it) and then we went and saw the new Cinderella movie.  It was a fun day!

Since Easter was over General Conference weekend Ashlyn wore her new Easter dress the week before.  She's a beauty!  (I can't ever get her to smile normal, oh well)

We sure love having this strong, energetic, fearless, and happy girl in our family!!