Zion

Keeping this blog updated has been impossible lately. It's driving me nuts!

Anyhoo..........we took advantage of our national parks pass and went to Zion National Park on Friday because Mark had the day off. It's about 60 miles from Cedar City and has always been one of our favorite places to go. It's one of the most visited national parks in the US, and for good reason. It's fun to see how many Asians and Europeans are there, especially during the summer. I know we saw some Swiss, Italian, Japanese and there's always tons of Germans.

Ready for lots 'o pictures?!

We parked on the road, and walked into the park. During the summer, they won't let you take your car in. So instead, you hop on their free trams and veg and take pictures as you zoom along. It's actually quite nice!

 

Luke thoroughly enjoyed the tram rides, because he wasn't strapped into anything. He squirmed and thrashed and tried to walk around the whole time.

Court of the Patriarchs: "Abraham", "Isaac'" and "Joseph"

 We had a picnic lunch under the giant Fremont cottonwood tree that's in front of Zion Lodge.

 Luke found a few sticks, which of course he brandished like a gun and went "KKKKCHHH!!!" 

Boys.

 This rock formation is called Angels Landing. There is a popular hike that takes you all the way to the top, which Mark loves and which I am never ever going on, ever.  When you're up on the precipice, you're 1,400 feet in the air. To give you some idea of how high that is, the Great Pyramid at Giza is 455 feet high.(!!) Lots of people have fallen to their deaths from Angels Landing. Brr.

 The Organ

 We rode all the way down to the end of the park to the Temple of Sinewava river walk. If you keep going up the canyon, you enter The Narrows.

 But we were just interested in mucking around.

It was 95° that day, so it felt good to get in the shade and the cold water.

 Luke got SOAKED. He had such a great time.

The Great White Throne

 Mark showed Luke how to pick up river rocks and huck them into the water. Then that's all he wanted to do for the next half hour.

 Every time he'd throw one, he'd yell "HEEE-YAHH!!"

 Aww! (Too bad it's blurry.)

 That shiny-ness on the rocks is called "desert varnish". See, Mark and I actually did learn something in that Geology of the Southwest class we took together the first year we were married.

 SPLOOSH

 Those kids had so much fun.

 Finally, when Luke got cold and his diaper had taken on about 5 lbs. of water, he consented to get out.

 We had a goal of spotting a deer, squirrels, fish, birds and a lizard. We saw them all! (The animals are quite obviously not phased by tourists.)

 Luke wanted me to take a picture of his feet on the way back.

And then they both zonked out.

 The Watchman

 After we left the park, we made our customary stop at Zion Rock & Gem. Springdale is such a little hippie town, I love it. Reminds me of New Mexico.

 We'll go back soon!

Just Luke

 The other night, Luke was staying up late and had climbed up on our [messy] countertop. As usual. He prefers to only wear a diaper these days.

 He was just being cute and kissable...

 Messing with daddy's mp3 player...

 When he sings, he does this thing where he strums his chest like a guitar.

This is what he does when we say, "Show us your muscles!" Haha.

Then I started to sing "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and he did all the actions. It was super adorable.

 He's been keeping me very busy.

"Whatcha taking a picture of, mom?"

(He thinks that our TARDIS USB hub is his, and he pretends to fly it through time and space. No really, he does. And he can say "Doctor Who" and it is the most adorable thing I've ever heard.)

 This is what I was taking a picture of. I was trying to prepare an etsy order for shipping and this is what he did to the invoice. Sigh!

 I asked Madelyn to show me her toes after we painted them TARDIS blue, and he thought he'd show me his as well.

This was after he had tried unsuccessfully to shove Madelyn's baby stroller into the washing machine.

I did find a balled up, wet diaper in there this morning, though. The other day, we asked him to throw it away and that's apparently where he put it. I'm really glad I noticed it as I was putting clothes in to wash this morning....

And remember how he lost my garage door opener remote two and a half weeks ago? I FINALLY ordered another one and it got here today. I need to start putting homing devices on all my things. I've tried thinking like a 2 1/2 year old to come up with hiding spots for the huge list of things he's helped lose this summer, but he's got me beat. Any ideas? We've turned the house and car upside down and inside out. Maybe when we  move five years from now, we'll find all our stuff.