Zion National Park 2016

For the second year in a row we decided to head to Zion's just before Lennon's birthday. There's nothing better than a little camp out getaway in February to get away from the cold. 

(Friday)

We got to our campsite Thursday night around 6, just before the sun went down. We camped in Virgin, just outside of the park, up Kolob Terrace Road. We used a website that has free campsites to find our spot. It was really nice, just up the road from town, right next to a little river. When we first pulled in Lennon started yelling "Adventure! There's the moon! Adventure! I love it!" He was so cute. 

Friday morning while Kyle cooked breakfast me and Lennon walked around and followed animal tracks that we found in the sand. Then threw about a million rocks in the river, that's really all he wanted to do the whole trip. He could stay at the river for hours. 

We drove into the park and went through the long tunnel and everything, Lennon thought that was really cool. Then we went up to the Mount Sinawava trail and hiked up until it turned into a water hike, then we stopped and had a little picnic by the river. It was warm all day but there was been a little breeze that made it just chilly enough that we had to keep our jackets on. 

(Saturday)

Saturday was a little warmer, the sun was out and there wasn't as much of a breeze. We hiked up a dry canyon bed in Zion's that went through some slot canyons. It's the same hike we did last year when we came down. It was so fun to see how much he's changed since then. Last year he couldn't walk yet so when we stopped he just sat in the sand, played with rocks, smiled and laughed. This year he was so excited the whole time riding in the back pack and then when we let him out to play he ran everywhere, threw rocks, stacked rocks, climbed the big rocks, and kept running up to me saying "This is fun mama!" 

We got back to camp around 4 and packed up to head home, Sunday was Lennon's birthday party at Grandma Pat's and we had a construction vehicle cake to make :) 

Happy Camper



Our little rock climber



Camp site



Beautiful morning view from camp



Critter Tracks



His happy place



Lennon and Dada



Trail runner

Cake mix cookies

My new favorite cookie recipe... Don't mind the snap chat screen shot, it's the only picture I have if these amazing things. 

I used a Betty Crocker recipe I found online. The recipe calls for devil's food cake mix, which is what I used the first time I made these and they were amazing. Since then I've used butter pecan cake mix, white cake mix, and red velvet and they've all been great. The white and red velvet are the ones in the picture. I follow the recipe pretty much exactly other than that. I've found that the dough really needs a full 30 min in the fridge or it's too sticky and hard to scoop. I also use parchment paper on my cookie sheets. 

Ingredients

1

box Betty Crocker™ SuperMoist™ devil's food cake mix

1/3

cup vegetable oil

1

teaspoon vanilla

2

eggs

1/4

cup sugar

Directions 

• 1 Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). In large bowl, mix cake mix, oil, vanilla and eggs with spoon until dough forms.
• 2 Refrigerate dough 15 to 30 minutes or as needed for easier handling. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in sugar. On ungreased cookie sheets, place balls about 2 inches apart.
• 3 Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Store tightly covered.

Snow shoeing!

Today my grandparents watched Lennon so Kyle and I could take the snow shoes out. We went up American Fork Canyon and started on the Pine Hollow trail. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was up there, everything was coated in fresh deep snow and it just looked awesome. We hiked up about two miles, just past the mud springs turn off. We had hoped to go up all the way to mud springs but the trail sort of just ended after the turn off. The snow was seriously so deep, we tried to forge our own trail and keep going but Kyle sunk down to  about his hips so we decided to turn around. Coming down the mountain was the best part, as it usually is. We went quick and even jogged in the snow shoes part of the way. I took way too many pictures but I couldn't help it, it was awesome today! 

Utah is rad!

Such deep snow!

Lunch stop 

Day date!

First time using ski poles

A couple days in Wallsburg

Well we had a fun couple of days up in Wallsburg at the cabin. We drove up early Sunday and stayed until this afternoon (Tuesday). We watched 7 of the 8 Harry Potter movies while we were there and that was pretty awesome. On Monday we spent a good portion of the day in Midway. We stopped at Wasatch Mountain State Park and went into the visitor’s center and then walked around a little bit. There were a ton of ducks and Lennon thought that was pretty cool. We also saw a ton of turkeys everywhere, huge ones. After that we went to the Heber Valley Artisan Cheese store, they had free samples and a big window so we could watch them making the cheese. This morning we went on a little snow walk/hike up the canyon. It was so pretty and such nice weather. Everything in Wallsburg is covered in such deep snow, it makes everything look pretty. Lennon like eating the snow and icicles, it's pretty much all he talked about the whole time we were there, it was so funny. 

Eating Snow

Watching the ducks

"Pretty horsies"

Our Colorado Trip

I don’t know when I’ll be able to actually put this on the blog, we haven’t had internet for a while, but I figured I would type it up now and post when I can. We are having so much fun on our “Tour of Colorado”, as I’ve been calling it. We spent the first two nights camping at Golden Gate State Park campground and it was so pretty there. One day we went on a 3 mile hike to Dude’s pond and then through the mountains, it was really pretty but there were a lot of bear warnings so I banged sticks together the whole time to try and scare them away. After our hike it was raining pretty bad so we drove down to Golden (the town) and ate and shopped around a little. Other than that we had perfect weather there. Lennon loved running around the camp and throwing all the rocks he could get his hands on. He thought it was funny to run away from our camp and have us chase him down the road and one day when he was doing that he tripped and fell flat on his mouth and nose. There was blood everywhere and he got a huge fat lip, it was so sad.

After we left the state park we drove up to Boulder and shopped, ate lunch, and played at the little splash pad for a minute. It had been 3 days since Lennon’s last bath and we figured the splash pad would do him some good. We really liked Boulder, there was a whole street closed off just for people to walk, shop, and eat. There were street performers and everything. Lennon’s favorite was the banjo player so we let him give the guy a dollar bill.

From Boulder we drove up to Estes Park, it was pretty cold up there and raining a bit so we decided to stay at a hotel for the night, it was good to give Lennon an actual bath and sleep in a real bed for a night. The hotel had a nice big indoor pool and we had a lot of fun. We woke up and went to breakfast for my birthday. The waitress gave Lennon a toy dinosaur to play with and he was the best he’s ever been at a restaurant. It was a really nice birthday morning.

 After breakfast we packed up and drove into Rocky Mountain National Park. We hiked to a really pretty waterfall, I’m pretty sure it was called Alluvial Falls. Lennon of course loved the hike, any time he can throw rocks he’s happy, especially when he can throw them into water. We took Old Fall River Road though the park. It’s a nine mile one way dirt road and it’s uphill the whole way. It climbs over 3500 feet in elevation, when you reach the very top you’re at 11,796 feet above sea level. The road itself was really pretty, there’s a guide you can buy at the beginning that tells you what to look for at each mile marker. Once we got to the top it was so windy and so cold. We climbed a bunch of stairs to the very highest point (12,005 ft) and took a picture then hurried back down to buy some hot chocolate at the visitor’s center.

We left the park and headed down towards Lake Granby looking for a place to camp. Every campground online showed that they were full (Labor Day weekend) but Kyle was certain that if we just asked we would find something. So we drove out to Arapaho Bay campground, which happened to be over 30 minutes off the main road, and saw that the campground sign said they were full. Kyle insisted on asking the host just to make sure, and we’re lucky he did. A campsite had just opened up because the campers decided to leave early. We ended up in one of the best sites in the campground. We were camped right on the lake.  It was pretty windy and rained a couple times while we were there but we still managed to have a lot of fun. We threw rocks in the lake and Kyle got in and swam a bit. One day when we were out for a drive we saw a fox right next to the road. It was so pretty. We drove to the little town of Grand Lake on our last morning there, it’s such a cute little town with wooden boardwalks down each side of the road in front of all the shops and restaurants. It reminded us of a mixture of Bandon, Oregon and Alaska. We smashed a penny and bought some fudge and then headed back to camp. It stopped raining just long enough for our tent to dry slightly and for us to get packed up.

We left Lake Granby and headed to Steamboat Springs. We stopped for lunch at a place called The Back Door Grill; they’re famous for their hamburgers. Kyle got a peanut butter, bacon, siracha burger and it was actually really good! Another burger they had was served with a fried egg, peanut butter, and a donut for a bun. I wasn’t sure what to think of all that so I just had a plain regular cheeseburger, it was good too.  From there we drove up to Steamboat Lake State Park and got a really pretty campsite right on the lake. We pretty much had the campground to ourselves, which is nice because Lennon loves to run in the road and into other people’s camps. He thinks everyone is his friend. We went on a nature walk around the lake and saw some bald eagles swoop down for fish, that was really cool. We drove back down to the town of Steamboat Springs one day and spent the day shopping, playing at the arcade, and eating ice cream. It started getting really cold at night while we were up there. We would wake up and our tent would be covered in frost and we would have to scrape the car windows! That’s when I decided we had better be done camping, so we headed home.

We drove straight home from Steamboat Springs and got home at about 9pm. It feels so good to be back in Utah. We loved our summer adventures and our fun week long camping trip but it’s nice to be back home with family and friends.

Sorry for the picture overload, we saw so many pretty things on our trip it was hard to only pick a few. 

Golden Gate Canyon State Park 

Golden Gate Canyon State Park 

Golden Gate Canyon State Park 

Lennon with his fat lip after his fall.

A Catholic church we saw on our way to Estes Park

The beginning of Old Fall River Road

Hiking to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park 

Rocky Mtn. Nat'l Park

Rocky Mtn. Nat'l Park

Our campsite at Lake Granby

Lake Granby

Steamboat Lake. Our nature walk.

Steamboat Lake 

Steamboat Lake 

Lennon and Kyle at Steamboat Lake 

Kyle's Gourmet Hamburger

Headed home!!

I have a bunch of pictures of Forest Park in St. Louis that I wanted to post but that will have to wait, the pictures are on my computer and we're on the road! We're finally making our way home! It's currently just after 4am and we have been on the road for eight and a half hours. I never thought I would find myself driving through the night (sleeping while Kyle drives) but Lennon has been asleep for over 6 hours and it's really just so much easier for us and him. Plus, there's no better time to be driving through Kansas and eastern Colorado than in the middle of the night, there's absolutely nothing to see besides fields and truck stops. We're driving to Golden Gate Canyon State Park in Colorado. We're planning to camp there for a couple nights and then maybe head to Steamboat Springs for a couple nights before we make it back to Utah. It's my birthday weekend so we're just doing whatever we want! :) 

St. Louis

Greetings from Eureka, Missouri! (St. Louis area) We have had a crazy couple of weeks; we made an unplanned trip to Utah, and then flew out to St. Louis where we are now going to be living for the next few weeks. We have only been here for a few days but we like it so far. The only bad thing is the water. It's disgusting, like I can't even brush my teeth with it. It's kind of thick and slimy tasting, barf! So we are keeping the fridge full of bottled water. The weather is crazy too

, yesterday it was cool enough that we wore jackets all day but Sunday it was so hot and humid we couldn’t go outside. We left the Subaru back home so the stroller is me and Lennon’s main form of transportation these days. Luckily there is a park, grocery store, and ice cream shop within walking distance. What more could we need. The park is one of the nicest parks I’ve been to, it’s really new and big and Lennon loves it. There are a lot of things we are excited to do and explore with our time here; I almost wish we could stay a little longer to be able to see it all. The zoo and a few museums are free, they are all pretty close together and there is a trolley that runs all day between them. It’s only $2 for a day pass on the trolley and it stops at about 8 different places so I’m thinking that might be what we do this weekend. We already tried to go to the zoo on Sunday but as I mentioned, it was such a hot muggy day and we couldn’t stand to be out, neither could the animals. The only animal we actually saw was an elephant. So we’ll give that one another try earlier in the day. We went to Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard. Several people told us it was the one place we just had to go to. It was seriously AMAZING! I can see why so many people love it.

The park

Our apartment

Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard

Next door to us, and so good.

The only animal we saw at the zoo.