Spring Fever

Marci and I braved a trip to St. George with the 10 children this year for spring break.  It's great that our breaks coincided and that our husbands work horrid hours this time of year so we were ready for an escape.  We had some time to kill before we could check into our condo so we stopped for a looksee at Cove Fort.  It was a cool place, and the missionaries gave a fun little tour.  

 After a quick dip in the pool (it was windy and not exceptionally warm) we settled on dinner at this little Mexican joint.  Most of us thought it was pretty tasty.

 Getting settled for bed with some pre-sleep television.

 Bright and early we left for Zion to hike to the Emerald Pools.  The kids were so well-behaved and really did a great job hiking all day.

 Cutie Patooties.

 Me with my brood.

 Troopers.

 Lower Emerald falls.

 Headed back down via the Grotto trail.

 A quaint lunch in the parking lot at Zion. When we got back to the visitor center, we were soooo glad we'd decided to get up early. The line to get on the shuttle was an hour wait. Yikes.

 We left the main area of the park and decided to hike the beginning part of the Subway.  It was flat and had some snow to throw and streams to play in.

 At one point, Tyce said he needed to go to the bathroom for about the 4th time in an hour.  We quickly found a tree.  Within moments, Wyatt, Jaren and Finn all announced they too needed to go.  So within a few feet of one another we had 4 boys going to the bathroom. The one who went number 2 will remain nameless.  Ha ha.  It was quite a sight.

 So fun rocks to climb and discover.  Claire only carried 6 rocks in her pockets back to the car.

 Little buddies.

 Tyce had a hard time picking up his feet in any sort of fast motion on the way to our turning point, but on the way back to the car, he and Finn ran THE entire way.  It was awesome.

 They also thought they were quite big and just headed right across this little bridge all by themselves.

 We stopped at Dairy Queen for an after-hike treat.

 Of course some more swimming in the evening.

 Claire got flippers and a snorkel for her birthday and was finally able to use them.  We need a little work with the flippers, but she loved them so who I am to say anything.

 Because the water and air temperature were not to my liking, Tyce would jump in and Claire and Wyatt were great to push him back to shallow waters.  Parenting at its finest right there.

 Caught this rare, but sweet moment on the way to the shuttle the second day in Zion.  They DO like each other!

 Tyce was all about holding Wyatt's hand.

 This day started out sooo chilly, and sooo early, and everyone was sooo done with hiking.  Ha ha.  We still managed to eeek out some smiles though.

 We did a couple little trails before eating lunch and calling it quits.

 Libbie and Mia were weirdos and decided they didn't need jackets so Libbie carried the backpack and used it for extra warmth.

 After hiking and some more swimming, we went to dinner at One Hot Grill in St. George.  One of the best hamburgers of my life.  Awesome. Then we "needed" to take Marci to the Sugar Cookie so she could enjoy it's splendor.

 For our activity days mother/daughter activity, we did cupcake wars this year.  I think the girls had a good time, and I did too. There were two rounds to the competition. The first round we had to decorate a cupcake that represented each other.  The second round we did a beautiful cupcake.  Mallory chose to do a sea shell and Claire did a beach scene.  I think I know where their heart lies.

 The cupcakes I did for the girls.  Claire - my little sunshine.  Mallory - loves all things fluffy and sparkly.

Tyce just looking super handsome and missionary-like in his suit.