family vacation 2014

We had such a fun little family vacation! A few months ago, we decided we wanted to do our family vacation this year in Southern Utah. We wanted to take the boys to the Grand Canyon! After our trip to Phoenix in February, we drove home past the Grand Canyon and had been wanting to go back ever since. So we made some reservations and then got an even better idea to invite both of our parents along for the fun. The boys are so lucky to have both sets of Grandparents nearby and we thought we had better take advantage of that while we can. So road trippin' we went!

Eli, Grandpa Glenn, Will, Grandpa Hopkins

at the Grand Canyon Lodge - North Rim

We stayed in a fun little place called Jacob Lake. It is beautiful at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The boys loved exploring the "forest" and looking for animals. We saw the famous Kaibab squirrel - can only be found at the North Rim! We saw lots of other squirrels, buffalo, tons of cool birds, and several lizards and chipmunks. Will thought it was so great that we saw so many lizards. The boys worked on a scavenger hunt the whole time in order to earn a souvenir at the gift shop. They had a lot of fun with it and loved checking things off their lists!

 The boys with Gigi

 Gigi and our family

 The grandparents enjoying the view... and me freaking out behind the camera about Eli leaning over the edge! Hahahaha!

 The view in these pictures doesn't do it justice. It is pretty breathtaking and unreal. The boys really loved it and kept talking about how amazing it was!

 Gotta have a silly picture! It's more "authentic" :)

 So many amazing views!!

 By this point, we had been to several look outs, it was hot, and the kids were so sick of my taking their picture. They were great travelers and such good sports though!

 All of us!

After a couple days at the Grand Canyon, we headed down the mountain to Zions. We ate at the best Mexican place, called Oscars and then headed into the park. The grandparents decided to wait for us at the big Lodge and hang out there while we did some hiking. The four of us headed to do the Narrows. On our way up to the narrows trail, it was thundering and getting darker and darker. We were talking about it raining and the possibility of a flash flood, but didn't think too much of it.

We got to the Narrows and started heading up the water. It felt so good on our hot and sweaty feet! Ha! It was still thundering, and as we started around a bend in the river, another hiker told us there was a ranger up farther that was telling people to turn around because of the storm. So we started to head back. As we were headed back to the shuttle, it started to POUR. We got completely soaked. But I have never seen anything so beautiful. There was water pouring over the cliffs and rocks. It was pretty spectacular and pretty hilarious that we were running through the rain. The boys were just laughing!! We made it to the shuttle and back to the lodge to get the grandparents. Before we left the lodge, we had to get ice cream! It was the perfect ending to a perfect little day.

 The views were SO awesome. I love Zions and can't wait to go back and do some more hiking!!!

When we got back to the hotel, I took the boys swimming. They wanted to cool off and never pass up swimming! After swimming, and showers, we played Scum in the hotel lobby.... it was the only place we had a big enough table. Will loved it and did so great learning how to play! Eli ate his snacks and played on the ipod.

The next morning we left to come home. We stopped at the cheese factory of course, and then headed to Cove Fort. I had never been there, so I was excited about it. The boys were restless from riding in the car, so it was a good stopping point. It was so pretty and so interesting. I had never visited that church site and didn't know much about it. It was super interesting and fun to see all the things they did in Cove Fort.

We had a great trip and enjoyed being together for several days. We are lucky that Scott has a flexible work schedule where he can take time off to be with us. The boys love when he's around and we loved having their grandparents there with us as well. Until next year! Now.... where should we go?