Utah Trip Day 3: Short But STEEP

Day three of our trip to Utah was our first day without any major driving. The main activity was going to Zion's National Park which was only a 25 mile drive from our hotel. Events unfolded as follows:

7:35 a.m. - My bloodshot eye cracks open just a slit to look at the clock. No one else is moving and all is quiet. Driving 10 hours in two days, loading and unloading our van twice, walking a couple of miles at the Grand Canyon and an inability to adjust to Daylight Savings time has started to take a toll on my body. Every part of me wants to close my eye and see what little extra sleep I can squeeze out of this moment. Unfortunately, there is a hot breakfast at absolutely no cost waiting for us in the lobby and it ends at 9. I have to pry myself up and hop in the shower.

8:40 a.m. - We get ourselves put together enough to get downstairs and get breakfast. Excellent food. Love those hotel waffle makers.

8:45 a.m. - "Abby, where's Mom?" "Logan had to go to the bathroom. So did Braden." (I documented pretty well our bathroom visit issues and they did continue. This will be my last mention of it but if you are keeping track, that is three straight meals where either Shannon or I had to wait on getting fed in order to accomodate the inner workings of our children. Mainly Logan.)

8:55 a.m. - Kate comes up with a new trick. If she doesn't want to eat something, she doesn't necessarily turn away from it, she just lets you put it right in her mouth and then lets it sit there. She won't chew, she won't spit it out, she just holds it in her mouth. Apparently Shannon was aware of this trick, but I experienced it for the first time because Kate kept letting me feed her bites of eggs until suddenly her mouth was full and she just sat there with her jaw clamped shut. Shannon's comment when she returned from the bathroom with the boys? "Oh yeah, she doesn't like eggs." We spend the next five minutes scooping out eggs and spit into a napkin. Yummmm!

9:30 a.m. - We are gassing up and getting ready to go. I suppose the argument could be made that we had already done that with the egg and sausage sandwiches the hotel provided for breakfast, but that would be a cheap and easy joke we will just let slide by. As the van is filling up, I start into the convenience. Shannon asks if I am getting a Dr. Pepper. I reply that I am. She says while shaking her head, "You're sad."

9:35 a.m. - We are pulling out of the gas station and realize right across the street is the Claridge Inn and the Abbey Inn. Nothing overly special about that other than what a coincidence for our family.



9:58 a.m. - We are coming up out of Hurricane and the song Take You Down from the Princess and the Frog comes on the iPod. I decide that we really messed up by not naming one of our boys Boudreaux. So I yell back to Braden and tell him that we are changing his name to Boudreaux so that Bryson can have a Cousin Boudreaux. Soon everyone is calling Braden Boudreaux. Naturally he doesn't care for it and we eventually we have to call a moratorium on the use of the name Boudreaux after much yelling and crying. And it all could have been avoided if I had just kept my mouth shut.

10:12 a.m. - Pass through Rockville. Why would you name a town Rockville? I don't know, could it be those large boulders everywhere that the town is built around? I am going to say yes.

10:19 a.m. - Arrive at Zion's. No parking so I drop all the family off at the visitor's center and drive to the overflow lot. Approximate temperature - 429 degrees. Walk all the back to the visitor's center only to realize I didn't grab my wallet. Walk all the back to the van and get the wallet while doing everything possible not to cuss. When I left, everyone was bathroomed up and ready to go. When I get back, Shannon and Logan need to go again. He is definitely her son.

10:46 a.m. - Get on the shuttle to go down the canyon. Zion's is AMAZING!!! To me it is even more impressive than The Grand Canyon because you are at the bottom looking up and it just rises straight up above you. It really is one of the most amazing things I have seen.

11:08 a.m. - We arrive at the end of the shuttle service so we can go on the family friendly hike along the river. I know I said I wouldn't mention it anymore, but seriously. Logan went twice at the visitor's center and now I need to take him across to the port-a-johns. I mean this kid either has a bladder the size of a dime or he produces more urine than a lab full of olympic athletes.





11:13 a.m. - Start the hike. Kate will not walk. She will cry however and throw amazing fits. I believe the three straight days without a normal nap schedule has begun to rear its ugly head. I pick her up and my day of carrying Kate everywhere through Zion's National Oven begins. However, again, the hike is beautiful. Simply stunning views everywhere you look.



12:01 p.m. - Arrive at the end of the path and the kids take their shoes off to wade in the cool water of the river. My instructions: "Be careful. Try not to get too wet."

12:03 p.m. - Braden falls completely into the river.









1:08 p.m. - Arrive back at the shuttle stop and Kate has completely lost it. It must be time for lunch. The next fifteen minutes on my shoulder would constitute Kate's nap for the day. Not good.



1:25 p.m. - Arrive at the Zion's Lodge and decide to eat lunch in the restaurant to allow ourselves to cool off.

1:40 p.m. - After being seated ten minutes prior, our waiter Tony has not made an appearance again. Starting to get concerned.

1:42 p.m. - Tony comes to our table and asks (admittedly with an accent), "Are you ready or do you need another minute?" My exact quote: "No, I believe we are ready." Tony turns and walks away and does not return for another ten minutes.

2:36 p.m. - We are fed and doing much better. We are ready (After visiting the bathroom of course) to take on one more family friendly hike. But wait, Braden demands that we stop at the ice cream place there at the Zion's Lodge. We tell him we can get ice cream later. He insists it be there because the shuttle driver said it was the "best" ice cream. We have a talk about salesmanship. Yet out of this discussion, I am now committed to purchasing the family ice cream when we hit Springdale coming out of the park. Not entirely sure how that happened.



2:50 p.m. - We decide to do the hike called Weeping Rock. It is a short 1/4 mile hike to a rock overhang where the water never stops seeping out of the rock above. It is explained that the water that rains on the top of the canyon is soaked up by the sandstone and eventually makes its way down to the Weeping Rock area and drops it out. It only takes about 800 years for the process to get from beginning to end. However, the water has never stopped coming out of the rock face at this location. Pretty Cool. Kate is again committed to not walking so up on my shoulders she goes. We saw the part where it said this was a short hike. After returning to the visitors' center, we realized we missed the part where it said, short but STEEP! That might have been good to know. It was completely worth it when we got there, but that trail was at an upward 45 degree angle the entire way. With an extra 30 lbs. on my shoulders, I suddenly wished I was in a lot better shape than I was.





3:30 p.m. - We have hiked and now we have had enough. We get on the shuttle bus and because of the crowds we were not able to sit together. Braden, Kate and I sit up front. She is DONE! The only way we can keep her from crying is for Braden to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with her. After about the 10th time, he says, "Last time." After he is done. She says, "Un mo time." This goes on for another 15 renditions.

4:18 p.m. - We are loaded up and pulling out. I begin to pull forward and Shannon looks out her window. She sees cones on the left and cones on the right and asks if there were cones in front of our van. I assure there are not...bumpbump. Apparently there were. I hope there was no security cameras in the park because if there were, I may be getting a bill for two flattened traffic cones.

4:41 p.m. - We were told there was a cool tunnel just three miles beyond the park the opposite way we needed to go. So we went on a very twisty, ripped up road to see the tunnel. After what had to be closer to 8 miles (ok it was only three but when you are going 10 mph behind someone who would clearly be scared of a two lane straight interstate highway, let alone a mountainous single lane road with drop offs on the side, three miles feels like an eternity), we happen upon a sign that tells us to turn on our lights and remove our sunglasses. I have never seen a sign like that before. It felt a little ominous. We come around a corner and see the most narrow and black tunnel I have ever seen. We also see a sign that this tunnel is 1.1 miles long. We go in. It was like going into a tomb. We could look behind us and not see our children in the seat behind us. It was freaky. We finally made it to the other side...took a deep breath...and went right back through it because that was the only way back to St. George.

5:04 p.m. - Stop for ice cream in Springdale at a homemade candy shop. The candy is homemade, not the shop. After a day where "Clearly the white people are melting", (Not a racist comment, just a movie quote. If you don't know the movie, please don't be offended.) this ice cream couldn't have tasted better. Anytime we happen upon a shop that makes its own chocolates, it reminds Shannon and I of our trip to Maine and the chocolate shop Len Libby's. BEST CHOCOLATE EVER! So I bought some maple creams, orange creams and chocolate butter creams to surprise her. They were very good, not that our children will ever know.



6:13 p.m. - Make it back to the hotel. Due to our late lunch, no one is hungry and we decide to swim for the first time on our vacation. Good choice. Incidentally, Logan has to pee twice while swimming. I'm just saying.

6:49 p.m. - Braden is somewhat scared of hot tubs. Not the hot tub so much as hot water. I have had enough of the pool and Shannon is gone so I walk over to the hot tub and get in. I convince Logan to join me. So does Abby and also this little girl who was a complete stranger. But she came right up and made friends with us. When Braden wouldn't get in the hot tub, she totally called him out on it. I had mentioned he was 8 years old. She said, "I am seven and I get it in. What is wrong with you?" Ouch, called out by not only someone younger, but by a girl.

8:30 p.m. - Finally get dinner. Panda Express for Shannon and I, Applebee leftovers for the kids.

10:15 p.m. - Have to referee argument over who gets to sleep in pull out couch bed. Not who has to sleep in it, who gets to sleep in it. As long as it ain't me, I really don't care who wins this one.

10:30 p.m. - After bathing all the kids and getting everyone fed, we finally get everyone off to sleep. Unlike the night before when everyone was fidgety going to sleep, especially Kate, this night is completely different. Five minutes after we turn out the lights, I am the only one awake. That lasted for about one more minute.