Next time we go without kids...

Oscar's Cafe and restaurant is the main reason people visit Zion Canyon, second only to Zion National Park itself.

A bold claim, but definately a great start to the day. It was a great place for a game of "I Spy" while waiting for our food. My mom and I shared a delicious breakfast burrito and potatoes. Josh ate his usual cheeseburger, and Seth and Paige did their usual...complain!

This was probably as far as we should have gone with the kids, it was about 30 feet from the car. We made it this far without any whining, I think :)








One of the few pictures I get of my mom, and she is even smiling.


Beautiful!


This guy was the star of the day! He gave us a little reprieve from the annoying kids we were with.


Does anyone question whether or not we should walk under a hanging rock this size, makes me think of a story I read about lemmings in college.



Nature's slide, clothing's enemy. At this point Seth is whining because he is toooooo hot (its about 70 degrees, we can never take him in the summmer), Paige is tired, this is taking toooooo long, and Josh is in tears because his pants are chafing (note to self, wash boxer shorts before wearing). We tried to convince him to go behind a big rock and take them off but there was no way Mr. Modesty was going to do that, the mere suggestion had him in tears. My mom must have been so flustered or forgetful, I am not sure which, at this point that she took her glasses off and set them on a rock. She remembered about 30 minutes later! Good thing we had to go back past this point in order to get out:) Seth claimed to KNOW they were there the whole time. We were all grateful to get back to the car in the end. The kids...because they thought they were going to die. My mom and I...so we didn't have to listen to the whining.

After we left beautiful Zion we made the little side trip over to Bryce. Much to our surprise the gates were open but they were not charging an entrance fee. It was not surprising after we got into the park and realized how much snow there was everywhere and how cold it was. The kids got out at a couple of the overlooks, but shockingly, it led to more whining. I am grateful we stopped, it was amazing to see the beautiful contrast of the rocks with snow.










Thanks mom and dad for the trip. My kids did talk fondly about it when we got home, even if they were miserable in the moment. Mom or Dad,or both, I really would like to go without kids sometime. Maybe we can get creative ;)