So Wednesday was the first day of Chad's week off (aka our only real vacation of this year). Our plan was to go to Zion National Park from Thursday through Sunday, and I can't even tell you how excited I was. I had been dying to go ever since I found out the place existed. We got there Thursday afternoon and got camp set up, and then headed out to check out the shuttle system and go on a little hike. Emmett was on strike for naps that day. This one was the only he got, and it only lasted about ten minutes:
He fell asleep on the shuttle, poor dear. He was so exhausted, and it was way too hot for him to nap in the tent. We were in the Watchman campground, and there was no shade. Boo.
Anyway, we did the first little bit of the Emerald Pools hike (formerly known as the Weeping Rock trail?) and it was so nice. We crossed the Virgin River and it was late enough in the afternoon that the whole hike was in the shade of the cliffs. The deer there are ridiculously tame. There was a doe with two fawns and a buck grazing by the river with about twenty people gawking at them (some from about fifteen feet away), and they didn't seem to mind much.
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| Ansel Adams-y don't you think? Chad took this one :) |
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| Chad's sweet Indiana hat! |
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| We also saw cool lizards. This one was called a Leopard Lizard I think? Something like that. |
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| haha :) |
We stopped at the lodge and had cheese burgers after our little hike (I know. Cheese burgers while you're out camping? Not very hard core. But definitely very tasty.) And we found out that Emmett loves pickles! He gets that from me. Chad wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole.
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| Comfy in a camp chair |
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| Facing east from our tent. So pretty! |
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| Facing west from our tent |
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| Emmett thoroughly enjoyed the pack n play we borrowed for him to sleep in. Until he had to sleep in it. |
So that was a fun day. Then getting Emmett to sleep was a big, long, loud process that I'm sure didn't make us any friends with the other campers. Chad finally got him to sleep around nine probably. Then he woke up an hour or so later, went back to sleep, and woke up again at three. There was a huuuuuuuge windstorm that came sweeping through the canyon that night, and mostly he slept like a champ through all the noise of our tent about to be ripped to shreds. But finally it was too much, and he woke up. Surprisingly, he was in a pretty good mood and ended up playing for the next long while. I think he liked the wind.
But he wasn't going back to sleep (after a whole day of no naps), and Chad and I hadn't really slept, and finally we realized that trying to push our trip all the way to Sunday with a one-year-old who wasn't sleeping was not our best option. So we came home. That was a really hard decision to make, and we've both been rather bummed about how things turned out. We were finally there and so glad to be out of Provo and away from everything. But I think we made the right choice to put Zions off for a while. Just from his one off day and night, Emmett's been totally out of sorts and not very happy. He is definitely a creature of habit. That boy needs his routine.
But the little time we got to spend there was fun. That place is absolutely gorgeous, and I can't wait to go back :)
