Zion on a Saturday!

On Saturday the three of us went into Zion National Park. When we bought the pass to get into Zion, it was good for 7 days, so might as well use it again. Apparently Justin nor I could count because seven days was up on Friday, so we bought a new pass to get on Saturday.

While most of the time I show of Jaybird's good side, I promise you she isn't perfect and does have a lot of problems we are working on with her to help her behave and act like a normal 10 year old. We told her that we were going to Zion and she pretty much threw a 2 year old tantrum because she wouldn't be able to stay at home all day on her kindle. Her tantrum came because I called her on her manipulation of trying to get out of it and her lying of why she didn't want to go. Told her too bad, get in the car, dress properly and put on deodorant! We gave her the hour during the drive to fix her attitude so she would enjoy herself.  Yes her attitude did change, probably to the point of annoyance on my end for the too over compensation happy, but at least she changed.

We ended up parking in the town and walking into the park which was perfect. We still had a very close parking spot.

Our view waiting to grab the shuttle

 

We rode the shuttle all the way to the end to eat lunch at the Temple of Sinawava

What a super flattering picture....

We went and looked at the river on the Riverwalk trail, but I was not dealing with wet clothing and shoes today so told her we would do this trail another day.

And that's as close as we got to the water.. Nope no wet shoes! 

We ate lunch in the shade of the waiting area for the bus and Justin got to meet the squirrels that literally climb up you to get the food. And here's Jaybird chasing them down the path and the awning yelling "Mom it's so fluffy... Mom can I touch it.. Mom it's so cute!" There's me in the corner cringing because I know how gross those animals are. No Child don't touch it... Hide your food. Please.. Here's hand sanitizer!

After the squirrel fiasco, we rode the bus to Weeping Rock. That was a fun one to start her out on! Short but steep!

Check our the sexy sun hat!

We walked the Grotto Trail after we rested and drank some water!

We should of ate lunch there!

This is how she dried her hair of the sweat.

I had us get off at the wrong spot, so we rode the bus back to the lodge so we could walked the Lower Emerald Trail. I think she liked the break and the chance to stand up on the bus.

Not impressive during this time of year but still very beautiful.

By the time we walked back to the lodge and rested on the lawn is was a little after 4. We decided to skip the Archeology Trail and do that next time. We rode the bus back to the visitors center and looked at some of the displays she had... but she was done. How do I know?? She reverts back to a 2 year old and uses inappropriate volume of her voice, has to touch and open everything, and stops paying attention to people around her.

We got back to our car and proceeded to Taco Bell... If anyone knows Justin then you know it's his absolutely favorite place. The one in Cedar has been closed for remodel so Justin hasn't gotten his fix lately. But hey, if we are in Hurricane at Taco Bell we better be hitting 7-11! Yes I travel 45 minutes to go to 7-11!! She has loved the Slurpees since she first got them in Reno and asks for them every time we stop. I usually give in every time because we don't stop there often.

All over she did very well dealing with the all the new people, dealing with a medicine change, and being hot and winded and her over active fight or flight mode. We are thinking about getting the year pass to all the locations in Utah again so we can take her to see more of the beauty that we have here in Southern Utah!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Happy 7 years to Justin and I!

We were married on April 18, 2008 and celebrated our 7 year anniversary! We were very lucky to be able to have the evening to ourselves. My brother Ryan came and babysit my sweet Jaybird while we went out to a restaurant we will probably never take her to. We want it to be special for just us! We went to Centros!! Yay!

Centros is flipping fantastic!! They specialize in woodfire pizza. Their menu is small enough that they can focus on making what they have really really really good! We learned a couple weeks before they they put one of our favorite pizzas on the menu full time.. Pancetta and Grape! Yum yum yum!

Thank you sun for the amazing picture

Yes see... right there.. there it is!

Yummies!!

We made the mistake of trying to new pancetta and grape salad... and it was a very heavy salad. Yes we still ate it and yes it was still yummy!  We will probably stick with our normal summer salad.

Heaven!

 We were out of the restaurant pretty fast and didn't want to go home quite yet so we decided we would walk off some of the dinner at the park. We didn't make it far with the lack of sunscreen and proper shoes we ended up laying the grass and talking

That was about it!!

Kim and Nathan's Wedding

Friday, April 24th all 3 of us traveled to St George for Justin's cousin's wedding. Her wedding was held in Zion National Park on Saturday. We left right after Jaybird and I got home from work. Justin had taken the day off of work to finish getting the house ready, cleaning the car, and doing all that find stuff that one needs to do before a trip! After we had settled into the hotel and Jaybird got to meet her new relatives, we got to take Justin's family to Pizza Pie Cafe!

 

 

 

Jaybird with Dean.

After we finished eating we headed back to the hotel so she could swim. She got her suit on and was in the pool for 2 minutes and it started thundering and lightening. So we very grudgingly got out of the pool and waiting for the storm to pass. Don't worry, she got to swim later than night! That's the wonderful thing about Southern Utah, is storms pass quickly.

 

I think we finally pulled her out of the pool at 9:45 and she crashed at 10. At least one of us crashed... Me not so much. I don't do well in strange beds. I fell asleep but then ended up waking up for 3 hours in the middle of the night. Ugh! Thank goodness for caffeine! In the morning we all met in the lobby for breakfast, the kids swam some more in the morning, and Justin and I make a quick trip to one of the 4 K-marts left in the US. 

Look they come with Cafe's.. And I wanted a pretzel!

I just had to prove they still existed. 

 

Around 12 we grabbed sandwiches at Jimmy Johns and headed towards Zion. Justin and I may have missed the turn off for the parking lot and headed up Carmel Highway. It was a pretty mistake :)

The wedding started at 2 and the rain held off for their wedding! It literally started raining as they were walking away from the stage of the amphitheater. 

Nathan and his mom

Nathan and Gary

Kim and her mom

They were thanking their mothers

Apparently we only got pictures of Kim giving the ring to Nathan.

Pouring different color sands into a shadow box. The original dirt is from where they met and then added in their two colors representing them coming together. Super Cute!

And we got a "going in for a kiss" picture too!

Yay!

After the wedding we headed back to Gary and Diane's house and helped set up the reception and enjoyed our time with our family! On Sunday we headed back to Cedar to get ready for Monday! It was a great weekend and so nice to get away for a little bit. We are so proud and excited for Kim and Nathan and cannot wait to see where they life will take them!