Reunion Recap #1: Zion’s National Park

This year the Hubby’s family met up in St. George, Utah for a week long reunion.  We stayed in a house that slept all 35 of us, so as you can imagine, it was an absolute PAR-TAY.

I’m going to post twice a day for the rest of this week to hit the highlights of the reunion in a quick fashion.

First up, our day trip to Zion’s National Park.  Can you even believe we loaded up all twenty children {including three infants} and took them into a National Park in the blazing heat for some good old fashioned hiking?  I was a little worried about my kids – Ollie particularly – but lathered on the sunscreen, loaded them up with water bottles and headed into the great wilderness of the West.

When the sky is blue and the rocks get big and red, you know you’re close to Zion!

Ollie spent the entire day happily riding on his Daddy’s back.  The boy child was a trooper and I am very grateful. I’m also grateful that Uncle Brinton got a picture of me with my family – a rarity!

To accommodate the different levels of hikers we had, we chose the Emerald Pools for our hike.  Here’s a great view during the hike:

Half the group decided to hike to all three pools.  I, on the other hand, was assigned to the group that went back down the mountain after two pools.  Hannie B. and some of her Lee cousins were in that group.  {And all my boys did the entire hike, even Ollie!}

I’m calling this one “A Tree Grows In Zion”.  Seriously, the beauty of the hike was overwhelming!

At the bottom of the hike a happy sight awaited us – our Grandpa, wading his feet in the river, inviting all the little kids to do the same.  And they did!  It was a perfect ending to a hot, hardworking hike in one gorgeous national park.