So the girls had a 4-day weekend for Valentines Day, because of President's Day and a Teacher Development Day. So on the Thursday before it at dinner, the girls were talking bout how all their friends we going somewhere for the weekend, and I was like "yeah, we should go somewhere too!" Surprisingly Eric agreed, and he started talking about this hike he had heard about down in Southern Utah by Zion, and I was like "no way, I think that's the same hike my visiting teaching companion was just telling me about today!" So we knew it was meant to be, haha. We looked it up and talked about some plans over dinner, then had a family vote- "all in favor of going on a little vacation to go hiking, raise your hand!" We all did, and even Maris raised her hand because we all were, it was so cute!! So we got a hotel in Cedar City for the very next night, and Friday morning the kids and I packed while Eric was at work, and he came home at noon and we went!
It was super exciting and definitely the most spontaneous trip of our lives! I usually plan overnight trips months or at least weeks in advance, but here we were just going for it. With our 4 kids. :)
Our first stop on Friday was the Lava Tubes out west of Fillmore, a place Eric has camped with his Scouts. It was really cool but a little dangerous for little kids, and probably more exciting for Scouts than for kids who are scared of the dark! We had fun though.
I am in one of the biggest "tube" caves holding Maris and looking out the opening, at Owen:
and at the 4 of them:
Me and Maris in the cave.
We convinced the kids to go through since we had a flashlight, it was a little scary though and hard to get through while carrying a baby! But here's Eric and Maris safely coming out the other side. :)
While we were walking around she kept grabbing Eric's ears, they make nice little handles! :)
This made me laugh, it looks like Owen and Maris are just playing off by themselves, but Eric was down in a crack holding Maris up. Sadly right after this Owen tripped and fell and scraped his face and got a GIANT goose egg on his forehead, it seriously took 3 weeks to heal! I felt so bad that no one had been holding his hand. :(
So then I went to the car to feed Maris and help Owen recover from his injury and Whitney wanted a snack so she stayed with us. I noticed that Maris and I were reflected in Eric's sunglasses so I tried to get a picture of our reflection.
Meanwhile Eric and Katelyn went exploring,
and then came back and took us all to a really cool long tunnel with several overhead openings in it.
I stayed up top with Maris and took pictures because there was a bit of climbing involved.
Kate climbing out!
Next we headed to the hot springs a few miles from the Lava Tubes. In February! This is the weirdest winter ever in Utah!
Owen was grossed out by the moss and fish and refused to get in. :)
And then we went to dinner and the hotel- Eric and the girls went to the pool and me and the littles went to bed!
The next morning we had a really good breakfast at the hotel, and it was Valentines Day. :)
Time for our awesome hike!!
When we started it was a little chilly... it was FEBRUARY for crying out loud!
I had Maris in the backpack, she did great! and Eric carried Owen probably half of the way.
At first I kept having to prod Katelyn along, and I was thinking, "oh, you're going to be THAT girl on the hike at Girls Camp!" But once the trail narrowed after the first half mile or so and she got to climb and scout the trail and cross the creek 50 times, she was fine!
Eric and Kate with a cool mountain in the background.
The trail finally narrowed!
Owen loves hiking! (note: Whitney is in none of these early pictures, because she was always out running ahead!)
Another attempt to take a picture of me and Maris. She really was happy!! She kept patting my shoulder and making her little talking noises.
trying to decide which fork in the path to take.
Whitney finally! climbing back up from checking out the trail below.
I love Southern Utah scenery! Even in the ugly deadness of winter!
more color to love
a cool little spot the girls found.
a cool rock wall!
one of the many river crossings- trying to find a way across without getting wet- the water was SO COLD. Like if you were in it for more than 3 seconds you started to lose feeling in your feet.
a little waterfall
my explorers.
eventually we had to get wet, but Eric carried the girls across a few spots, freezing his feet so many times for them! I carried Owen so he would only have to go across twice.
Owen went off on his own path and we lost him for a minute!
And after about an hour and 45 minutes we made it to the slot canyon! So beautiful.
At this point however, you had to walk in the water. So we decided to go in a little ways and see how much the girls could handle. We made it to here, and you can see the look on Katelyn's face! and Whitney's! a few steps after this picture Katelyn started crying, so Eric picked her up to carry her out and I said I just wanted to go for a couple more corners and see if I could get to the waterfall we'd seen pictures of. I started going and Whitney followed me!
After a minute I could hear the waterfall, so I said to Whitney, "let's run!" both our feet were so cold and we hurried and there it was! Whitney climbed to ladder to the top to see the next waterfall, but I didn't want to try it with Maris on my back!
It was an awesome little adventure for us. :)
Then we hurried back out, hobbling on completely numb feet, and I told Eric it wasn't far so he should go in and see it. No sooner had he left than Katelyn started crying again, saying she wanted to go see the waterfall "or the whole hike would be pointless", but she couldn't decide if she really wanted to freeze her feet again because it hurt "SO BAD". Then Owen started saying HE wanted to see the waterfall. So I was steeling myself to go back in with them when Eric came back out and said he'd take them. So here they go, I was proud of Katelyn for braving the water again, it was totally her choice.
The picture Eric took of Katelyn on the ladder:
So then we ate our lunch and I nursed Maris and we all tried to get some feeling back into our feet before heading back-- I'll admit the idea was a little daunting knowing how many times we were going to have to cross that freezing river again! But Eric felt bad for the girls so he promised to carry them over the crossings, which was sweet. So we did it!
I got a picture with this little palm tree, and a picture of this cool formation along the way.
At last we made it back, and we felt awesome! I was so happy to give my kids the chance to do something hard together as a family. It was a challenging hike, and not just because of the water. But they did it, and with minimal complaining. I want them to feel strong and confident in the outdoors! Plus it was really fun.
So then on the way home we stopped at Cove Fort, which I thought was mediocre, but the girls enjoyed it! They love history and there were a lot of cool pioneer artifacts. Owen had no nap and he was just DONE, so that made it less fun!
Overall, a super awesome family trip. Happy Valentines Day to us! Nothing says love like carrying your kids through a freezing river 50 times together. I'm so glad he likes this stuff as much as I do, and we can pass that on to our kids! Win-win-win!
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