Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Camping trip...well almost


We went on a fun family vacation this past weekend. We had planned on going camping all weekend but the weather convinced us otherwise! We left Thursday afternoon and headed to Milford to try our hand at Rock Hounding. In case you are wondering, rock hounding is what they call it when you try to find crystals and other gems. Milford has a canyon called the Rock Corral where quartz and feldspar are abundant. So we thought we'd go there and see if we could find any. We had a great time pounding on the rocks and looking for crystals. We saw a lot of pretty things but it was hard to get them out of the rock without damaging them. The kids picked up tons of rocks that they loved, and we found a few good quartz crystals but they were pretty small (1/4 inch to 1/2 inch). We camped there in the mountains for the night. It was really cold...probably below freezing. I didn't have a warm enough sleeping bag so I was freezing...my feet were numb most of the night so it was hard for me to sleep. But everyone else seemed warm enough and slept pretty well. It was really fun to camp out. It has been a long time since I last camped out and it was the first time for all the kids. They said it was awesome!


The next day we did some more rock hounding in the morning and early afternoon then drove down to St. George. We had planned on camping at Bryce Canyon all weekend but it was supposed to snow all day Friday and Saturday so we headed to St. George instead. We checked into a hotel and then saw Monsters vs. Aliens.
The next morning we headed to Bryce via Zions National Park. We really enjoyed driving through Zions. We stopped several times to see the sites and have a picnic lunch. Here is a picture of us at Zions.
We got to Bryce later on that afternoon and drove through part of the park. We stayed in another hotel that afternoon because it was snowing.
The next morning we headed out to explore Bryce. It was really cold in the morning but warmed up nicely as the day progressed. We went on a hike from about 11 - 2 p.m. It was really beautiful and a lot of fun. This was my favorite part of the hike...it was called Wall Street.

The kids did really well on the hike. Cody was loving the freedom of being able to pee outside. It seemed like every couple of minutes he was stopping to pee. Most of the time we didn't even realize he needed to go until he was in the process...like the picture below.

It was a really fun vacation. Check out the slideshow below for more pictures from the trip.
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3 comments:

Pierce and Stacy said...

CUTE!!! I love it. Pierce and I have been wanting to go camping for such a long time. I'm a baby when it comes to cold nights though... :) I'm glad y'all had a good time.

April 14, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Sandra Nixon said...

I love all those great pics of your family!! I am partial to outdoor activity shots but those areally are great pics of you and the kids.
love you

April 14, 2009 at 4:02 PM
Amy said...

Oh, that makes me miss Utah. I love that you can drive to such beautiful places in short periods of time. Glad you had fun and were able to warm up after that first night. Love ya, Amy

April 14, 2009 at 7:19 PM

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Funny Quotes

  • Darcy came up to me the other day with a permanent marker and said, "Mom, is it okay if I use this pregnant marker to draw a picture?" January 2012
  • Darcy was in a bubble bath the other day having a great time. She made a beard out of bubbles and put bubbles on her head to make herself look like Santa. When it was time to clean off the bubbles I parted the bubbles to get down to the clear water and she said, "Oh, I didn't know there was water down there!" December 2011
  • Darcy calls hangnails or snags on her nails "Pinchies". She says "Mom, can you get this pinchie off my toe?"
  • Whenever we do something fun Darcy always says, "Lets to dat adain." I love her little voice when she says it.
  • Every morning Cody comes into my room while I'm still in bed and tells me, "Mom, it's light outside. It's time to get up." To which I reply, "Okay, let me get dressed." So now when Cody is getting dressed and I call to him his response is, "I'm getting my dressed on!" I love it. No more getting dressed at our house...its now know as "getting our dressed on".
  • I like to make fruit smoothies for breakfast sometimes. Cody calls them Smoot Moolies, so that has become the name for them at our house. The other day when I was making a smoot moolie Cody asked if he could help me make it. I said he could so he jumped up on the counter and picked up a banana. He proceed to peel it and then handed me the peel and said,"Here's the armpit mom." I wasn't sure if I heard him right so I asked him what it was called. He said, "The armpit...you know the thing that the banana is in." November 2009
  • This afternoon when we were driving to the store I had a funny conversation with Cody. “Does Matt have a house?” Cody asked. “Well, Matt is here to buy a new house.” I replied. “Ooooo, that sounds fun!”Cody said. About a minute passes and then he says “How is he going to carry it?” I’m trying my hardest not to laugh. “I think he needs a big rope.” Cody said, happy that he figured out a good solution to the problem. I just love Cody…he keeps me laughing all the time. January 21, 2010
  • I was really tired one afternoon so I flopped down on the couch and said, "I'm pooped out!" Cody came over and snuggled up to me on the couch and said, "I'm having poop time too!" July 2009
  • When I told the kids that James was going to be going to California, Cody sat up straight and excitedly said, "Like Lightening McQueen! He went to California!" October 2009
  • The other day James said to Cody, "How's my buddy?" Cody got a very serious look on his face and said, "Name's Tody!" (He still can't pronounce C's very well.) The only things he will let us call him, other than his name, is big boy or funny kid.
  • When we were first potty training Cody he said he needed to go to the bathroom during sacrament meeting at church. So I took him to the bathroom and sure enough he did his business in the toilet. This was one of the first times he ever did poops in the toilet so he was really excited. When we walked back into sacrament meeting (we were sitting near the front of the chapel) he loudly proclamed "Daddy, I did giant poops in the toilet!" December 2008
  • Cody comes up with cute names for things. Mostly because he has troubles prononcing some of his letters. Some of my favorite names are "Daddy's Toke-Toke" for Coke, "Dr. Seuse" for Dr. Pepper, the "lurnal" for urinal, and "peanutbutter jam" for peanutbutter mixed with honey in a bowl.
  • Shelby had a hard time saying her G's when she was little. So we were working with her on how to say Grandma. She could make a growling sound pretty well, so we we had her growl then say grandma, so she used her best growling voice to say "GRRRR AMA"
  • The sun was shining in Cody's eyes the other day and he pointed at it and said, "Mommy, that circle is burnin' my eyes!" January 2009
  • Heres a list of funny words our kids have come up with for things: Fwaps (Cody's word for patting Darcy's back), bednight snacks, square noodles (ramen noodles), peeps, giant poops, dishwasher (Cody says this is where we wash clothes), low-low (lawn mower), regular grandma (Shelby's way of describing the difference between Great Grandma and her (regular) Grandma, oopadaisy (Shelby)
  • When we were building our house Shelby and Dallin spent a lot of time here with me working on it. One day when I was putting up the finish trim I couldn't find the hammer. I was looking all over for it and just didn't have any luck finding it. Shelby (2 yrs old) made two fists with her little hands and said, "It's okay Mommy, you can use my bammers!" November 2005
  • When Dallin was 1 yr old, he used to love making car noises. His favorite noise to make was the sound of tires screeching and then a crash. So EVERY time we would apply the brakes in the car we would hear his little voice from the back seat..."errrr kshhhh"
  • When Dallin was about 3 years old, he always liked to sit between James and I on the couch. But his way of saying it was cute. He would say "Can I sit in the tween of you?"
  • When Dallin was about 4 years old, I let him and Shelby skip naps because we needed to go somewhere. As we were driving on the road Dallin said, "Wow, look at all these people who are skipping naps too!" I guess he thought everyone had naps during the afternoon! Summer 2005