Father's Day!

We were gone on Father's Day,

so after Ella's party,

 I told Cary that his late Father's day gift was in the back of the van.

He's always saying he want's a cruiser, so now he has one. ☺

Aidan and Ella were pretty excited about it too.

I just need to get me one now.

Vacation Wrap Up

After getting back from our hike and eating lunch, we waited for the kids to wake up from their nap and then headed to the pool. 

Ella loves the water and takes no time getting in.

Aidan needed a LOT of convincing, but once he got in he had a blast too.

Dad going down the slide.

Some family members are whining about some of the pictures I've posted so I decided to post my own "beached whale" shots. ☺

Happy now?

(I think Sharon took a lot of these pictures with my camera, since I was in the water)

Mmm..M&M's.

Draven with Grandpa Scott.

Last minute visiting before everyone headed out on Tuesday morning.

The siblings that were able to make it.

and then, group shot!

It's too bad we didn't take one before some people had left already.

Jolley Gulch Hike

The second hike we had planned was in Zion National Park to Angel's Landing.

Unfortunately,

road construction made it so that hike was a no go.

We decided to do a hike that left from the houses we were staying at,

and took us into the park.

The wildflowers were incredible and all over the place.

About a mile in, we entered the park boundary

and then about 100-200 ft in was Jolley Gulch.

We enjoyed the view for awhile and then decided to keep on hiking and headed in the direction of Stave Spring.

At about this point in the hike,

those of us that thought 4 miles was a good enough hike turned around here.

Some people stayed and hiked for another mile or two.

(and crazy people like Joanne and Tricia, wanted to get a 10 miler in)

It was quite an enjoyable hike,

fairly easy (until the end!) even though we did hike an incline.

 We all knew that the 3/4 of the last mile was going to be a killer going up the ravine,

and it was pretty rough.

We just had to take lots of breaks under the few shade trees on the trail.

I was usually the caboose since I was stopping to take pictures all the time,

(Well, that, and the fact that I'm fat and slow) 

so if you were at the front of the pack,

more than likely I don't have any, or many pictures of you.

Sorry.

But that's what you get for being an overachiever. 

☺