Zion & Bryce

Day 7
Headed back into Zion. Once we were up and out of the [non parking lot] rv park we hopped a ride into the Park on a shuttle bus. The Shuttle bus took us on the
roads that they had closed to public traffic. It made several stops along the way at different view points. We road the bus to the end and of the line. That took
us to the river walk. it was so fun to put our feet in the water. The kids loved throwing rocks. i think they would have stayed there all day to throw rocks.
We walked along the river for about a mile and the kids tried to stop at every rock and boulder to try out their new climbing skills. Once we were at the end of the
we stopped again to throw more rocks. The one mile back the other way felt a little more like 10 miles. And we didn't take any pictures of that part. :o)
The next stop on the way back to the visitor center was weeping rock. Delvin Rose and Matt hiked up to see it and I stayed with the kids.
I am so amazed at the beauty of Zion. It was a park I had not heard much about so I didn't know what to expect. I would say that so far it has been my favorite.
The kids loved it too since the rocks were fun to climb. They have decided that they are officially climbers. They now want to climb to the top of everything.
Delvin asked Jude if he climbs trees and Jude said "no I don't climb trees, I climb climbing trees!" It was pretty cute.
As the day went on we all started to get a little delirious, You may be able to tell in the pictures but you can really tell on the videos. Matt started referring to
himself as Clint Eastwood and saying things like "Eastwood Out" at the end of video clips.
Here is a sweet picture of an arch we went through and in the foreground our faithful companion, Tilly. Well, maybe not so faithful. She is causing a bit of confusion
tonight in her navigating trying to get us take the most bazaar turns. I am glad we also have Mr. McNally.

From Zion we headed to Bryce Canyon. This was another place that I didn't know much about but was very impressed with. The kids were sleeping and we didn't want to
wake them up so we took turns going to the view points. It was nice that way because the edges of this place were the worst yet. And of course Matt had to scare me
over and over by getting as close to the edge as possible or running straight to the edge and making an abrupt stop. Proving once again that I am a giant chicken.

So now we are driving through the night to get to yellow stone. Matt and I are the only ones awake. Hopefully that will explain the next part of this post.








Here is a list of things for you to know if you are planning on taking a road trip.
1. Take an old person with you. Trust me it will save you a lot of money. They don't eat much and they get you into National Parks for free. So far our old person
has saved us $150!!!
2. GPS's are great, but you also need an atlas. You can travel with an atlas and no GPS but not a GPS and no atlas.
3. Bring as many pieces of technology as possible. Here is an example of our technology list: Laptop, camera, video camera, ipod, Vehicle GPS, Personal GPS, 5 cell phones
and a discman.
4. Make sure to have some sweet music. There are certain things that must play while on said road trip. Artists like Johnny Cash are great because if you follow rule number one
it is something that people from all generations will like. CCR has also proven to be great road trip music.
5. When playing music on the ipod and you have it on shuffle make sure you are on top of the player. It can be slightly uncomfortable when you go from singing Psalty
tunes with the whole family to a song like Poker Face and your 5 year old knows most of the words. This is not a song that spans the generations.
6. Another great person to bring along is the old man's wife. She is the perfect candidate for cooking meals. She can make wonderful meals out of random things in
the RV. She also is good at reading to the kids.
7. Make sure you have a large memory card for your camera or bring your computer along so you can put them on there and make more room on the memory card. We may or
may not have taken 1200 pictures and we are just half way through the trip. {FYI, please know that if you ask to see pictures of the trip you should mark out a lot of time. I will
show you all of them and the hours of video.}
8. Bring sleeping pills along. If the uncomfortable bed doesn't keep you from sleeping the snoring and loud breathing of people who are sleeping will.

To Be Continued...................