Zion National Park

My oldest son is off track. Insert me continuing to kick, scream, and hate almost everything about year round school. The only upside I see so far is that we were able to plan a trip to Zion. In April/May. And I didn't have to pull my kid out of class.

We went with my parents and stayed outside the park in a beautiful RV resort. Troy, unfortunately, needed to go to Denver on some church business, but the boys and I had a blast.

We hiked. And swam. And explored.

My boys were pretty much filthy for five days straight.

They were covered in dust, grime, and red rock.

They continued to amaze me with their ability to play with nothing but sticks and rocks for close to a week.

I love to take them camping. They remind me of simpler times when video games were not all the rage. A time when little kids played outside, found things to do, and entertained themselves.

Garrett's motto has got to be, "Life's a journey, not a destination." That kid takes forever and a day to get from point A to point B but he sure has fun doing it. I honestly think he's a modern day Huckleberry Finn minus the incredibly unstable home life and the proximity to the Mississippi River.

One day, we hiked along the Virgin River. We had lunch with very brave squirrels. Despite the fact that the adults insisted that the children did not feed the squirrels, the squirrels were determined. My dad shooed them away from our food. Repeatedly. Still, one particularly strong willed squirrel dashed up and stole the least nutritious part of our lunch. He's probably still lying in the foliage somewhere, suffering in a diabetic coma.

We fed animals in a petting zoo.

I traveled back in time, apparently. All the way back to the time of Manifest Destiny. Except if I'd been part of a wagon train, I would have been headed toward the California Gold Rush. I would not have stopped in Utah with its ridiculous winters. I'm told it snowed in Salt Lake while I was gone.

Though, to be fair, I was still in Utah and we enjoyed some very nice days.

We need to build Matthew a mostly broken covered wagon. He played in that thing for a very long time. The "ghost town" was a great source of entertainment for the boys.

So was the Virgin River. My dad and the kids floated down it in tubes, splashed in it, swam in it. Then they got out and took three hours to warm up because it was C.O.L.D.

We had a fantastic time. It was beautiful. There is nothing quite like getting out in nature and enjoying the fingerprints of God.