We went back to Zion a few times during Elora’s Fall Break. It started out pretty chilly in the morning, but the weather became really warm and beautiful once the sun came over the mountain. We parked by the Checkerboard Mesa in Zion because I thought it would be a nice place where I could just sit with the baby and watch the kids run around. Wrong… Elora started leading us all around on a nice exploration of the whole area.
“Hi mom! I am up here in the Manzanita bushes!” She actually knows the names of a few plants. Thanks to Chris’ Uncle Bill who taught Chris and I some of the plant names in Zion. We have enjoyed passing on the knowledge to the next generation of Williams hikers.
Elora found a bug in the water and was trying to save it. I am so glad she didn’t fall in…
I love Oliver in this picture. You can see how excited he is to be out exploring, skipping, and running!
Elora and Oliver began playing “The Lion King, Number 2”. The number 2 means that it is not the story in the movie, it is a story they made up. In this story, Scar is nice, and we are all exploring Pride Rock.
Marion collected lots of rocks while hiking. It is hard to convince her to put any back, so she just carries around a whole bunch until she sees something else to pick up.
Elora checked out a book about fungi from the library, and we enjoyed reading it for a few weeks. The funny part is that Marion loved the fungi book too (I am not sure why…) and on our hike, Elora asked if the stuff growing on the rocks was fungi. I was not sure, but said it could be. Marion spent the rest of the hike pointing to the rocks and saying, “Fungi! Big fungi! Little fungi! Fungi on rock!” I need to record her talking about fungi, it sounds hilarious.
Awesome! A large dead yucca to be used as a sword!
Marion was excited to stand on the “Big Fungi Rock”. Nana was very nice to walk around with Marion so I could chase after the two mountain goats…
The kids found a really fun Juniper tree that they called a throne and spent some time climbing.
Elora joining Oliver on the throne tree.
Oliver is quite the climber. He is really good at scrambling up rocks, so I have to stay pretty close to him or he decides to scramble up pretty steep slopes! I know it is not too hard to get up, but I always worry about him when he is coming back down…
These two goobers had so much fun during Fall Break. They started playing together really well and Elora announced one day, “You know who my real best friend in the whole world is? Oliver!”
Oliver the explorer, off on his own.
At the end of our hike, the kids found a tunnel that went under the road and led to a whole new area to explore! Here is Elora presenting this beautiful new place to me, and asking if we could go hiking there. That adventure had to wait for another day!
