We took the Garcia’s out to the Buffalo Grill near Zion. Ria said she wanted to try buffalo. Helene got this huge plate of ribs which looked pretty tasty.
Ed tried the buffalo tenderloin and gave it a thumbs up. Oliver dressed up as a knight for our night out.
Elora and her friend Helene. The kids really enjoyed having an evening out (we don’t go out much…) and Marion and Oliver were both so excited to see Ed that he got the fun chance to sit between the two of them.
The next morning we went to Zion. Chris took the day off to come hike with us. We saw that the buffalo were out in the field, so we stopped to look at them. Oliver wanted to figure out how to rope the toy cow.
He was oh so proud of himself while roping. He must be turning into a country boy after all.
The kids all had so much fun looking at the buffalo and playing that I thought maybe I should just bring them up here for a day out sometime so they can enjoy the animals and wide open spaces.
James really liked the chickens. He kept pointing at them and grunting. I wish I knew what he was thinking about…
We stopped at a few nice views for our friends to look around. The kids love Zion and every time I come it is such a great experience. I really need to bring the kids out to Zion more, it is such a great place to explore.
The crew at Checkerboard Mesa.
Marion and her new best friend Ed. She walks around saying, “I like Ed. He is my best friend.”
We decided to do the Canyon Overlook hike because it ends with a great view of Zion. There are some awesome steep stairs at the beginning. The kids have really been wanting to come here, so they were happy to finally get to do this hike.
These little mountain goats were pretty quick on the trail. They stayed in front with Chris most of the way.
As we walked on the trail Ria talked about where she grew up in the Philippines and said it had lots of mountains and they would have to walk up and down them to go get water and things to bring to their home. She said the hiking reminded her of that because she grew up scampering around on mountains.
Now there are just a lot of pictures because it was so pretty I couldn’t decide which ones to put up. I had forgotten how beautiful this hike is. There really are some great views on the whole hike. I haven’t been here in years because I usually come to Zion with just the kids and don’t feel like I can handle the whole crew on a trail like this, so it was nice to come back!
We saw this cute little chipmunk. We had an awesome wild life day – we also saw bighorn sheep and mule deer.
We found a nice couple at the top to take a picture of all of us. Ria’s mom was really a good sport, we weren’t sure if this hike would be too hard, but she said it was like being home in the Philippines, only now she is older so it was a little harder.
Marion finally admitted she was a little tired and let Ed carry her part of the way back.
We drive up the main canyon to see the nice views there and got out at the end to see the Virgin River. James found a nice stick right away. He was excited to walk all by himself after being carried the whole first hike.
Elora was hiking in her rain boots. We found out that she has already worn holes in the bottom and we just bought them a month ago! Ah! They are not really good hiking shoes anyway, but she was sad that when she walked in the river her feet got wet.
We didn’t let little Marion step in the water. I could tell she REALLY wanted to though. She loves water.
Cute baby.
