Opt Outside our Black Friday

Guest post by Mom:

REI started a movement for Black Friday this year to Opt Outside. They closed their stores and gave all their employees the day off and asked them to go outside and play. My dad has ALWAYS opted outside for Black Friday. If you've read my blog over the years, you know that we head to Zion each Black Friday. Sadly, in the last 10 years it has really changed. I only say sadly because nobody loves to hike in crowds, but it's probably better that more people are opting outside. Originally, when I was in high school, NOBODY was in Zion on that Friday. Now you have to get up early and hustle. They even run their shuttles instead of let you drive the canyon.

Anyway, this year the weather was predicted to be COLD. We have attempted Angel's Landing in the freezing cold before. The first time Siena was two and Cara was four months old. I even titled the blog post "Lesson Learned...Hopefully". It was a disaster. Frozen children and a sprint off of the trail. We attempted it two weeks later with much better results because the weather was warm. In 2010, the very next year, we did it in the cold AGAIN. The results were a little better but still involved crying children, but no sprint. We had dressed them warmer. Our 2011 was a banner attempt. Cara was even two and we didn't have any crying. The big help? Very warm and sunny. So can you guess what kind of a year we had?

I had learned my lesson...I thought. I doubled layered everyone. Double socks even. Iva was given THREE layers of pants and tops. She looked adorable and she was happy. Sam was tucked into me and was in double layers and a very warm blanket. I was PREPARED. Or so I thought.

We started out so well!!

We were happy and almost too warm if you were hiking. Pete was SWEATING. We took our first "break" at the base of Refrigerator Canyon. Iva was starting to be really unhappy and was asking to walk, but then be held. 

We started on our way again with optimism that was quickly shattered. I wasn't as prepared as I thought. I hadn't remembered a binky for Iva. She uses them mostly to sleep, but also when she gets upset and she was starting to be VERY unhappy. I had also left her gloves in the van by mistake so her fingers were cold. The next thirty minutes were filled with Pete, Grandma, Grandpa, and I trying desperately to cheer up Iva and get her fingers warm. It culminated in me making a declaration that Pete and I would just turn around with her go back. We pulled her out of the pack and she burrowed into Pete and kind of cheered up. I should mention that there were very tiny flurries of snow off and on throughout the hike. It was that cold. We made the decision though to HURRY up Walter's Wiggles with Pete carrying Iva in front of him and I would have Sam in the Bjorn and the empty pack. And we did it. We made it to Scout's Lookout much to the amusement of our other hikers. Iva was even happy up top! Pete and I tried to figure out if our darling big girls were on their way out to the end of Angel's Landing. We trusted everyone to watch out for them, but it was still a little stressful thinking of them exposed! It turned out that Grandma and the girls actually stayed back and we found them after a little bit. There was a little accumulation of snow on the trail out to the end and Grandpa had decided it was much too slick to take them. 

I would like to say it was fine from there, but it was not. The hike down was as quick as we could make it. Iva only lasted in the packer for maybe 15 minutes and then Pete wrapped her in his arms and an extra blanket and we headed down fast. It turns out it wasn't her fingers so much as her TOES. I should have put her in boots too big for her and had many layers of socks or even a toe warmer. Two layers wasn't enough. She eventually warmed up and we all enjoyed our meal at Oscar's even though we kind of did it in shifts.