More time in Zion...Ballet...and a Rodeo

Grandpa saw all of our posts about playing in Zion and he had to be part of it too! We made the mistake of attempting to go to Zion on a Sunday afternoon in September. It was quite packed. Parking was hard to find, but we did it! We even stole Lexi to come with us!

Cara was SUPER excited because she got to start taking ballet! Her best friend, Chloe, convinced Mom to let her join her class. Here she is all suited up!

September also brings about the awesomeness of the rodeo. Kids can always go free on Thursdays, but Dad always teaches on Thursday nights and so does Mom so we went on Friday! Mom had to take us alone though because Dad had obligations with cello. We got there plenty early which meant the sun was DIRECTLY in our eyes. Sam kept imitating Mommy and putting his hand up.

The awesomest part was when Sam insisted on going shoeless.

We survived pretty dang well. We didn't quite make it through the whole thing, but CLOSE!

The Kokopelli

It came! It really came. Mom and my race really came. And so did a storm. That dropped the temperature and made it windy and cold. AHHH! We still get up and loaded the Prius with our bikes (okay Dad did that last night). It was dark when we got up and it was slightly sprinkling. We both really wanted to back out, but we didn't. We warmed up in the car and got ourselves to the race.

We had to kind of psych ourselves up so we took selfies and got our leg markings. In a cruel twist, the kids race is actually first. So JUST as the sun was rising and starting to warm us up even slightly, the kids had to be suited up and ready to get wet. Luckily the water was almost 80 degrees.

I was nervous, but then I saw the buoy I was aiming for and it wasn't really that far. I knew I could do it and Mom was there screaming and yelling for me the whole time. (Her favorite part was when I literally muscled my way around some kids as the horn sounded and started my swim!)

It was GREAT! And I took third in my age division for girls. I even charged ahead of one girl right at the end of the race to get third instead of fourth!

Then it was Mom's turn. Dad showed up with the other kids just in time to send her off and grab me! Because in a weird twist of fate, I had my first rehearsal for a play I had been cast in! Somehow we don't have any pictures of that so I'll have to fill in that detail later!

Grandma and Grandpa made it to cheer Mom on. In fact, they pulled up the road just as Mom started her run and happened to see her!

These were our finishing times.

Mom was pretty proud of herself although she wishes she had looked up Grandpa's time from last year because she would have run faster. I can't remember right now, but I think that she missed beating him by like 30 seconds or something.

FINISHERS!!!!

And a well deserved nap. Oh wait. That's Sam. That's okay. He deserves a nap almost every day. Being almost two is exhausting.

Labor Day weekend and The Shakespearean Festival

I'm sure Dad might have a few more photos on his phone of Labor Day weekend. We drove up to SLC to hang out, but Mom stayed in St. George to work the weekend away with Grandpa in the Emergency Department. So thus these are the only two photos she has available at the moment...one of her taking a ride on the Kokopelli race route and Iva and her buddy Chase at the aquarium. We had a great weekend.

The Tuesday after Labor Day, Mom got a text from her good friend, Ginae, who lives in Cedar, offering her two free tickets to see Shakespeare in Love at the Festival. Mom jumped at the chance, but couldn't find any grown ups who were able to go with her. So she took ME. Mom was a sweaty mess from just teaching a Group power class and the play had some adult content, but it was so much fun. I enjoyed it. I didn't understand all the jokes, but Mom kind of explained a little bit and I was the only kid in the audience. I hope we get to go again!

Until next time City Pool.....

It happens every year...the time really does come and we have to say good bye to our beloved city pool. We had to do it a little earlier than normal this year because we were going to spend Labor Day in Salt Lake. 

We spent many hours on those pool stairs.

And consuming cheetos on the lawn.

We were all sad when it came time to leave. We can't wait for May!

The Narrows

We had so much fun on our little hike up the River Walk (and we had paid the entrance fee at Zion which gave us six more days to use it) that we decided to come back and take Dad. And this time we dressed to get wet and hike farther up into the Narrows.

We also took a path that was just to the side of the River walk that kept us right next the river and was the path less traveled.

Here we go! The start of the Narrows!

Iva was pretty nervous and understandably so! In some spots it looked like she was going to be getting wet up to her waist!

We were pretty impressed with how far up we made it even though it wasn't super far but we were the ONLY little kids we encountered. In fact, a nice German tourist asked to take pictures of our family because he was so impressed.

Family selfies rarely go well anymore!

We headed back along the trail and once again had our favorite river spot to ourselves! This time we were in swim suits so we spent more time in the water!

Look! We made it to the other side!

This is how deep it got for us!

The Eclipse and some hiking!

This year on August 21 the United States was set in the path of being able to experience a total solar eclipse. St. George was just out of the path of the 100% eclipse, but we were still at like 89% or something. The schools were being really weird about it and so Mom went up and checked us out of school to experience the eclipse. Mom had remembered at the last second that she actually owned a pair of solar eclipse glasses that she picked up during the last one (that was only a partial eclipse) like five years ago! The day proved to be cloudy in St. George and we thought we might not get to see the eclipse at all, but just as it reached it's peak the clouds parted! 

Mom had us use the pinhole trick to see the eclipse. She remembers this trick from when SHE was in fourth grade and saw a solar eclipse.  Can you see it there on the paper plate? That's what the sun looked like!

We all took turns with the glasses.

And then Mom showed us that our shadows were getting all kinds of wavy and distorted. It also got a little bit cooler.

It was pretty neat. Nothing like the full eclipse that some of our friends and family got to experience, but maybe someday we will experience that.

The 21st happened to be a Monday which meant Mom didn't have to teach that night OR work in the emergency department. A real treat. She decided we needed to go on an adventure and clear out of the house while Dad was teaching. So she loaded us up in the van and drove to Zion to take us on a hike. We loved the shuttle.

We settled on taking the River Walk trail up to the beginning of the Narrows. This meant we got to ride the shuttle THE WHOLE WAY.

Sam was such a trooper in his back pack. But Mom says he was getting heavy.

We discovered this lovely spot along the river that had access, but NOBODY was playing there. We took advantage of it.

We played the "how deep does it go" game. Luckily there were no losers!

Sam thoroughly enjoyed throwing rocks. Some as big as him.

It was so fun. We are so lucky to have Zion so close!