Bryce Canyon

While Papa Bear is in Brazil, the kids and I decided to spend a week camping. We had seen pictures of Bryce Canyon in a book we read about a duck who travels around all the national parks looking for true love (the name of the book escapes me), and we thought it looked like an extremely cool place to visit. When I Google mapped it, it was only 10 hours away from us, so.....ROADTRIP!  :)

The first night, we arrived late in the day and discovered that all of the campsites in the actual park had already been taken, so we stayed just outside Bryce Canyon at a little campground that offered....teepees! :) The kids thought that was extremely cool, except for the fact that the teepee was very large inside and didn't hold the heat in very well.  By the time the sun came up, we were feeling a bit like we'd slept in a deep freeze. :P

The next day, the campsites in the canyon had cleared, and we were blessed with the perfect spot.  It was on the side of the hill away from other campers, so the kids had plenty of room to play, but was not too far from the bathrooms. :)

Crawdad and Taz exploring the area around the campsite.

Everyone had a turn staking down the tent, even Taz (below), although we all questioned the wisdom of handing that child a hammer. Giggle.

Above and below are pics of the view of the canyon from a short walk from our campsite. 

We ran into this fellow and several of his friends on a walk around the campground area.

Crawdad enjoying the campfire. :)

 The kids thought that Jiffy Pop over the campfire was the coolest thing ever (well, actually, Cub thought campfire roasted Spam was the coolest thing ever, but we won't go there....:P). Crawdad took charge of the camera for the majority of our trip and took pics of most of the scenery you see and these of our first night's popcorn experience. We also had hot dogs and S'mores that first night. :)

A blurry pic of Crawdad starting one of the fires.

On Wednesday, we took a 3 mile hike around Queen's Garden and Navaho Loop. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Crawdad loved this miniature tree perched up on top of the cliff we were hiking beside. :)

I thought this was a really neat pic. His intention was to use the trees as a frame for the canyon. Good eye, Crawdad. :)

Lounging in Queen's Garden.

Below is the Queen. The boys and I debated whether she was being chased by a giant fish or riding a camel backwards. :P

A tired Taz and Mama. Our hike led us down into the canyon....which meant we then had to climb back out. If you look very closely, you can see Taz's little tongue sticking out as she gives her opinion of the 600 foot basically straight up climb at the end.

Crawdad tried to get a pic to show the climb. This does not do it justice, I promise you.

Crawdad has the camera, in which case this pic makes perfect sense. :)

On Friday, some friends from Salt Lake City made the drive down to spend the day with us. We had a wonderful time all together. :) 

Our girls cracked us up. Here they are smashing monster trucks into one another and giggling like crazy. Yeah, these girls definitely have older brothers. :)

Goofy teenage boys. :P

Now they are sharing colors and coloring books. :)

My friend Christy and me. :)

The younger boys spent almost the entire visit playing on the hillside. They made a fort, chased, climbed, and judging from the amount of dirt they were wearing at the end, rolled around on the ground. LOL. They ended the day very dirty and very happy....just like little boys should be. :)

Unfortunately, Taz developed a fever on our last day. Poor baby was completely miserable by late afternoon, so we decided to go ahead and pack up. The boys and I agreed that there was no way she was going to be even remotely comfortable in the tent for another night, especially since it was supposed to be 28 degrees. Christy's family graciously helped us pack up, and we all headed for home. 

All in all, it was a wonderful, blessed trip. The boys did not want to come home and are already planning our next campout there. :)  (And Taz, while still feverish, is feeling much better today. :))