Our Zions Vacation

 Before I start you have to know that this is a long one. It's mostly pictures. I had a hard time picking only a few. I took over 900 pictures while I was away!! Enjoy

We were lucky enough to be invited on a trip to Zions National Park last week. So I loaded up all 6 kids and set out on a very memorable trip, without Mike. He had to work but he made the drive alone on friday night so he could spend the weekend with us. Our friends have a BEAUTIFUL home in the Ponderosa Ranch Resort that easily slept us all and their very large family as well. We had such a fun time enjoying the beautiful surroundings and all the fun activities that the resort has, especially the pool. I decided that Mike and I will need to go back down there sometime without the kids. The hikes were amazing, but after our first 6 mile hike (Except Carter, Nastia and I went home a different way and did 8 miles) all 15 of the kids were a little wary each time we told them we were going for a walk!! So, I didn't get to go on as many hikes as I would have liked to.

This is the Murray Family's holiday house!

Beautiful sunset our first night in Zions

About to start our first hike. The boys ran off ahead trying to beat us girls!!

During the hike

The girls picked some wild flowers along the way, then got told off by a grumpy old man hiking!

Lucy is a great little hiker!

Miranda and Jessica picking flowers

Having a rest along the way

Checking out the burned tree.

Some meditation!

the view along the way

A cool old tree that the girls had to climb

This is what we hiked too!

Jessica and Nastia at the overlook

Carter on the way down

This is the path that Carter, Nastia and I took down. Everyone else went the way we had come. Notice the cliff on one side. Carter kept freaking me out because he wanted to look over the edge!

A little bit of Kaila-ing along the way

Time for a rest

Photo op rock!

cool little bridge we crossed

going through a tunnel

trying to get to the cave!

view from about half way down. We thought we had made it to the bottom, but it turns out we were wrong.

Still going!

 

The kids loved riding in the back of the truck. They were singing all the way back from the pool

Talon coming down the slide

Nothing like a fun day at the pool

This was our first day there. I asked the girls to come to the pool they didn't want to swim but I asked them to  put their swimsuits on under their clothes anyway, just in case. Olena did and ended up have a great time swimming. Nastia refused and had to sit and watch. She didn't do that again! Sometimes Mom's are right!!

I couldn't resist this picture of Carter

Posers

I am not sure if Nastia had ever been on a hike before, but she had some very keen eyes and spotted every wild life animal there was around. She insisted I take pictures of every rabbit and deer that we saw. She even spotted some bighorn sheep on one of the mountains as we were driving past. I couldn't get a picture of those unfortunately.
We caught frogs and lizards and played by a waterfall, as well as going swimming and zip lining. It was a fun filled few days and I am completely worn out from my vacation. I think I need another to recover.

Second day hike, took us to look for frogs

Looking in the ponds for the frogs

Yep that's me I am trying to catch one!

got one

Olena with a frog

Everyone looking

Lucy got one!

There were tons

This is a huge moment. Miranda over came a  huge fear of frogs to hold one for the first time. She was very proud of herself, as was I! We even had a frog race. Miranda's frog won.

View of the hike

Talon off adventuring

Looking up at the beautiful scenery

Nastia playing around

Olena Kaila-ing

A cool tunnel we got to walk through

Olen and Nastia in the tunnel

On the way out

Isn't it beautiful

stopping to try to climb the rocks

a cool giant tree we decided would be a great place to take a picture of all the kids

Here is a normal one (only Kayden missing)

a goofy one

Of course, the only cool way down is to jump!

I had to get in a picture to prove I was there as well!

Miranda posing

Some of the girls

On our way back to the car, we came across this pipe that went under the road. Mike, Austins Dad, asked which one of the kids wanted to crawl through it? Talon was the first to volunteer. We laughed about it because he had just refused to jump off the tree, but was happy to crawl through a claustrophobic pipe!

Going in

Coming out across the street

followed by Austin and Carter

We headed to a beautiful spot to have lunch. Yes we packed lunched for all those kids!

We ate by this beautiful little creek

then some of us hiked to the waterfall

They were trying to not get too wet. Then they gave up!

Carter found a stick that he thought looked like a good mustache

The boys after sliding down the waterfall

Smiles after finding my lost Camera lens cap!
Story: I let the girls borrow my camera to take pictures of the waterfall. After they had been gone a little while I decided to go and find the kids and tell them it was time to leave. The whole way there (it was a little harder climb then i imagined when I let them take the camera) I kept thinking "I hope my camera is ok". whne we finally found them i asked, "is my camera ok?" to which they responded with a sad look. I panicked and asked again and they motioned that the lens cap had fallen in the water. I was frustrated and told them so. Then thought about it for a minute and decided I could make this a learning experience spiritually for them. So I asked Miranda what she would do if she had lost something, she responded in the way I needed "By saying a prayer and asking Heavenly Father to help me find it" "Ok" i said, "lets do that." So we sat together and asked for help finding the lens cap in the pond. It took a while, and a lot of digging in the sand at the bottom. The whole time I was silently praying and asking that this prayer be answered to help the girls recognize the Lords hand in it. I kept my Faith and I found it. I asked who wanted to pray and thank the Lord for his help and Olena jumped right up and said the prayer. I hope that the girls will remember this experience and know that our prayers can be answered.

Our first zip line. I couldn't take good pictures because it was dark, but that is Talon about to go!

We did a beautiful, even though very busy, river walk on Saturday.

One of the many squirrels we saw along the way. They are not meant to be fed, but I think people do because they would walk right up to you and around your feet.

Some of our large group

I was there! Here are my feet in the river!

The kids and Mike jumped right in

The boys of course were the most adventurous

Mike and 3 of his girls

The girls trying to be cool

Finally made their way across the river

Carter

Olena

Miranda slipped all the way in, she wasn't planning to get wet. She wasn't happy about it and was having trouble getting out, even though it wasn't deep. She just didn't want to move.

So Nastia lovingly went in and helped her out

Talon didn't mind getting wet!

Playing on the swings after our hike

Some of the view while we drove around the Park

Two sad girls cause they are all wet!

Monkeying around

Playing some tennis

Mike helping Nastia (she didn't want to be playing)

There was a barn dance on Saturday night

Everyone joined in

Mike tied very hard to country dance with me. but since neither of us actually know how to do that, It just involved a lot of laughing

And some dips

Then he tried again with Nastia

Same thing happend

Carter off to do one more zip line

and Lucy

Nastia

Miranda, who wasn't afraid the second time :)

Olena

Mike, Talon and I. Talon refused to move the muscles in his face to smile. He promised he was happy to be doing it, but his face was tight from the sun and chlorine.

off I go!

While we were gone our new trampoline mat arrived and the kids, especially the girls, were extremely excited to jump on it. They have been jumping and jumping all day long. They have been working on learning how to front flip today.


Tomorrow marks the first day of "School" for the girls. I enrolled them in a summer ESL program which I am  hopeful will help them progress a little faster with their English. They are of course not super excited for this class, but we know they can do hard things, and I am hopeful that it will end up being a good experience, that will prepare them for School in the fall.

It is really fun to see them experience things for the first time. They were so exuberant when they got to go on the zip line and down the water slide. It is so great to see them come out of themselves and truly enjoy an experience. Their smiles are worth more than money, especially since sometimes it feels like these experiences are few and far between. In reality of course, I know that they are happy and sometimes just don't show it. They are teenagers like any other teenagers. They get grumpy for no reason. They pout and whine when I ask them to do something they don't want to do. But I am so grateful to be able to have them here no matter how hard it is. This experience has changed our family, and especially me. I am a better person because of these girls and this journey.