the beauty of an early morning text message

So last Thursday I got a text from my husband at about 6:15 AM (he works the sunrise shift for UPS) that said, "Do you want to go on a trip?" There is a small chance that my reply included an inappropriate word to emphasize my excitement, but let's just say my response was, "Heck yes." So a spontaneous get-away was in the works, and by late morning we were on the road, headed south. I adore road trips with my husband, mostly because of the uninterrupted hours of conversation we can have. Okay, so maybe there were a few interruptions (we do have a toddler and an infant), but still, it was so fun to just be in the car together with our babies strapped in behind us. I wondered how Pear girl would do-- staring at the seat of a car for hours on end really cannot be very thrilling-- but she really was so awesome. We tried to stop and get her out of her seat every couple of hours to nurse and stretch and that seemed to do the trick. She was a happy little baby the whole way.

Here she is stretching out on the seat at one of our stops.

After a brief drive through beautiful Capitol Reef our babies let us know that they were pretty hungry and ready to be out of the car. We stopped to get a little dinner and then loaded back up into the car to go find a spot to set up camp for the night.

I like this picture of G at the diner because I can see the exhaustion written all over his face, but he was so excited to be camping that he was being such a trooper while we kept him up way too late.

I only feel slightly concerned for my life when my husband drives down a secluded dirt road, then pulls off into the middle of nowhere and declares it to be the spot that we will be sleeping for the night. It really is probably quite safe since no one should ever be able to find you in such a place, but that very fact is what makes it somewhat alarming to me.

G perked right up when we got out of the car to start setting up camp.

I was thinking I should win an award for being willing to sleep in a tent with my toddler and tiny baby, but the reality is that they both did so great. G slept all night and Pea baby slept just as well as she does at home (waking up to eat twice between about 9 PM and 8 AM). I was pretty impressed with my happy campers and I guess it is a good thing that they did so well because like it or not, we are a camping kind of family. Might as well start young, right?

After breaking down camp the next morning we made our way up to Posey Lake in the Boulder Mountain. One of my husband's favorite places on this earth is the Boulder Mountain, and though he is very familiar with many of the lakes, Posey was one that he hadn't been to yet so we (okay mostly he) wanted to scout it out. After a long and windy drive on a dirt road both babies were asleep again, so I stayed in the car with them for a bit while J went out fishing.

Pearlie woke up so I sat her in my lap and stared at her,


while her big brother slept soundly in the back.

When G woke up we all went out to the lake. (Of course we were the only people there.)

This is where the adventure started to get exciting. J wanted to hike around to the other side of the lake to fish at a specific spot. No big deal-- I had baby girl strapped to me in the Bjorn, and J could hold G if he needed to. What we didn't account for was the beaver dam we would have to cross. Oh you guys, I wish you could've seen us. J had to put G on his shoulders as he precariously balanced on all the little twigs and sticks that the nice beavers had stacked up to keep the water in. If we lost our balance and fell, one way would've landed us in the deep waters of the beaver dam, and the other way was about a 4 foot drop down to a muddy marsh. My feet slipped a couple of times and got all muddy, and G kept trying to cast his fishing pole into the water from atop his daddy's head resulting in a very difficult time for J to stay balanced, but we managed to make it across without any serious casualties. I was laughing my head off though-- it was most entertaining.

I took this right after we had made it across safely (As you might notice, by this point J had made the wise decision to hold G's little fishing pole himself.). You can kind of see the beaver dam in the background, but you cannot at all tell how precarious it really was.

Once we made it to the other side, I decided to start being a responsible parent and opted to let J got down on top of the beaver huts to fish while I stayed up a little higher with the kiddos. J made his way along the treacherous shores of the lake while I tried to stay parallel to him up on the trail. Unfortunately no one told me that there would be places along the trail that would be covered in a few feet of snow that I would have to try to not only negotiate myself (with the baby strapped to me and in Chacos, no less), but also drag a two year old through.

I yelled for backup, but still had to make it a little way to meet up with J. He snapped this lovely photo of us heading toward him in all our glory.

I passed G off to J, but the best part of the trail was still to come. Lots and lots of snow. Even though J tried to pave the way by stomping holes in the snow for me to step into I still managed to collect an impressive amount of the snow between my foot and my sandal that would just stay there until I ripped of the sandals and pounded the snow off. My poor sandaled feet were fah-reezing. The kind of cold that gives you a headache. It was too funny not to laugh about though. We win the responsible parents of the year award for sure.

Here is a little visual, though it must be noted that there were times when the snow really was up to my knees.

After all that excitement we figured we should head somewhere a little warmer. We made our way into Bryce National Park for a little bit and had fun showing G all of the incredible red rock formations.

It really is breathtaking.

We then kept driving a little further and got to Zion National Park. We spent the rest of the night playing and hiking there and it was so beautiful. We decided we wanted to hike up to the Emerald Pools, so we parked the car and waited for the bus that would take us to the trailhead.

Waiting for the bus.

Here we are at the base of the trail. We are teeny tiny compared to the majestic rock formations behind us.

At first we didn't know how far we would make it on the hike with tired babies (there are lower, middle, and upper pools), so we set out with the intention of at least getting to the lower pools.

Here is G playing in a little rock on the trail, and then our family at the lower pools.

The lower pools were so not impressive enough, so we kept going.

G playing in the water at the middle pools.


The two babes (though you can only see one) and me at the middle pools.

We weren't satisfied there either, so we kept going for the upper pools. It was funny because people kept looking at us like we were crazy for hauling two kids (G was on his daddy's shoulders the whole time) up that far (though it really is only a couple of miles), and some people even made comments in passing about us being "brave." Clearly "brave" was code for "irresponsible," and I was glad none of them were there to see us earlier that day scaling beaver dams and wading through snow with our two kids in tow. The upper pools were totally worth it though (and it really isn't a bad hike at all). We were up there all by ourselves and it was so serene and picturesque.

The family with the emerald pool behind us.


G had so much fun hurling sand into the pool-- he was entertained by that for the entire 20 minutes or so that we hung out up there.


Baby girl needed a little dinner before we headed down, so I nursed her on a rock while watching G throw sand. (Katrina, I was wishing you were there to photograph this.)

We were flirting with dusk turning dark and knew it would be bad news if we missed the last bus back to our car, so we headed down. My most favorite moment on the hike happened at this point. We were hiking down moderately fast, baby girl strapped to me, and G on J's shoulders. It was pretty evident to me that G was making his daddy pretty uncomfortable (aside from being a 35 pound load he was also shoving his dad's head forward and then pulling back on his neck with his hands), but J didn't say anything. Then out of the blue little G said, "Dad, you are choking my legs," in about as annoyed of a tone as I've ever heard him use. J and I both started laughing so hard. Oh really, little boy? Daddy is choking you? So funny.

Here were all are on the way down.

After a very full day, we rolled into J's grandparents' home in St. George for the night. We were so pleasantly surprised to find that they were home (they were supposed to be out of town) and awake (it was almost 11:00 PM). Of course they insisted on feeding us a little food, and then we all went to bed. The next day we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa at home for a bit, and then went out around town to play.

Pearl with her Great-Grandma W.

Grandma and Grandpa took us to go see the statues of some of J's ancestors that are displayed in Washington City for their influence in the founding and preservation of the city.

The boys with the statue of one of J's ancestors.

Then we headed to a little water play area in the community to let G splash around.

He loved it.

Baby sister was asleep at first,

but soon woke up. She was still tired, as you can see.

So I held and cuddled her for a bit.

Right before we left I taught G how to lay on the hot cement to get his little wet body warm-- one of my favorite summer tricks.

Baby girl fell asleep again right before we left to go, and her big brother wasn't far behind her as soon as we got on the road. They were tired little troopers.

Already looking forward to the next early morning text message that will prompt another spontaneous road trip :). I love the anticipation of a planned vacation, but I gotta tell you, some of my most favorite memories ever have been of these little last-minute get-a-ways. I'm so glad I have a husband that likes them too, and doubly glad for the sweet little babes we get to take along with us.