Come On Down!

Zeke's fondness for game shows - especially ones that involve bright colors, quick action, and spinning wheels - has taught him a lot. He is starting to recognize letters, he knows what vowels are, he can 'read' dollar signs (and sees them everywhere), and he has picked up quite a few new phrases: 'on the map', 'prize puzzle', 'buy a vowel? an E!'...

The newest phrase this week was 'seventy dollars!', typically screamed at the top of his lungs and repeated several times. We couldn't figure out at first where he learned that one. Today there was a thank-you card sitting on our bed. When Zeke saw it, he took the envelope, pulled out the card, looked at it, looked up, and said quite naturally 'seventy dollars!'.

Zeke just might be the next host on The Price Is Right.

We've Been to Kolob

The other major stop on our Zion trip was Kolob Canyons. We drove up to the viewpoint and then had a picnic lunch.

Zeke didn't eat much because he was busy running around and thowing sticks and dirt. He also told us that he wanted to climb this tree.

After lunch we hiked the Timber Creek trail. Lots of picture-worthy stops along the way!

We learned this trip that hiking with a young child gives you an upper body workout as well as a leg workout.

We stoppped just short of the official overlook point because Zeke was tired and the remaining trail was steeper and rockier than we wanted to navigate carrying Zeke. The rest of the party thought our overlook was better than the real one anyway.

We've Been to Zion

We went to Zion National Park over the 24th of July, to see (as I told Zeke) rocks and trees. And a whole lot more! We spent our only full day (the 24th itself) in Zion Canyon.

The Zion Canyon shuttle was awesome. I'm so glad we didn't have to drive up into the canyon and try to find parking. And Zeke loved riding and watching the bus.

We hiked the Riverside Walk trail. I think Zeke sat on every rock possible the whole way. He loved the rocks and the red dirt (his socks were pinkish by the end of the day).

The water dripping from the rocks was one of our favorite sights.

The view from Weeping Rock was amazing.

I loved the red and black rocks at the Temple of Sinawava too.

It was so beautiful there. We all enjoyed it immensely!

Everything That Can Go Wrong

The day we left for our 24th of July weekend trip, Aaron ran errands while Zeke and I packed. We started early and I had plenty of time to pack our things and load the car before Aaron got home, even with Zeke's packing 'help'. But I got distracted and had things packed but not loaded when Aaron got back. After lunch and loading the car, we were about an hour behind what we planned. I tried not to be too hard on myself about it and we went to get gas and milk before we picked up my parents.

Then we locked both sets of keys in the car. Fortunately, Aaron realized he didn't have his keys about halfway through latching the door, so there was a tiny crack to work with. Also fortunately, we were near a hardware store, so we bought a metal rod and Aaron worked it through the door. After about 20 or 30 minutes of hard work (while Zeke and I were getting sunburned despite our sunscreen), Aaron managed to flip the lock and get the door open and were back on the road. Then I remembered I had forgotten my folder of vacation plans (including things like hotel address) so it was back home to get that. While we were home I also remembered a few other impoartant things I had forgotten and by the time we really left we were about 2.5 hours behind.

The one good thing about the day is our hotel room turned out to be a suite-style room, complete with fridge, stove, and kitchen sink. Zeke got his own room within our room, the bathroom had a bathtub, and we had the only balcony in the hotel. And it didn't cost us anything extra (I checked before we got comfortable!).