Doesn't everybody do photo shoots of their kids in their pajamas with a messy face in their ghetto backyard?

Or maybe that's just me. :)

I'm taking a break from the work to quickly post some adorable pictures of Chico I took over this weekend.  I'll return to posting the last few days of our trip when I can.

Chico wanted to wear Brent's belt, so I wrapped it around him twice and it fit like a charm.  He felt like such a big boy in it as you can see by the smug smile in a lot of these pictures.  I love this boy!  I had to get some pictures of him and he went running outside, guess he thought those would make for better pictures. Of course he was right.

Charlie walks around with his hands behind his back like this sometimes.  It's funny because we've seen pictures of his cousin doing the same thing at this age.

How did I luck out on getting such a ham for the camera as my very own child!? nothing to do with genetics I'm sure... ;)

And these next few were from a few days ago when we got our new lens in the mail and I wanted to experiment with it.  I was chasing Chico around the yard snapping photos.  I won't include the ones where he was getting mad at me. :)  We love how wide we can get the apeture with this new lens, it makes for an awesome boca.

And even though it's a ghetto backyard, it's kinda fun for photography I think.

I also just wanted to record some thoughts I had recently as we were driving by the hospital where Chico was born. I know it's just a hospital, but I still have a special feeling whenever I see it.  You would think otherwise since it was such a scary hard time for our family when we were there.  I'll always think of it in a special way though because it's where our sweet son came into the world..  So many sacred experiences happen within the walls of the hospital. Sometimes we felt like the NICU was almost sacred place.  Those tiny preemie babies have such strong spirits as they are fighting to stay alive.  What a special privilege it was to be with Chico at that time in his life when he was so close to the veil.  I can't wait for more of those experiences in a few months.

Day 5...Calf Creek Falls and Pee-ka-boo

This morning we woke up and just strolled on up to the trailhead (which is right in the campground) and hiked up to Calf Creek Falls. This place is so cool, the pictures below show kinda what it was like for the first half of the 3 mile hike up to the falls. It also shows what the campground was like, you're just camped right up by these beautiful red-rock cliffs. The hike was pretty easy, just long and sandy.  

Then you get to the top and WOW! What a sight! The waterfall was gorgeous!

It rained on the way back down and a little when we got back to camp but it wasn't too bad at all.

Our friends (the same ones who let us borrow the tent) told us about a cool hike in the area.  We were really excited to do it but were planning on doing it the next morning. For some reason we got the crazy idea to go ahead and hike Peekaboo the same day. So after lunch we repacked our hiking gear and drove to Hole-in-the-Rock Road. You drive on it for about an hour until you get to the turn off. You park at the trail head and hike for a bit until you get to THE COOLEST THING! This Corkscrew Slot Canyon is the first one I've ever been in, it is by far one of the coolest things I've ever hiked through. It was kinda hard but mostly fun. The pictures don't adequately describe it's awesomeness. We took videos which describe it better but I don't think I can upload it because they're too large of a files. (Anybody know how to compress video files? I'm clueless on video!)

 

The first part has a lot of climbing which Brent had to help me with.

A natural water slide!

 

 

 

Then it starts getting a little more narrow...

 

so much so that we had to take Chico out of the pack.

 

and there were parts where we really had to squeeze to get through

 

And sometimes Brent just went above because of the tightness, and because it was fun I think...

 

 

We were on a natural high going through the slot canyon.  I just had to take a picture of us together, I cut myself off but don't care because I love it of Brent!

The hike back to the car was kind of hard on us. We were getting pretty tired, the adrenaline rush was long gone and the water was running low. Brent forced me to drink the majority of the water and we made it back with no problems. Did I mention it was mostly uphill on the way back? We decided Subway sounded good for dinner that night but I'm pleased to announce that it was the ONLY night we ate out! We got back to camp and crashed. It was a fun tiring day!

Day 4... Bryce Canyon

Can I just say WOW!?  Bryce Canyon is amazing!!! I had no idea what to expect in going there which is fun because I got my socks knocked off by the incredibleness of it!  We got there in the morning and started our hike through Queen's Garden.  It was a pretty easy, moderately long hike, only the end was hard when you had to come back out of the canyon.  Bryce Canyon is different than the other places because the structures here are rough rather than smooth.  You can see designs in the structures that way and it gives it so much character.

We are grateful that God gives us these beautiful creations to enjoy.  It helps remind us that we, His children, are incredible creations with such great worth because He has told us that we are his greatest creation.

Enjoy the pictures and remember how important you are to God as you look at them.

we thought it fitting that there was an angel Moroni here too...

People would laugh all the time as they passed by Brent because they'd see this little head sticking out of the pack.  He sure was popular!

The hardest part of the hike.  Yes, I was glad to stop for a picture when the man offered to take it for us!

and one last view of Bryce Canyon on our way back to the car...

After Bryce Canyon we finished the drive over to Escalante and went to the Calf Creek campground. It was full but they let us stay in an overflow area. We set up camp and made Chicken, Potatatoes, Carrots, and onions in the dutch oven. We had a bit extra which we were able to share with some nice people we had met. Turns out they went to the same high school as Brent did his senior year at the same time, small world even though they didn't know each other. There was a very communal feeling at this campground, we were stopping and talking with people the whole time it felt like. It was warmer than Zion had been, there was some wind but we slept just fine with it blowing.

Day 3... Church and a Scenic Drive... oh yeah, and Mother's Day :)

We slept in Sunday morning (a welcome relief after the hard first night).  Then we had a big scrumptious breakfast of pancakes bacon and eggs. There is something that is SO good about that kind of breakfast when you're camping. Then Brent and Chico went and showered while I cleaned up camp, they were gone a long time and while I was cleaning I remembered that it was Mother's Day. I laughed but said oh well, when you're camping you have to work as a team to get everything done, especially with a toddler, and apparently he was really grumpy the whole time so I got the better job anyway. When we were all ready we drove to Sacrament Meeting in Orderville. I kept forgetting we were still in Utah and was surprised to see so many people at church, silly me.  After church we drove through Zion and I took a few pictures from the car.  This first picture shows how the East side of Zion is.  I felt like we were hiking through the mountains in our car because everything was so close to the road.  It was awesome!

Then we heated up some vegetable beef soup for lunch (bleh).  Then we explored around the campground and saw horses and a cute sheep dog.  Chico wouldn't touch any animals.  We tried sitting him on a horse but he flipped out. He's fascinated by the animals, he just doesn't want to touch them I guess.  

Chico was obsessed with playing in the car for most of the trip. We thought he'd be content to play in the dirt and with rocks... but no. 

Then we made chicken pot pie in the dutch oven which worked out fabulously as well.  

Our plan was to leave early the next morning from Zion to move campgrounds over to Escalante.  We decided to get everything packed Sunday night that we could.  So Chico and I stayed warm in the tent reading books and packing our bags while Brent got camp almost all ready to go AND he made cornbread in the dutch oven so that we could have a quick no mess breakfast in the morning (it's in tinfoil, hence the no mess).  So we got it all ready for us to go to bed and wake up early and throw everything in the car and go.

And oh my goodness, the cornbread was AMAZINGLY good!

Day 2... Zion!

To start out the day we drove early in the morning through Zion to get to St. George so we could do some engagement photos of my cousin and her fiance. We had a blast doing them, check out some of my favorites here.  They then headed up to Zion with us to Emerald Pools for a few more pictures as well.  On the way we had to stop at the Walmart in Hurricane and get some stuff we had either forgotten or not thought of etc.  After we left Walmart we were driving through Hurricane and saw a dog get hit by an RV, it was so sad. :( The owner saw it happen, the look on her face...anyway, I shouldn't dwell on that.

We hiked for a bit with them then they headed back and we kept going to the Upper Emerald Pools.  We had a blast and just loved everything we saw!  We brought both of our cameras and just loved that we both were able to take pictures while we were hiking.  Though if it was a really good shot I was going for, I'd ditch the Rebel and use the 5D. :)  A few people offered to take our pictures for us and so we got to have a few with the three of us too!

I love love love this pic of Brent and Chico.  Chico looks so confident.

The lower falls

This pic is of Brent and Chico at the upper falls.

This next picture makes me laugh.  I was holding Chico and he started cuddling with me!  It shocked me because he hardly ever does that, thus the look on my face.

There, that look is more befitting of a mother, right?

After we got our fill of Zion for the day we thought it'd be fun to go back to our luxury campground and swim in the pool.  Little did we know it was freezing cold.  There were a bunch of adults in there but they kept hopping into the hot tub.  I took Chico into the pool and he seemed to like it but was shivering like crazy so we decided to get out.  I had no way to know what the temperature of the hot tub was so I didn't know if it was safe for me to get into with being pregnant and all.  So instead, Chico and I just hopped in a nice hot shower after swimming.    

(For the first part of our trip we felt like we should stay at a campground that had showers because we'd be going to church.  So that's why we had this nice campground.  Each campground we stayed at progressively got more and more basic though as the week progressed.)

That night for dinner we made Salmon and Rice in the dutch oven.  We only had one dutch oven and I didn't want the Salmon cooking IN the rice.  So I divided the dutch oven into two with tinfoil-like bowls I guess you could say.  The only problem with it was that some of the water leaked out of the rice and so it wasn't cooked completely when the salmon was done.  BUT WOAH, the salmon was delicious!  Talk about eating like kings on our trip!!!  We also built a campfire that night and made s'mores.  Brent makes a mean campfire, it impressed me to boot!