Zion National Park

We decided at the last minute to stop at Zion National Park on the way home from the Cedar City temple trip. We could only spend a few hours, so I debated whether the $30 entrance fee plus parking was worth it, but Becky said they are raising the prices to $70 soon (what?!), so I decided to go.

It is impossible to see Zion in one day, let alone four hours, but we did our best. We chose one easy hike to the lower pools - the fall colors were such a cool contrast with the red and white rocks all around us. Penelope collected leaves along the way and made a bouquet. Henry tried to fall off the side of the trail in an attempt to show independence, and Claire and Miles were troopers, helping to carry the backpacks and watch the little kids too.

After that, we rode the shuttle around the entire loop and we saw some pretty amazing sites along the way.  It was pretty amazing! When we were driving home, Miles said, "Thanks for taking us there Mom." Which totally made my day - an unprompted thank you AND an appreciation for our beautiful world all at once? Those are the things moms dream about their children saying to them!

Riding the park shuttle 

Halloween 2017 - Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland narrowly beat out Peter Pan as our family theme this year - sometimes it's hard to decide on costumes for everyone, but this one came together pretty easily. All except Miles, who I thought should be the Mad Hatter but who wanted to be a card soldier instead. Henry wore his bunny ears for maybe 15 seconds total and was not interested in being the White Rabbit at all. I hope he will outgrow this phase soon, because he is critical to my themes for the next few years (when the older kids may decide to not stick to my master plan anymore). So, for a brief moment, we were all in our costumes at the same time. :)

Aunt Leah was the mastermind behind the trunk theme this year - matching our costumes, of course. We used things we already had, for the most part. The flowers with eyes are from the scene when Alice is small, and the flowers think she is a weed. They were from Matty's wedding decorations - mom kept them all this time, and we put them to good use, adding googly eyes. Alice's dress going down the rabbit hole was Penelope's, shoes were Claire's and then Leah had all the rest already - teapots, tea cups, a clock and key.  Leah won best decorated trunk - and we even had a hearse there from a woman in our ward who works at a funeral parlor. It was our one prize of the night - there wasn't a family prize awarded this year, bummer!

Cedar City Temple Open House

The kids and I drove up to Cedar City to see the new temple before it is dedicated. During an open house, the temple is open to the public and anyone can go inside. We had to get tickets to attend, and the only date that worked for us was Nevada Day - the last Friday of the month and a day off for us to celebrate the day Nevada became the 36th state (during the Civil War, by the way).

The temple tours on the weekends were gone in 5 minutes I guess, so this was my only weekday option that didn't require a day off of work and school.  And the cool thing about it is we ended up being the very first tour of the very first day - 9 am on October 27th. We were even in tent 1 so we were the first to go in (they have you fill up 3 tents first, watch a short video, then start the tour).

This temple was stylized to match the local natural surroundings, which is done often with temples. The Cedar City Temple had a lot of soft green colors, and used the juniper berry and flower a lot in the glass, fabric and plaster work. We weren't able to take photos inside, but here are some photos from the LDS Church's website.

It is a beautiful temple - I had never been to an open house before. I think the kids liked it too - Penelope was talking about how BEAUTIFUL everything was, especially the Bride's room. Wouldn't it be cool if one of them got married there, since it was the first temple they ever went inside?

We took photos afterwards too - I want them each to have a photo with the temple in their rooms.

Becky kept Henry for me during the tour, and played at a nearby park. It was so nice to not have to worry about him! We also met up the night before for some quick ice cream so all the kids could hang out (since it was NOT their Nevada Day, M and G had school).