Easter Weekend

Marta, me, and Tess on the top of Observation Point.

Last weekend (well, Thursday morning actually) I went down to Zion's National Park to spend some time with the fam while they were on spring break. I caravaned down with Aunt Geniel, and we hit a snowstorm but made it in about five hours. When we got there, we hiked up to Emerald pools. For the rest of Thursday we pretty much just hung out and I had a good time being a part of the family again. It was fabulous.

The gang (minus parents) on the trail.

However, it was cold. Friday morning Aunt Geniel brought us breakfast (I'm making cheesy grits and sausage tomorrow!) and we went to hike Observation Point. It was 8 miles round trip and a climb of about 2200 feet. But it was so worth it. Every time I'm up high on a mountain, I think something along the lines of "this is what human beings were made to do." The hike was awesome, and I've decided that the solution for the unemployment problem is something along the CCC that FDR used in the Great Depression. But this time they need to take out the paving on the trail, rather than putting it in, because it really hurts your feet. So anyways.... We rode the shuttle back down to camp and I fell asleep on the bus. Friday night wasn't quite as cool (literally or figuratively!) because rather than just having family time we went to the hotel where the Woodwards were staying to eat dinner, and then we watched Lord of the Rings. Oh well. We got to take showers, which was pretty nice after two hiking days, and it's always nice to hang out with Aunt Geniel (especially if she's giving foot massages!). Mom french-braided all of the girls' hair, which was very fun and woodsy. I rather enjoyed it.

Saturday we had AMAZING breakfast burritos made by mom. Someday I want to be just like her. I will save a long discussion of her amazingness for my mother's day post though :) After breakfast we dyed eggs. Dyeing brown and green eggs is really fun, and I really liked trying to make the eggs jewel-toned. After that we rode the shuttle all the way up the canyon and biked back down. Well, I did. Half of us rode down the first half and the other half rode down the second half! Mom wanted to see the museum movie and I didn't, though, so I rode the entire way. Fun! The "kids" (Luke, Marta, Suzannah, and I) got back to the cars early and waited for an hour or so for everyone else to show up. Then we had an Easter Egg hunt, organized of course by the ever-fabulous mothers. Levi was so cute in sharing his candy with me because I didn't collect many eggs. Kemper's actions were really confusing, though. I'm still not entirely sure why he gave away all of his eggs to Luke... Later that afternoon we parted ways and Luke and I drove down in my car to St. George with Babe ahead of us (stuffed to the brim!) while the Woodwards went back up to Herriman. When we got to St. George I was SO happy to see Grandma. We unloaded and ate dinner and the boys went to the Priesthood session of conference while the girls and Levi went Easter dress shopping. We only took two hours, but Mom, Grandma, and Levi gave up and went home before the end. On the way home we picked up some Easter essential candy that we hadn't had before and saw Dad and Luke, who had washed and filled up my car <3

On Sunday, the fam headed home. Sad times. Grandma and I watched conference, which was wonderful, and she brought me lunch outside while I read on the lawn in between sessions. It was pure bliss. She is wonderful. After both sessions were over, I loaded up my stuff (including TONS of food from the fam, which made me quite happy :) and we went to Aunt Marjorie's for dinner. Her daughter and two granddaughters were there, and I had a lot of fun with all of them. Grandma drove me over to the highway and I was on my way.... Four hours and two sessions of conference later, I was back in Provo.

That was the vacation! Boy was it fun.

<3

Eliza