We had about an hour and a half drive to Bryce Canyon National Park but even the drive there was just spectacular!
These tall red rock cliffs were so incredibly majestic and just filled you with awe at their sheer size and domination! Some of them even had house-sized boulders looking like they would tip over at any moment! It's as if God has a million fingers holding them all up and steady in their place at the same time!
And these ones that were dusted with snow still, showed off the brilliance of the red/orange color so brightly!
Our budding photographer..... :)
They really truely are such buddies! There is no kidding about it! <3
Those beautiful blue eyes making smiling into the sun so difficult dad! Lol
Poor Essie was here with us in spirit while she was napping in the motor home with Grandma! Lol So for then it was us and our three boys! :)
As you've probably figured out, this is how Essie toured with us most of the time. She did so good and was so patient while we hiked along trails, took pictures and gazed at landscapes - all unbeknownst to her! lol :) What a trooper she was!
As you can see in the progression of the pictures, the weather was actually pretty decent for us, a little windy, but still not bad. When we were about done for the day however it turned pretty nasty and we were happy to be in the shelter of the tin can!
We headed out of the park to go find our 2nd treasure hunt, it was located just down the road a bit at a cute little village. After that, the original plan was to start heading towards home. It would still take us a couple days but the driver wanted to get as far in that direction as we could.
So our 2nd treasure hunt was on! We again had some pretty good clues but it was still a fun hunt! And of course, I only gave the boys the bare minimum of clues so they had to work for it. And wouldn't you know it, the secret treasure was STILL there from when they had left it! It just shocks me that no one would've been snooping around or cleaning up and located either of the treasures. I'm pretty sure it was a solid two weeks prior that the Wytsmas left the hidden treasures for us, so that's a good amount of time for them to still be there, if you ask me!
You can't tell in the pictures, but it's a little box of Mentos gum.
We found our treasure and then the driver informed us that we could go see if the RV park that was part of this cute little village/area, had any vacancies. Yaaaa!!!! We were all thrilled with the prospect of not having to drive into the dark of the evening!
After dinner we headed across the street to this cute little line of shops that were all designed in a faux western street. There was a sign for ice cream that we were really heading towards but either that was 'faux' as well or they closed before we got there. But the boys made up for it in these photo op's we just couldn't pass up.
Before you look at this next picture, let me just preface it by saying... the boys saw these from the back and just knew they were supposed to stick their faces in them for a picture. They did NOT look at the fronts before I snapped the picture. lol Let's just say, once Tate came around to the front he did NOT go back for a re-take! LOL Oh heavens, I just can't stop laughing at these!
Then Grandma kindly filled in and Tate got to move to the six-shooter cowboy instead! He MUCH preferred this 'outfit' instead. lol
Part of staying in Ruby's Village RV Park, is that we had access to the Best Western hotel's indoor pool just down the way from us. We were all excited about the potential of A) all of us being able to swim together and B) the water being warm enough in an indoor pool to accomplish point A! :) So we headed back to the tin can to change into our suits and head back to the pool. Grandma decided to take another 10 minute break and stay in the motor home. It was a bit of a jaunt to the pool so we bundled everyone up and put the littles in the stroller.
The pool was delightfully warm and we all had a blast!
The best part of the evening was when we headed back to the tin can. When we left, it was light out but when we returned it was dark as could be. And obviously in a campground, there are not many lights to guide the way. We did pretty good finding our way back altogether until we reached a slight 'Y' in the gravel road. We could see our motor home but we were not sure which leg of the 'Y' led to it so we just picked one and figured we'd get there somehow. Well as it turns out, we had to do a bit of 4-wheeling with the stroller up a big grass hill. When we crested the top of the hill, we saw our motor home.
So G & T bolted for it and had a plan to scare Grandma. As Kevin and I approached our motor home, it was evident that it was NOT ours!
But instead of warning the older boys, we just let them go on ahead. It's not as bad as it seems, we could see in the windows of the motor home and all their lights were on and they looked like nice enough people! lol
It's not as if we were letting our boys run into a vicious evil-laden lair. Well I guess we didn't know that for sure, but it was an educated conjecture. :p Kevin and I just kept walking in the direction of the real our motor home, which happen to be right past this one.
We could see through their windows, through their motor home to where the door opened on the other side. We kept waiting to see it open and our boys' heads on the other side of the door. All the while, we were dying laughing at the prospect of our boys opening the wrong motor home door.
Alas, no such luck! Just as they were going to open the door, so quietly to scare Grandma, they realized that the outside had a few little differences from ours and just in time, they realized it was NOT our tin can and came running towards us!
We all laughed together at the potential, yet unintentional prank and headed back to inform Grandma of the almost prank! lol
Ah..... what good times! :D
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