Cedar Breaks National Monument

I am not starting out with “Rachel speaking” because I am not actually speaking at all, I’m typing.

The morning for me started out with breakfast, driving to meet our cousins at their hotel and then driving to Cedar Breaks National Monument. Taylor and some other peoples got up early and did a hike. I would have gone except my foot set rules I am forced to follow. Instead my mom took me to a ranger program last night. It was all about wilderness. I learned quite a bit.

Anyways, on the way to Cedar Breaks I rode with my three youngest cousins my aunt and my mom. We were lucky enough to see lots of big horn sheep. I was soooooooooo surprised to see them. They were pretty close too.

If you have ever been to Bryce Canyon National park you can imagine what Cedar Breaks is like. A red canyon has been eroded by water forming rock formations like you have never seen. Bright red rocks stick up looking like poles (they are actually called hoo-doos which is a very, very, very weird word).

We ate a picnic lunch before heading to the hike we were going to do. At the overlook before the hike we had some poor person take our group photo. We ended up just doing a bit of the hike because a thunderstorm was coming in. I was only going to do a little bit any ways because of my foot.

Before leaving we stopped at the visitor center to get junior ranger badges. Before we got our badge we had to take a pledge which I giggled the whole time we took it because the guy kept adding things about cleaning our room.

Cedar Breaks is really high – almost 11,000 feet in elevation. On the way down, the road was so steep that our van’s breaks overheated and were steaming. We had to pull over and wait for them to stop.

On the way back to Zion we returned my wheelchair and went to go get ice cream. The place we went to was self-serve which was sooooooooooooooooooo awesome. You get your own frozen yogurt and toppings and then they charge you per ounce.  The frozen yogurt was soooooooooooo yummy. We also drew on their giant white-boardish thing-i-mijigee.

Bighorn sheep

All of us in front of Cedar Breaks

Eating frozen yogurt with my cousins

The view of Cedar Breaks

Me with my new baby cousin

For dinner we had pizza, peas, and salad. After dinner, we had to say goodbyes to our cousins since we would be leaving early the next morning. I tried not to be too sad because we hopefully will be seeing them again at Christmas. We hadn't seen them in two years before this - that's when the last family reunion was. They live in California - which is really far away from Massachusetts.

Hiking the Narrows in Zion

This post is for Thursday, August 2.

It’s me, Sarah Ann. You've GOT to check back in a few days when we have enough internet to post our photos because they are really cool.

Wednesday was a really fun and busy day. After eating breakfast, we went to the visitor’s center to meet our cousins and take the shuttle through Zion National Park. The first stop we made was Emerald Pools. It was kind of short, but lots of fun – especially with my cousins. Zion has steep, red rock mountains everywhere. It’s really pretty – and really striking. So as usual, the scenery on the hike was really pretty and we took lots of pictures. 

We got on the shuttle again. The next hike we did was Riverside Walk – it’s two miles roundtrip. It’s the hike the leads to the Narrows. We pushed Rachel in a wheelchair and Christian and another cousin in a stroller. At the end of the hike, we ate lunch. My cousin and I named all the little islands in the Virgin River and hopped across rocks to get there. We even renamed the Virgin River just for fun. That hike was hot on the way back because there wasn’t much shade.

Next, we did the Weeping Rock hike. It’s really short but there were some stairs. There was a curved shaped rocks. This rock wasn’t red. It had water dripping from it so it looked like the rock was crying. That’s why it’s called Weeping Rock.

After that hike, we got on the shuttle again. We went to our cousin’s motel. We swam for about five minutes but then there was a thunderstorm so we had to come back in. We folded origami and played games until the storm passed. The older kids went to the pool again and swam for a longer time. Then we came back and ate dinner, took baths, and met our Uncle Jeff who was the only one of my dad’s relatives who wasn’t there yet.

The next day (Thursday), some of the adults and Taylor (Rachel couldn’t go because of her foot) hiked to Angels’ Landing. Most of them only made it to Scouts Lookout. To get the rest of the way, you have to hold on to these chains. We met the hikers at the Visitor’s Center at about 9:30. Then we drove another part of Zion – this road with lots of nice views called Mount Carmel Highway. We went through this tunnel that is 1.1 miles and when it was built was the longest tunnel in the world. We also did a 1 mile roundtrip hike called Canyon View Overlook. Rachel and the babies stayed in the parking lot with Grandma. It was a fun hike. I’m glad there was a fence and railing on parts of it because it was a steep drop and you could fall straight down with nothing to catch you.

Then at last – wahoo! – it was time to hike the Narrows. It was me, Taylor, my mom, my aunt and uncle and two cousins. We took the shuttle to Riverside Walk. We were going to do the Narrows on Wednesday but we couldn’t because it was closed because of bad weather. Bad weather in the Narrows can cause flash floods that are dangerous. This time the weather was beautiful. There wasn’t a single cloud to spot to in the sky. After walking Riverside Walk, we crossed the river and started started hiking the Narrows. The Narrows is a hike mostly in the Virgin River through the canyon with big cliffs on either side of you. We had to hike through the river almost all the time. It was so pretty that we could have taken pictures every minute. We had to wear lots of sunscreen. There were parts in the sun and parts in the shade. Most of the water wasn’t too deep – about to my knees. But sometimes it got higher than my stomach. We stopped at this really pretty place. My mom said it looked like a part of the Narrows called Wall Street. We ate a snack and turned around even though there’s lots more narrows ahead. We only did part of it. My cousins were wearing cotton so they got really cold because they were wet. We helped them warm up and headed back.

We got back to our campsite just as dinner was starting. We ate with our cousins and relatives and went to bed. It had been a busy day!

Us with our cousins in front of Checkerboard Mesa

The hike to Canyon View Overlook

At the top of Canyon View Overlook

The Narrows!

We had to wade through lots of water!

A view down into the narrows - see how NARROW the canyon is!

Zion in National Park

This post is for Wednesday, August 1. Photos will come later - the internet connection here (in Mesa Verde National Park) isn't strong enough for photos.

From Christian:


I play with cousins. I go swimming. I sleep in pop.

sleeping in pop

Watchman Tower - the view from our campground

playing by the Virgin River at the end of Riverside Walk

Everyone at the end of Weeping Rock (I didn't go)

On the Way to Zion National Park

This entry is for Tuesday, July 31.

We don’t have internet access much lately so we’re behind again. When we get internet, we’ll try to catch up. The connection we have is weak - it can't handle adding photos. We'll have to add those later - so check back in a couple of days.

Hi, it’s Taylor. This entry is going to be short because we have to go to bed soon.

We woke up at our friends’ house. We started our drive to Zion National Park. We were going to have a family reunion with the Huber side. Before that, we had a reunion with the Willis side. It’s all my dad’s side, but the Willis family is all of my dad’s mom family – lots of second cousins etc. This Huber reunion was just going to be my dad and his brother and sisters and families.

We stopped at Thanksgiving Point south of Salt Lake City to meet some other friends from Massachusetts who moved to Utah. The dad in this family is the brother of the dad of the family we stayed at their house.  We played in this weird water sculpture first. Then, we walked in the gardens. Christian was leaning over in the flowers and got stung by a bee. After that, we got ice cream.

Then we continued our drive to Zion National Park. Even before the entrance, it was really pretty. The best view in the campsite in Zion was right over the bathroom in our campsite. There you can see a giant red rock called Watchman Tower. Zion is in the dessert so there aren’t many trees but there are lots of mountains and red rocks.

Lucky

This post is for Monday, July 30

It’s Rachel.

Before I get to the lucky part, I’ll tell you a little about Sunday. Instead of going to church, we decided to go to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing and the Orchestra at Temple Square play. It’s a program called Music and the Spoken Word. It was pretty neat to hear them sing in person because I’ve seen them on a broadcast lots of times. One of the songs they sang was “76 Trombones” from the Music Man. We loved it!

My parents borrowed a wheelchair to help us get around Temple Square. Christian started saying that he had a broken foot. By the end of the day, he kept steeling my crutches and yelling, “No! I need crutches! Christian have broken foot!” Sometimes, he would even limp around the room like I do.

In the afternoon, we played with cousins. We started with cousin lunch. I made Muddy Buddies with a few of my cousins. They were yummy and it was very, very, very fun making them. I started feeling like I could still do some things with my broken foot.

Monday started out by us going to the Alpine Slides. The Alpine Slide starts at the top of a mountain and then you ride in a little thing-i-mijigy down it.  I was NOT looking forward to this. I mean I had been down the Alpine Slide and loved it. Now I was looking forward to riding the ski lift up and down, which is fun, but it isn’t a slide. My family got there an hour early and decided to explore. They had put in a lot of new things since the last time we had been there. One of these new things was the Alpine coaster. My dad took Taylor, Sarah Ann, and I to look at it, but since I’m slow on my crutches, they got there before I did. My dad talked to someone who ran it and he said that I could probably go on it after all – even though I had a broken foot. I went back down and some other people from our family reunion had arrived. Two of them were doctors and my mom talked to them about it. They said that as long as I kept my boot on I would be fine to go on the ride.

I was soooooooooooo excited as I went on the slide and coaster. On the both of them you control your speed. I was careful not to go too fast on the slide because people have fallen off the ride before, and I don’t need another broken foot. On the coaster you can’t fall off, and they said it was safer to go faster. Although you can’t control your speed going uphill, I sure went fast on the downhill portion.

That afternoon we went swimming with a bunch of other people from the family reunion. We thought the pool was closed, but it turned out it wasn’t. Another stroke of luck! I spent a lot of time spraying people with water guns. I was sad to leave the family reunion.

The most surprising thing ever occurred on the way to Salt Lake City. We were driving down the freeway when all of a sudden someone started waving at us out their window. As we pulled up to the car we recognized the driver as someone we know. The driver was an old friend who had moved from Massachusetts to Utah about four years ago. He motioned us to follow him to an exit. We both pulled over at the exit. As the people got out of the car, we saw that with him were some of our friends who currently live in Massachusetts and were just visiting Utah. What are the chances of that happening?

We reached our destination not so long after that. It was the house of some friends who also used to live in Massachusetts. They have four boys and since they moved they had a new baby girl. We had a fun time playing with them. We ate dinner and played some fun games: Pounce and Telestration. They boys all slept in the basement after some serious parent persuasion. Sarah Ann and I slept upstairs in peace. Overall, it was a very, very fun and lucky day.

Mom and Christian on the Alpine Slide

Here I am on the Alpine Coaster

Our friends we saw on the road!

Playing games with our friends from Massachusetts

A Day Trip to Salt Lake City

From Christian for Sunday, July 29

I see people sing. I play with cousins.  Rachel need crutches.

Going to Park City

It's me, Sarah Ann.

This post is for Saturday, July 28. (We're almost caught up.)

Rachel didn't write about all of Friday because she just wrote about the part where she broke her foot. So, I'll start by telling you about Friday night. A lot of people on my grandpa's side (my mom's dad) came to visit my grandma and grandpa's house for a family reunion. There were lots of people there, even more kids than when my grandma's family came the night before. I played with lots of new cousins - some of that I didn't even know before. I went to bed late that night again. We had to say goodbye to our cousins and aunts because they were leaving early to catch a plane the next morning. That was kind of sad, but I was glad I'm going to see my Grandma Albrecht in three more weeks when she comes to Wisconsin to help us unpack.

On Saturday, we had to pack all of our stuff and we left my grandma's house. The first stop we a splash park in Herriman, Utah (I think that's the name of it - we had to drive about two hours to get there.) We met my mom's friend from college and her little daughter. Her daughter was two just like Christian and they had lots of fun playing togetheer. Taylor just played on the park and wouldn't play in the water. He didn't even get his hair wet one bit.

We ate lunch there and then left. We were excited because we were going to see my grandparents on the other side and my aunt. But best of all, we were going to see my dad. We hadn't seen him this whole trip. We drove to Park City where there is a huge reunion of my grandma's side of the family. Our car barely made it because the road is soooo steep and our van had to pull the camper. The car almost overheated. My mom was afraid to pull over because she was afraid that if she stopped, she wouldn't be able to get going again.

When we pulled in the condos in Park City, we saw my dad. I got to be the first person to hug him. Right away we went to the swimming pool and saw lots of cousins. Rachel couldn't really do much in the pool because of her foot. She can take the boot off and get her leg wet, but she can't put any pressure on her foot.

Taylor wanted to watch the Olympics. That night, we drove to Salt Lake City for my dad's great aunt's ninety-sixth birthday. My aunt told me lots of jokes on the way. Here's one:

Why does a flamingo stand on one leg?
Because if it lifts up the other leg, it will fall over.

The end.

(I'll add some photos later.)