Mary Poppins...

Dave was out of town and wouldn't have really wanted to go anyway, so I invited Jeanine to go with me to the outdoor theatre.  I told her I needed a date for family night!  She was more than happy to oblige.  I told her the ticket was a belated birthday gift for her.  What a fun evening!  I picked her up and got her "jazzy" (little electric scooter) loaded into the car.  We went through JCW's drive through and got hamburgers and shakes.  Then we drove to the park.  The gates weren't opened yet, so we worked on our milkshakes while we waited.  Once they opened we went on in UPHILL.  Jeanine thought her jazzy was going to tip over going up the hill...it was quite exciting there for a moment!  She was panicking and I was promising her I had a hold of the back of her scooter and wouldn't let it fall over.  It's a wonder if she will ever go with me anywhere again!  ha!  I seriously would have put my body right in the way to stop it if I had to! Anyway, after we got to the wheelchair FLAT place, we noticed a PAVED trail up to it from another gate.  Why on earth didn't the lady at the gate we came in tell us there was a wheelchair accessible ramp on the other side!?  Well we know for next time!  We ate our hamburgers which by now were getting quite cool.  But it still tasted good!  Randa and her mom and Makayela met us there...Also Randa's friend Rossy.  It was such a fun production!  Follows the same story as the movie, but as always the stage version has different songs and different things in the storyline.  Made it very fun to watch.  It was quite windy and very cloudy.  We kept waiting to get rained on but it didn't happen.  We saw lightning which they said was 10 miles away and that they were keeping an eye on the doppler.  We didn't get cold or wet so it was all good!  A very fun night!  We of course left via the paved ramp!  Much easier!  I had paid a dollar to rent a chair (the white plastic patio chairs) which they have chopped the back legs off just a little so they sit flat on the hill.  Didn't work so well on the flat, paved wheelchair part...a super nice young man went and got me a regular chair!  Next time I know to bring my own.  But I was grateful he saw me and took care of it.  There are two more shows this summer so I hope to go to them both!  I'm sure Jeanine will go with me again, as long as I promise to not let her fall down the hill!

Zion day two continued...

Just more pictures...I took tons, it was hard to narrow it down!  Beautiful place that Zion National Park.  Glad we went!

This is my favorite picture...my forever hiking buddy!

Zion day two...

Dave and Amanda got up EARLY to go and get us a campsite.  Even though the boys would not be with us that night, we could at least stay another night and have an extra day at the park.  There were TWO spots left so they got one, the camp host went and put a reserve paper on it.  They came back to the hotel and we all had breakfast there.  The campers are supposed to check out by 11.  We went by at 10:30 and they informed us they were staying another night!  That it was their option to extend and they were using it!  We were so upset!  The Camp Host said they CAN do that, most usually don't, but there was nothing he could do about it...AND, we had already paid our fee!  No way to get it back.  We have a membership card so it was only 8 dollars instead of 16, but I was still MAD.  Not about the money, but about their attitude.  If they were going to extend, they should have notified the host in the morning!  All the early planning and paying, just to be practically laughed at by those three men from south of the border...it took a long time to get over that and to not let it totally ruin our day!  We decided to just go home late that night instead of staying over anywhere.  So we also lost out on our extra day in the park.  Our friend Lauren Green was going to meet us with her three children and go on an easy hike with us.  She lives in Las Vegas but has relatives she stayed overnight with in St. George.  She met up with us about 10, as we were waiting to get in our site and set up our camp.  Didn't happen!  So we ate lunch in a grassy area and then set off for our hike.  Her baby Jude is 7 months old (what a cute, smiley baby!) then she has a 2 year old and a 7 year old.  Lauren just had surgery a few weeks ago for a tubal pregnancy.  She wasn't sure how long she would last, but we just went nice and slow and even with carrying a baby on her front side and a back pack on her back...she made it all the way!  I was super impressed!  Amanda helped her a lot with the kids and Dave and I just helped with the bigger kids where and when we could.  Dave piggy backed Ezra a couple of times...Ezra started calling him Papa. It was so cute.  Loralei was a little mother to both of the little boys and it was so cute to watch them!  So many people on the trail made comments about "hiking with a baby!"  Like no one does that.  And these Asian people actually stopped and took pictures with her!  They would pic Ezra up and take a picture and say how strong he was (We think they meant heavy).  It was funny.  I guess children in Asia ARE an oddity.  We had a fun hike, again pretty easy trail, there was water the kids loved playing in, it was spraying over the top of the rock formations above us.  We had snack time and while we were sitting to the side of the trail, who should come by but our niece Katy and her husband Justin!  They live literally 3 minutes down the road and we never see them...then we go 4 hours away to Zion and run into them!  All the trails they could be on, and it was ours.  So funny!  I didn't get a picture until they were walking back down the hill...wasn't even sure if they were in my picture, but they are!  You can see Justin's red ball cap.  After we got back to the lodge (oh, we rode the shuttle to the trail head by the lodge and then back to the visitor's center area at the end of the day) there is a huge grassy area and a BIG BIG tree.  We sat in the shade and of course the kids played.  They even played a game of tag with Dave.  Dave and I left them all there for a bit while we went on another walk down a trail.  It wasn't very exciting, but we did see a deer up very close!  This grassy area was between two huge canyon walls...and there was a huge round of thunder that just vibrated off those walls and was so LOUD!  The kids came scurrying back to their moms and there was a school group not too far from us and they all screamed.  It was funny.  I can't describe how loud it was an how long it lasted echoing off those rocks.  After the kids played in the river a bit and then got dry clothes on, we said goodbye to Lauren.  What a trooper she was!  It was so fun to see her and her cute kids.  We ate pizza for dinner and Dale met us at the pizza place.  He took the boys for his week of vacation (road trip) and we headed back home.  Arrived home about midnight.  It was a tiring but pretty day.  We got a few more sprinkles on us, but not bad.  We liked the clouds...kept things  a bit cooler!  

 Katy and Justin are almost in the middle in this picture...red hat...trust me.