FIRST STOP-UTAH

We had a fairly uneventful flight out West. Yes there was the man who turned around and yelled at us to keep our son from kicking his seat with in the first ten minutes of take-off. Let me just clarify... seriously we had just taken off and Levi had put up and down the tray table a total of two times and that was what the man was complaining about. He clearly does not have any children! And yes of course we were delayed in Phoenix putting us finally arriving at my in-laws at 2:30am NC time. I said this last year and I will say it again... as much as I love my in-laws and as much as I love the West... if you want to see us you are going to have to make a trip out East because it is TOO hard to travel so long with two young children.
The next day Daniel and I were able to get up and go running together with NO KIDS! Such small things that we use to take for granite. Once Nancy and her family arrived we all headed up to the cabin for our family reunion. I wish I would have taken some pictures of the cabin (come to think of it I think Daniel has some on his laptop- I'll add EVEN more pictures later) because it was BEAUTIFUL. We had Mom and Dad Erwin, The Strommer Family, The Abbott Family, our family and The Matthew Erwin family joined us the last two days. Daniel's sister Cindy came for a couple hours one day but we were hiking and missed her completely. It was the FIRST family reunion that the siblings have had and I would say it was a HIT.
Levi wanted to look out the window the entire time and Kinleigh felt that she was capable of taking care of him. She will make an amazing Mother ONE day... MANY MANY YEARS IN THE FUTURE!
DAY ONE
We situated ourselves at the cabin and then headed to the lot that Mom and Dad Erwin have made into quite a great vacation retreat. It is situated right out side of Zion National Park and you can even take trails right into the park. Mom Erwin took everyone for a ride on the Gator and the kids just LOVED that. I mean kids of ALL ages! The Strommer family made us a delightful meal and then the rest of the evening was spent soaking in the LARGE jacuzzi on the massive back deck.
DAY TWO
Daniel and I got up and went on another kid free run! Picnic and then hiking the "most beautiful 3 mile hike in the world" at Bryce Canyon. It was by far the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. Let me just say it is switch backs on the way down and steep switch backs on the way up and my little girl HIKED THE ENTIRE THING with out being carried ONCE. Our night for dinner. The COUSINS had a BLAST playing with each other and I think we had to do very little with Kinleigh... she was VERY ENTERTAINED. So fun to see the INSTANT BOND between cousins.




DAY THREE
Daniel, myself, my brother-in-law Chris, and my nephew Casey went into Zion National Park and hiked the famous ANGELS LANDING. The picture of me at the end is from the section of the hike called "WALTERS WIGGLES". Daniel and I saw that in a runners magazine a little while back and wanted to run it... we made it a few switchback up running :). The hike wasn't all that bad it was the 1/2 mile to the top and back down that was crazy. It was a 3 to 4 ft wide span up to the tip top of the mountain. They had chains to help you up it is that difficult. We didn't know until it was over that three people died on it just last year. Would have done it anyway but it put it more into perspective. It actually wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. The trail map says it will take you about 6 hours and so when we were on our way down we looked down and realize we were 10 minutes away from 3 hours. We made a group decisions and ran the rest of the way down. The rest of the family went into Zion and did a little hike and then went back to Swim. We joined them for the end of swimming and then the Abbott family grilled out for everyone. We had fun playing games as a family and getting reacquainted.





DAY FOUR
We had a family church service with lessons from Mom and Dad Erwin. We packed everything up and headed back to reality. We made a stop in Zion for one more little hike and to let the kids swim in the river. Nancy and Paul watched our kids play in the water while The Strommers joined us as we tredged through the water for a little portion of the hike on the Narrows. One day we'll go and do that hike from the top to the bottom. We had one last meal as a family at Mom and Dad's house and then the Abbott's headed out.

DAY FIVE
We didn't have to head to the airport until 1:30 so we spent the morning letting the cousins play one last day and Mom, Ruth and I went shopping. Daniel's flight was only delayed about 30 minutes so the kids and I watched him head home and then walked around the airport to burn two hours.
Side note. While walking along I hear this couple talking about how "cute and little Levi was" I turn around to see Napolean and Tabatha from "So You Think You Can Dance". I tried stalking them but never built up the courage to say anything. She looked straight at me and I did the whole, "I know who you are and think you rock" smile and she smiled back and that was all she wrote.