This past week we went to Zion National Park for a family vacation. It was beautiful and exhausting, all at the same time. I think the best piece of advice I can offer for traveling with small children is to have very low expectations of what you’ll do while on your trip and be very flexible to go with the flow, even is that flow is the storm surge of a hurricane 5 tantrum.
This family vacation will forever be remembered as the one where Sweetness stood in the center of the D terminal of the Las Vegas airport screaming at the top of her lungs “I’m peeing!!” as her daddy tried futilely to take her to the bathroom for a change. Sorry, no photos of that little adventure. I hope you enjoy these:
Trail to Canyon Overlook. Sweetness became terrified of the drop off and we never made it all the way.
The waterfall was their favorite part. We couldn't get out of site of it without hearing much protest.
Sitting on the Virgin River on the Riverwalk to the Narrows.
Hiking down the Canyon Overlook Trail. This was the hardest workout of my life, taking a step then holding as the little dude moved slowly up and down the trail. My legs burned.
Everyone happy to be close to the end of the trail, despite the fact we only made it about 1/4 of the way. Maybe it was the park rangers coming down on either side of a woman covered in dirt and sporting a rather impressive head bandage that scared the children?
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Looks like a great trip! So fun that your kids are old enough to take trips like this. over the weekend we stayed at a hotel for my sister’s wedding and Chessa (the 18 month old) would. not. sleep. I think we won’t travel again umtil she’s 12.
Twitter: Heligirl
April 27, 2011 at 8:10 am
Oh Krista, my heart goes out to you. That’s soooooo hard. We’ve had to take the “practice makes perfect” approach. At least for our kids, the more they sleep in hotels, the better they get at it. Luckily we got the sleeping part down better. They slept 9 hours on average and my little man did his 2-hour naps in the dark hotel room while one of us took Sweetness out to the pool, walk, etc. (the other one of us sat on the porch and read – nice break). I so hear you on the not wanting to travel until they’re 12!
Twitter: wicwoes
April 27, 2011 at 6:43 am
The picture of the kids in front of the waterfall is AMAZING! Makes me want to drag my kids all the way there for that picture alone.
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Twitter: Heligirl
April 27, 2011 at 8:12 am
Oh Lynn, it is so very, very gorgeous there. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend any and all of the national parks in Utah, as well as the Grand Canyon. My dream is to one day do a two-week vacation with the kids doing several national parks so they can really gain an appreciation for them. Of course, they’re going to be much older, potty trained and able to eat without bibs!
My DS has those same shoes 🙂 I was sad when he grew out of them :/ Looks gorgeous!
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Twitter: Heligirl
April 27, 2011 at 8:15 am
Liz, I still have a hard time when my little dude outgrows things because they were his baby things. I’m getting a little better the older they get and the more hand me downs they wear. It was gorgeous. The really cool part was when I was single I camped here and hiked all over with my little Chihuahua in my special dog backpack. I pointed things out to my dog, wanting so desperately to have kids to share this beautiful place with. I got a little teary eyed more than once as I shared Zion with the kids, finally.
🙂
Liz recently posted: Messes can be made anywhere
your daughter looks so cute in that hat! i could just eat her up.
Twitter: Heligirl
April 29, 2011 at 6:51 am
Thanks Gayle. She can be pretty dang cute when she decides to be. 🙂
Oh my gosh… how long was the hike? Even if you “only” did about 1/4 of it… it looks like the kids were troopers! I’m impressed.
Also? I miss sunshine.
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