St George The Homecoming

My aunt and uncle just recently came home from their mission, so we went down to St. George for their homecoming.  A lot of my family were able to make it down and it was really fun to see everyone.  We really missed Sue and Dale while they were gone.
We left Saturday morning and the boys were really good on the way down.

Jacks loves his game boy

While we were down in St George my parents were awesome and watched our kids while Jordan and I went to Zion to attempt Angels Landing.  We were both so excited to do this hike.  I've seen a lot of pictures and heard that it is beautiful.  Before we left my cousins and uncle told me some horror stories about people slipping off the edge and falling 1200 feet to their deaths. They made me a little nervous but I thought they were mostly trying to scare me.
The weather was really nice and Zion was beautiful.  We started our hike in good spirits until I discovered that Angels Landing is a ridiculously hard hike!  I seriously thought I was going to die. Parts of the trail were covered by ice and snow and really slippery.  It's really steep and there are 2 areas of switch back and then the last half mile is on a really narrow fin with chains that you can hold onto with a 1200 foot drop on each side.  There are areas that are only 2 feet wide with only a flimsy chain to hold you up and who knows how long that thing has been there!  Those chains are just waiting to give out!  In short it is a death trap and once I realized this I was having no part in it!  I made it up the first set of chains then kind of flipped out like a 4 year old child before the second.  Jordan kindly tried to convince me to go farther and reassured me that it would be okay.  I sat there almost in tears desperately trying not to have an episode of B&B incontinence from fear of falling 1200 feet to my ultimate demise.  To make matters worse there was a group of 4 girls (sitting in the middle of the trail after the first set of chains mind you putting everyone at risk of death) and they starting telling me not go.  They told me that it was icy and there was snow on the trail and they had seen someone slip and fall and had to grab onto a tree to keep from falling off the treacherous cliff.  After that I was done.  I sat down with my new friends and became a part of the trail block and convinced Jordan to go on without me.  I got some looks and laughs from strangers hearing our whole exchange.  It's okay though it was terrifying. Jordan didn't make it that far without me.  The trail was really snowy and icy in places and it really just wasn't safe to hike that day. Most people that started didn't end up making it all the way up.
Okay so the danger of this hike was probably exaggerated in that last paragraph.  They've only had 6 people die since 2004 on that hike and thousands of people do it every year.  The snow and ice though really was dangerous and I'm scared of heights.  I had no idea that it would be that thin.  I had seen some pictures but they seriously don't do it justice and I didn't even make it to the really scary part.  I really want to do this hike someday I think the view would be worth it but I just might be to scared. I mostly just feel bad that Jordan didn't get to finish it because I'm a baby he really wanted to. Maybe someday.

Notice the snow on the trail behind Jord.  And the terrifying sign warning of imminent death up ahead.

 

The easier of the two sets of switchbacks.

This part of the trail was covered in snow and really slippery.

While we were gone my parent's took the boys to Snow Canyon to the sand dunes then back to Sue and Dales house.  After our Angels Landing fail we headed back to Sue and Dale's house.

At Sue and Dale's we had dinner and spent the night with my family which was really nice. The kids were both tired and kind of nightmares. Kara and BJ there from Cali so we spent some time catching up with them.  Link was really scared of Kara and when he was naughty time out was sitting in Kara's lap.  Maybe not my nicest move to Kara or Link but it was kind of effective.  Kara had to ruin it by pulling out some candy and winning him over with sugar. He loved her after that.
Link had a really hard night at the hotel.  He has a really hard time sleeping anywhere but his own bed.  We slept in a little bit then went to the golf course by Sue's house to feed the ducks.  Link loves the ducks!  He got so excited about it.

After the ducks we went to Sue and Dale's church to hear their homecoming talks.  They both did a great job and it was a lot of fun. We spent some time at their house afterwards.  We had a lot of fun on our little mini vacation.  Jacks had so much fun with my cousins kids.  He loves playing with other kids so it was heaven for him to have so many other kids around his age to play with.

They love Mike and Claudia

On our way home the boys both took a nap and were really grumpy when they woke up.  It was definitely a long ride home.  Then when we got home the kids wouldn't go to bed because they had such late naps.  Going on vacation with kids is fun but also really exhausting we were definitely ready to be home.  It was so good to see all my family and we're so happy that Sue and Dale made it home safely and enjoyed their mission.