Zion - Day 2

After a fairly successful night in our hotel room we dressed and headed out to breakfast. Normally we love eating out for breakfast, but haven't done it for quite some time. Vacation however means breakfast out, and it was divine.

We went to Oscar's, which we remembered was fantastic from the last time we were in Zion, and again, it didn't disappoint.

*And whenever we go to restaurants with two kids (which is actually fairly often) we always order two high chairs. James is big enough for a booster seat or even just the chair, but we like that in a high chair he can't get down without our help, makes the meal much smoother.

After we were fed we headed to the visitor center to get James a Jr. Ranger workbook and Juliet her first National Park Passport. We LOVE these, you stamp them each time you visit a park, and it is seriously so fun to look back on. James's passport has five stamps (Zion at four months, Capitol Reef,  Arches, and Fire Island National Seashore, along with this trip to Zion) and E's and mine is packed full of stamps.

After the visitor's center we decided to take it easy our first morning and headed to the river. The weather was so nice, warm in the sun and cool in the shade. James is beyond thrilled to spend hours near any river where he can throw rocks.

Soon we were shedding layers and enjoying the sun in our t-shirts (all while it was snowing back home).

Zion's landscape is incredible. I've been to lots and lots of National Parks, and Zion ranks among my top favorites (Yosemite might be my favorite of all).

My favorite boy was all smiles.

While James stayed busy throwing rocks, Juliet stayed busy climbing over and onto everything. She'd shove sand, sticks and rocks in her mouth and was being quite a little challenge. She did not want to be held. She needed to be exploring and tasting things for herself.

After a very successful nap time where everyone slept (heaven) we headed to the trail we'd been looking forward to since making our Zion reservation. Emerald Pools promised a nice length trail, a waterfall, lots of views, and an all around perfect hike for us.

We spotted this guy first thing.

As long as Daddy kept walking she was happy.

We wove up and down the steep mountain and even walked under the waterfall. This portion of the trail was wet because the fall was actually overhead. James LOVED it.

Juliet thought all the splashing was quite fun too (you can see all the water on the sunshade on the pack).

As we approached middle Emerald Pools, James said "I want to keep hiking!" We were not planning on going all the way to the upper pools, the trail was steep and the footing was quite tricky.

But we were all doing so well, and James is seriously the best hiker in the world, we decided to go for it.

The trail was steep with large rocky steps, some double the size of a standard step.  And James never slowed down or asked to break. He was being adorable, saying "hi! My name's James!" to everyone he passed on the trail, and every time E and I wanted to break he'd say "let's keep hiking!"

Up up up.

We finally reached the upper falls, and it was worth the climb. Beautiful.

Juliet at this point wasn't feeling it. She was cold and grumpy. Plus, getting five teeth at once didn't help the cause. Sweet grumpy bunny.

A snack and some snuggled cheered her up.

Back down the trail. We kept worrying that James would tire out soon, the trail was tricky even for us, but he kept going and never even asked to rest.

Views were amazing.

Back under the waterfall.

He was loving it and got quite wet.

Day two was amazing. Such another happy day. So needed, after our very difficult winter.