Zion trip: Day 4

The next day we were planning on having a leisurely breakfast of eggs and pancakes, but apparently where we had decided to camp was covered in ants!  The kids ate on the hood of the car while we hurried to make coffee, clean up breakfast, pack up camp and skidaddle!

The girls came to borrow our trekking poles cause they were headed to hike part of the Narrows that day and the poles were LIFE SAVERS for us.  I would fallen or twisted an ankle numerous times without them.
                                                                    

First stop: Back in the river for "baths".  We all stripped down to mostly our underwear and submerged ourselves in the chilly water of the Virgin river.  It felt glorious!

Then we loaded up some lunch and hit up the shuttle to take us to the beginning of our hike for the day... Emerald Pools.  This was actually the hike that Joe and I and our two friends, Becki and Katie, did over 7 years ago on a Spring Break trip before Joe and I were even engaged.  

Here is a photo from that trip....

...and here is the one from our current trip!  

Its been an incredible 7 years!  

A lady and her two older children were there at this point and took the photo for us and were not too keen on us going out on this ledge.  We had to explain that we were not crazy and did not want to endanger our children, but just wanted to mimic a photo we had taken in the past pre-kids.  I'm glad she didn't call CPS on us.

The top of the two Emerald Pools was nothing amazing to behold but there were some people repelling from above that waterfall which was neat to watch.  Can you see them in this photo?

There were also a few mormon families that were on the trail with us.  One with 11 children, one with 7... and I'm not sure about the other family.  Let me just tell you... kids EVERYWHERE!  But one of dads took a photo for us.  

This was taken looking back on the lower Emerald Pools trail as we headed out on the Grotto trail.

I just can't get over how beautiful these amazing rock walls are......and my dashing young(ish) husband!

I'm sure Nate was singing around this point.

A look back up the valley 

Where's Waldo..I mean, Emily?

Did you find me?

We rewarded ourselves by going for soft serve ice-cream at the Lodge afterwards and playing around on the grass.

Leaving the park

We headed out and found a great camping spot on the side of the road on some BLM land.  Yes, this means that we had made and broken down camp 5 days in a row in 5 different locations.  Please notice in this picture that Chloe is sitting on our "time out" rock in the middle of the campsite.

It was an awesome place of stellar views though to watch the sunset and the almost full moon rise.

When the girls finished their hike, we fed them frito pie for dinner and they ended up camping right next to us.  Notice in this picture that Nate is now on the "time out" rock.

We roasted marshmallows over the camp stove for s'mores and had a lovely evening of chatting and looking at the stars.  This was the only night we were able to get out of the tent after the kiddos fell asleep.  A great day!