May visit to Utah!

Every year around this time we take our annual trip to Utah to visit family and friends. We choose May because the blue mountains are usually clear and we can soak up some sun while in Utah for a couple of days.
This year we brought our trailer down with us 1: Because we were going camping in Bryce and Zion's National parks 2: When you have a 13 hour drive from Washington to Utah and you leave late at night, sleeping in the car is NO FUN! With me being 17 weeks along, finding comfortable sleeping positions is hard enough as it is! We were really glad we brought the trailer to say the least.

First stop was to Mom and Dad's home for Mother's Day! We went to church that afternoon and mom hadn't told anyone because she wanted me to when we came down. It was nice seeing everyone from my original home ward again. It was also great having everyone home for dinner that night as well. Jordan's girlfriend Chelsey and Rachel's boyfriend Quaid came over too!





Next we were off to Bryce Canyon and Zion's National park. It wasn't as long of a drive as I thought it would be. (Joe drove the whole time though so what am I complaining about...) It's interesting that when you're heading down there is a distinct line where it changes from brown dirt to red rock. I had forgotten how blatant that line was!




We get there and get settled in and that night it decides to drop below freezing!! We can comfortably fit 2-3 in the trailer, but we had 5. Dad would have stayed in there too if there would have been room but he was the gentleman and slept out in the tent in the cold. In the morning we trek into Bryce and what would you know....it starts SNOWING!! Man, we left Washington to get away from the colder weather!! Joe had never been there so it was a neat experience to do as a family.







All in all the first day at the park was great! There were beautiful walking trails and grand vistas to be explored. We saw deer and prairie dogs and had alot of fun in the visitor's center too...





Joe is training to become a Junior Ranger in his spare time... or maybe a Jr. Chipmunk. Swqueakity, squeak..uuh squeaken.





The last stop of the trip was to Zion's National Park. It was much warmer there compared to Bryce. It was so warm all of the caterpillars had hatched and were crawling all over the visitor's center. To get to other places in the park you have to take a shuttle up so we went about halfway and hiked up to the Emerald Pools. It was a really nice hike and nice area.



Someone even found a Mickey Mouse shaped cactus!





On the way home we noticed a cop car stationed in the exact same spot as when we'd drove by that morning. We decided to take a closer look and noticed something was amiss.... I know sleeping on duty can't be good but to fake it entirely!! Man!



This was a fun sign Joe wanted to take a picture of before we left for home.



Last but most certainly not least we had to go see our friends while we were here! We went out and saw Iron Man 2 with them. It was a pretty awesome movie! I just wish we would have had more time to spend with everyone. Of course being preggars and all we had to eat at all of our favorite spots and had a grand last couple of days! Tepenyaki, Cafe Rio and In-and-out...nothing wrong with that!



I think this is a really sweet pic. Audrey is having fun with Katelyn and David is just looking over lovingly... Aww!



Just stuffing our face at Cafe Rio...







We miss everyone already and well be back in June or July for a baby shower!! So I'll just have to keep up with everyone's blogs until then so I can get my Utah fix!!