Kolob Reservoir

A couple weekends ago we went up to Kolob Reservoir with Michelle, Steve and the cousins. We missed the fall colors by a good two weeks and it was COLD! OK, it felt cold to us, which probably meant it was normal for most people in the fall. The drive up was great. It takes you around the backside of Zion National Park and actually through the park at one point. It was really beautiful. We found a place to stop, had lunch, and threw lots of rocks into the water. Quinten would have been happy to do that the whole time we were there.

Munchkin got to come along. He went in the water (that had to be absolutely freezing) and then looked like a drowned rat and tracked mud all over the blankets. :) Poor dog.

I've discovered recently that I take a lot of pictures of Quinten and find myself wondering if I focus on him more than the girls because he is the youngest or because he is the only boy... either way, it really is unintentional. He's just so cute.

This is all the girls: Breanna, Amber, Leah, Alexa and Callie.

Derrick is the only boy who opted to have a picture with the girls. He's such a good sport. I sometimes wonder if it's because he doesn't have little sisters of his own, so he doesn't mind all of our crazy girls as much. Well, I appreciate him no matter what.

For the most part, the boys were cold (poor babies) and sat in the van while they ate. After they were done, they went hunting for rocks to throw in the water. Big rocks. That made large splashes. I gave them instructions to make sure my kids weren't anywhere near when they threw them in.

I took this picture just to show how bad it looked when we got up there. No good color. Just brown. Blah.

We walked up a hill above the Reservoir and it happened to be about 10 degrees warmer than it was below, not to mention the wind was almost non-exsistent. And Quinten found every patch of mud he could and walked in it. Lovely. We also saw some guys coming back to their cabin from hunting a big buck. It was huge and laying dead in the back of their truck. Both the boys and the girls found that to be pretty cool.

After we ate, we drove back down into the park and stopped at a trailhead to hike a little bit. Quin, of course, fell asleep on the way down, so Andrew stayed in the car with him while the rest of us hiked. The boys ended up giving piggy back rides to the girls for quite a ways. My girls love having the big boys around. I guess we just don't have enough of that at our house. My girls think they are cool and follow them around and try really hard to tease and annoy them. Luckily, the boys are good sports about it and are really so nice to the girls. We ended up turning around before we got to our destination just becaue we were afraid the girls wouldn't be able to make it the whole way back.

Stopping for a break... actually, I think we were stopping so Amber could catch up to everyone else. She was a little miffed at being in the back. Austin was playing wheelbarrow with Munchkin.

We left after we got back to the parking lot and headed home. Quinten woke up while we were getting the girls in the car, but soon fell asleep and slept the whole way home. Leah used the "bathroom" before we left. It was really a glorified porta-potty. She told me that it cooled her butt off with the air coming up from the hole. She seemed to think this was a good thing. Oh, Leah. The things she says. This is a shot coming back down the switchbacks. I made Andrew pull over just so I could take a picture.

This was also taken on our way back down to the highway. This picture doesn't really do the color of the fields justice with the red rock in the background. It was a beautiful yellow and looked amazing. Our kids were quiet on the way home- I think we sucessfully wore everyone out and that made me happy. :) Quinten, on the other hand, was wide awake when we got home and stayed awake for way too long before he fell asleep for the night. I guess a nap until 5 in the evening will do that to a two year old.

It was fun to get away for a little bit and great to spend time with Steve, Michelle and the kids.