Heaven help me

After a week of hiking and surviving on trail mix and jerky Jason decided that we needed a good meal.  He took us to a place called Rodizio Grill.  It a Brazillian steak house that brings around all types of meat on skewers and slices them at your table.  The food was excellent and we were hungry so it was double good.  And THEN....

the brought out the chicken hearts.

 Like real chicken's hearts.  Just typing that makes we want to gag.  Guess who ate the chicken hearts?

EVERYONE but me!!

Honestly, I don't know who raised these kids because I certainly never taught them to eat something so gross.

Sister Reynolds

gg

 One of our favorite people is severing her mission right now in the Provo mission and we were able to stop by for a quick visit.  We sure do love her and love the example she is setting for a our kids.

MTC

This whole week we have been so fortune to be driving thru Jason's mission. It's been to hear little tidbit's about the town we pass thru and about the people that affected his life.  As we neared Provo we were able to take the kids to 2 special places.  First, the MTC.  It was fun for Jason to tell the kids about his time in the MTC and fun for them to dream about where they will get their mission calls to.

 Kahau wants to be called to Norway.

 Braley wants to be called Greece.

 And Ansen wants to be called to Canada.

 It seems like a long time until their mission but I know it's not.

The other place we were about to stop by was Jason's mission home.  The cool thing is that it is still the mission home and we visited with the mission president and his wife for a few minutes.
Good times, good times.

Final hike

We had time to squeeze in one last hike before we needed to start our trek back to Salt Lake City so we knew we had to make it a good one.  And, not to toot our horns but, it was so cool.  We hiked the Court of the Patriarchs.  Basically there was a little dirt path that led back to the 3 peaks in the center of this photo and we followed it.  The 3 peaks are named (l to r) Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

 When we started out we didn't plan on going very far but then we couldn't help ourselves.

 As we hiked along we found cool climbing rocks, waterfalls, and then Jason spotted the coolest thing.  He spotted a huge ladder up against the face of one of the rock faces.  We are guessing that it was placed there by serious rock climbers who like climbing a thousand feet straight up.  We tried our hardest to figure out how to get to it but with the kids we didn't want to take any risky chances.  Maybe another time though.

 Oh looky here.  A dead body!!!  How nuts is this?  The whole skeleton was picked clean and the kids were fascinated.  As fascinating as it was I moved everyone on pretty quickly.

 The cactus were so fun to look at on this hike.  They all had personality, especially the ones who looked like the we being "held up."

 I'm telling you,  we are getting so good at these family selfies.

 We hiked and hiked and hiked and hoped to reach the back of the canyon but it was getting late and we started to worry we wouldn't have enough daylight to get back so we went as far as we could and then stopped to enjoy the view for a bit before heading back.

We also stopped to karate chop/kick rocks in half.  Look how strong this kid is?

On the walk back the we came across some deer who just watched us walk on by.  We were so close and they were so pretty.

What a great last hike.  We can't wait to come back and spend more time here again.

Walk to The Narrows

One of the hikes that we couldn't do because it was too cold, and too early in the season, was The Narrows.  It's a hike we would love to do another time of year when the water is warmer and we are more prepared.  The water would have been just too cold.  We did however take the 1.5 mile walk to the point where you have to enter the water.  It was a beautiful walk along the Virgin River.

 Along the trail were very, very squirrels.  They were so cute and they just wanted you to feed them but man, those suckers were vicious. Cute can sure be deceiving. Just ask Jason, he almost lost his hand trying to feed one.

It's amazing that we were only 15 minutes away from where we were climbing the elephant skin and yet the scenery was so different.

Waterfalling

I don't really what to call it other than that--waterfalling.  We saw a waterfall, we thought we could climb to the top.  We did, and then we kept going.

It really was a trickle of a waterfall.  I have a feeling once spring truly hits it will be much more impressive.  It was beautiful and it was worth the 1 1/2 hours we took to climb up, over and behind.

The views were amazing on the way up.

Just look how excited we are.

Um, photobomber???

We left our mark at the point that we were blocked in and could no longer hike.  

Family trips rock!