Ekins Express

Zion's with Olson's Last week the Olson family from CO drove to Southern Utah for a few days. Matt took Thursday off and we all spent the day in Zion's, along with Gr. and Gr. Ekins. We went on two small hikes, had ourselves a picnic, and then did a longer hike - Walter's Wiggles. The first half of the day was really cold, but Val came to everyone's rescue with extra layers. Abby does not like the cold one bit, but she did great to keep up with Kate and the rest of her cousins. We had a lot of fun being out in nature and just catching up with our Colorado family. Thanks for making the effort to spend time with us! Oh, and later in the day, we met up with the rest of the Ekins family - Spencers, Smith's/Riley's - for a BYOF picnic, birthday cake for Kathryn, games, and chit chat. Notice "Rett" written in the sand? Matt had fun doing this for the whole family with his fancy Zion's walking stick. He needs it hauling the big guy around the mountain. The waterfalls, especially in the springtime, are beautiful. Matt and the kids had fun teasing the squirrels along the paths. They'd let you get close to them thinking you've got a snack but the park does not allow feeding animals. Rett was being shy for the French-speaking tourist photographer. All the kids had fun finding these little rock caves along the trails. Sydney and Christian would run way ahead and then jump out and scare everyone as they'd walk by. The best was when Christian scared his mom Val and her scream echoed through the canyon for a few seconds. At the end of our journey on Walter's Wiggles. It was the hardest hike of the day and almost everyone made it! The hike down was fun because it took us 1/4 the time of hiking up. Abby and Kate kept each other going strong in the cold.

This small dark nook kind of scared her!