Red Rock Canyon (rest of the weekend)

On Friday, we hiked Calico Hills and the Children's Discovery Trail in the morning.  Calico Hills was the kids' favorite hike.  Calico Hills was real red rocks and lots of clambering and climbing over rocks.  It was less of a hike and more of an exploration/play.

 

Such magnificent scenes!

Gabby needed to go to the bathroom so we found a secluded spot behind a bush.  Just as she was about to squat, we noticed a tarantula right where she had been about to relieve herself.  She decided she didn't need to go after all.

 After Calico Hills, almost everyone went on the short Children's Discovery Hike.  Ella wasn't feeling well so I sat in the car with her so I didn't get any photos.  Then we went to the visitors center to check that out.

Then we headed back to camp for lunch/rest. 

 That afternoon we decided to hike Ice Box Canyon. The kids didn't want to go but it was way too hot at camp.  So we had them hike the first mile or so until we got into the shade.  Then we found a shady, sandy spot for them to play and dig and Dennis, Annette and I hiked for awhile.

The kids enjoyed digging and playing in the dirt while we hiked.

As we were hiking down from Ice Box Canyon, we found two more tarantulas.  Dennis picked the first one up (he'd picked the one at Calico Hills up earlier as well). This guy crawled all over him which both amazed and freaked out the kids.  Davlynn wouldn't come anywhere near him until the tarantula was gone.

Back at camp, there was time to play, read, relax and just enjoy time together and being outside.

 The next day we had a leisurely breakfast and packed up camp.  Then we headed to Mesquite where Dennis and Connie live.  We got separated from Annette and her parents and none of our phones were working and so the beginning of the drive was more eventful than I would have liked.  I was really tempted to just head back to Salt Lake.  But eventually we got in touch with them and made it to their house in Mesquite where we played games, watched a movie, relaxed, SHOWERED, and went to the park.  The next morning we had breakfast (delicious waffles and a smoothie) and then went to church. After that we headed back to Salt Lake.  It was a great weekend!