Day 8: Home!!

We were up early for our flight home, and even though we were at the airport at 4am for our 6am flight, we had to return the car, catch the shuttle, check our luggage, go through security, go to the bathroom, by the time we did all that it was time to board.  We didn't even get our big breakfast.  Wah Wah....

We connected again through Houston and this time, opted for Mexican.  Much better decision.  The kids entertained themselves playing Pokemon star wars until it was time for our final flight.



The kids were old hats at this traveling stuff by now.



When we landed in Charlotte, Andy was overjoyed to be almost back home.



The next day was Easter Sunday.  We skipped church to recover, but thankfully the Easter bunny knew where we would be!



It was a great trip and I was so glad to be able to show a different part of the world to James and Andy!

Day 7: Zion National Park

Day 7 had us getting up early in Moab.  Our flight was ay 6am on Day 8 in Las Vegas, but we had one more stop to make on our Grand Circle tour.  Even as late as nighttime on Day 6, Mark and I were debating on what to do, but we ended up heading for Zion National Park.

Really, this drive was on of my favorite things to we did.  Very nice.  Quiet.  Not too much traffic.  Kids were good.

Oh wait...

Turns out I didn't figure the fact that it was Good Friday and probably a three day weekend for a lot of people when planning this part of the trip.  It took us awhile to get into the park, and by then it was lunch time and we pulled off onto the first vista stop we could find.  Andy was kind of done.

As another aside, one the recommendations I got for this trip is to get a cooler and buy stuff for lunches.  We were out in the middle of nowhere quite a bit and being able to to make sandwiches whenever we wanted was pretty handy...no matter what Mark or the kids say.

Again, we almost skipped Zion to make things easier, but I'm so glad we didn't.  Even though it was another canyon, it was different and still very nice.

Since Zion is actually inside the canyon, there isn't a whole lot of room.  Instead they had a shuttle system, kind of like the Grand Canyon.  Except unlike the Grand Canyon, they make everyone park in one parking lot and get bused into the sites.  Since we didn't get there until after lunch, we weren't really sure we were going to get a spot.  Luckily, they opened up one of the overflow lots right as we drove by.  Score!

Similar to the Grand Canyon, we got off on different stops to see different things and take pictures:

James posed that one.  Andy was photobombing.  We also hiked the Emerald Pools trail.

It was a nice little hike that was perfect for our day trip.  Then we headed to a nice grassy area and got ice cream!

I do wish we would have stayed the night there and spent more time, but I figured we would be ready to get back home and I was trying to save some money.  I'd love to go back and hike The Narrows and Angels Landing.  

We left Zion and went back to Las Vegas.  Ate dinner at a California Pizza Kitchen and went to bed early for our flight home.