our weekend in zion: a three for one rock-in' deal!

Last weekend was a good weekend for some bucket list tasks . . . I worked on 3! But only finished one haha :)

1. Go to at least three different national parks or monuments
2. Do work in all the temples in Utah
13. Go camping

I really love having this bucket list because it makes me do things. I get so stuck being boring, when there are so many fun and exciting things I could be doing with my life! That was the case with this weekend. Normally, I'm not much up for planning. In fact, that's why this weekend didn't happen back in the fall--because I just never got around to really planning for it. But a few weeks ago I sat down with Russ and said that we had to make these plans so we made them and stuck to them!

So this last weekend we went down to Zion National Park and St. George. Though the weather had been pretty nice up here, we were excited for the getaway down south and the also-sunny weather down there. We invited Russ's parents and sister Lacey along and we had a good time hiking around Zion and looking at the beautiful world.

One thing I love about being married is that you get exposure to a completely different family. I love my family of origin and I'm grateful for each member, but I also really love my in-laws. It was fun to spend time with them and to see again some of the major differences between my Holmes family and my Petersen family :) I really am so blessed to have all of the different family members in my life.

I really love my Holmes parents for a lot of reasons, but one (which I just realized over the weekend) is that Russ is pretty much an even split between his mom and his dad. Like his dad, Russ is an adventurer, a fixer, and a tinkerer. Like his mom, Russ is a thinker and a feeler of people (if that doesn't make sense, I'm sorry, but that's really the only way I can think to put it). Obviously I love Russ, so that makes it really easy to love his parents because he's like them in so many ways :) It was fun to be around all of them (and Lacey!) this weekend :)

As I briefly mentioned, we camped in Zion. For about five days leading up to the trip, I was sick and I slept horribly. I almost always sleep good, but those five nights were possibly the worst five nights of sleep of my life! But perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, because I actually slept better while camping than I had the days previous, so I didn't have any reason to complain about sleep :)

The master tent-setter-uppers! We didn't arrive til 10 or 11pm, so it
was so nice to already have tents set up for us by the early birds :)

We also made it to the St. George temple for a session :) It was pretty awesome because it was an ASL session, which I had never seen before. I definitely recommend going to one because they're interesting. It also really helped me stay awake the whole time, which was good since I usually get sleepy haha :)

It was a long and energy-exerting weekend, but it was good to be with Russ and family, and to spend time doing something a little more out of the ordinary :) Here are some more favorite photos from the trip :)

our trunk pantry

optical illusion!

This kid. He was always climbing and exploring and getting
himself into precarious situations . . . and loving it :) He's so fun :)

And while Russ and Dad climbed and played,
Mom and I were content to hang back a bit and just watch :)

We did a long hike to this alcove and then we sang
4-part harmony of hymns. It was pretty fun :)

Oh, you know. Just being us ;)

Snowball fight in the hot sun?! Heck yes!

We came across a cairn-covered area, so we contributed!
Those boys did GOOD with lots of big rocks. It was impressive.

Russ, me, Lacey, Mom (Barbara), & Dad (Trent)