A Weekend in Zion

Last weekend we and a bunch of friends went camping in Zion's National Park in Southern Utah. Talk about Beautiful! Our friends Dave and Teresa planned and organized the whole event while we just paid our bit and showed up. It was one of the best freaking weekends in a long time!

It was a quick trip. We left after work on Friday and by the
time we picked everybody up, stopped and let Wendy's
feed us dinner, and drive clear the crap down there,
it was past midnight.

Here are a few tricks of the trade we learned on how
NOT to tick off your camping neighbors...

1. Arrive BEFORE 12:30 AM
2. Turn OFF your car lights while you are setting up your tents
3. Take special care not to hit your car alarm button on your keys.

After an EXTREMELY windy/short night, (for some)
we woke up to a beautiful day.


Here is the Carlson/Steel hotel. It was a very cozy
Canvas Haven and protected all of us against the
winds MUCH better than everybody elses little mesh top tents!

A group of us eating breakfast in the morning.

The Carlson's took such good care of us, we even

had a choice between 3 different cereals and Oatmeal!

James and on the bus to Angels Landing.

Dave and Teresa

Our entire group before breaking off to do the

different hikes.

The cute girls: Jessica, Sue, Connie, and Becky.

James and I on the trail to Angel's Landing.

Taking a breather...

I told James I wanted a nice picture of us,

so he jumps on me. Ha,I love that boy!

I have no words, except Dave's face freaks me out... haha

My favorite part of the hike...The Wiggles!!

And...the place where I stopped. The rest of the hike

involved chains to pull you up, Rachel and I sent the

rest of the group on ahead, while we...ah...held the

bags...

Apparently the view was top notch though!

The crew at the VERY top, after the chains.

I was very thankful to hear that he survived.

I was okay with THIS view that I got at Chicken Out Ridge

though...Can't be too picky.

Don't know what that is all about.

Wait, there's more!

What is camping without a campfire and Dutch Oven Goulosh

and Dutch Oven Potatoes, and Blueberry Cobbler and Peach

Cobbler and fire roasted breadstics and Marshmallows and

S'mores???

We pretty much ate food for 4 hours straight!

Dave, Jon, James, Me, Scott

Dave testing the food.

The cobbler must be done...James is running! :)

Those are not Teresa's legs.

Jessica, Melissa, James, Rachel, Jon

Stargazing anybody? The stars in the sky were absolutely

beautiful all weekend!

3 Secrets to a great trip...

1. Great Friends

2. Great Place to Stay

3. A Luggage rack on top of the car to fit in everybody's

crap!!!!

Thanks Dave and Teresa!!! It was so fun!

*Most of these pictures are mine, but I may or may not have stolen

some of them from Sue and Melissa and Jon's facebook page... Thanks

to all you unknown contributors!