Utah: Part 3 (Stewart Falls and Sushi)

On June 29th, after a day of relaxing with Sarah, we decided to take the kids on our favorite hike to Stewart Falls. We lathered the kids in sunscreen, grabbed water bottles and snacks, and started our drive up the canyon.

Once we were all at the parking lot and had emptied our bladders in the BIFFY, we started what would be one of the craziest hikes up Stewart we have EVER had!

For starters, all the little kids who we thought would have to be carried, INSISTED on walking the whole 3 mile round trip BY THEMSELVES! And on top of that, all the older kids who we thought would walk the whole way, wanted to be carried!

Then, when all the adults were wasted from carrying the big kids and prompting the little ones to stop poking things with sticks and keep walking, we stopped for a snack break. While we were sitting there, another group came along and asked if we wanted them to take a picture. We said yes, of course, and just as they were taking the shot, Malia vomited all over Rachel! You can actually see it on and under Rachel's leg in this picture! The lady was pretty grossed out and hurried away while we tried to help Rachel get cleaned off.

While Rachel was scrubbing her legs with baby wipes, Lily and Noa sat down in the dirt and got themselves sufficiently dirty :) By the time we got home Lily had about an inch of dust on her face!

After about 2 hours of hiking (we only covered 1.5 miles) we finally reached the beautiful waterfall!

Lily was at peace in her natural surroundings and quickly began rolling in more dirt, splashing through the water, and collecting sticks and rocks.

Brooklyn, however, had developed a pretty nasty fever at this point and couldn't even see straight! She was wobbling around, blinking her eyes closed repetitively, and complaining of a headache. At first I thought she was dehydrated or that she had heat exhaustion, but we found out later that she was just one of MANY Adrenal Virus victims. Poor thing!

Liz and tony were also feeling a little sick by now, and Tony was pretty wasted from carrying Brooklyn most of the way to the falls. They ended up having to leave early and wait at the car for the rest of us... which turned out to be a VERY long wait!

Before the rest of us left, we let the kids play in the water for a little while and tried to wash off as much dirt (and vomit) as we could. (This is one of my favorite pictures. Tau and the boys look so cute together.)

Those who were NOT sick seemed to really enjoy playing in the water and exploring their surroundings. But alas, the kiddos soon wore out and we started the long trek back to our cars.

Rae and her kids made it down first. I was about 15 minutes behind them, BEGGING Lily to let me carry her and trying to convince Brooklyn that she was strong enough to walk part of the way. After I made it down I went back for Tau, who carried both his boys the WHOLE WAY down the mountain. He was only 3 minutes behind me, but I grabbed Micah and we finally made it back to the car!

5 hours after we first left our house, we finally arrived home with a van full of wasted little children. The whole trip turned out to be a CRAZY adventure for sure, but I will always have fun memories from it and I'm glad we went :)

Later that night my mom was wonderful enough to watch the girls so I could go out for Sushi with Liz, Tony, and Sarah. We were all pretty tired, but had a good time laughing about our epic hike and stuffing our faces full of delicious Sushi in preparation for another crazy, fun-filled day!

To be continued...