National Parks Trip

Grand Canyon

The Reese Family at the Grand Canyon

We just got back from a week vacation to three National Parks. Since we are moving to the midwest, we thought we'd take one last tour of the southwest. We left Tuesday, July 1 and drove all the way to the Grand Canyon. That was a long drive-especially with a 8 week old. Ainsley did pretty well though. She slept most of the way and only woke every few hours to feed. We were nervous that she wouldn't sleep that night because she had slept so much in the car-but she did! While at the Grand Canyon we walked the Rim Trail which is about 3 miles along the South Rim of the canyon. It has excellent views at various points. We also toured the museums, went to a Ranger Program, and did a small hike down to a viewpoint 600 feet down the canyon. Here are some of our favorite pics from the Grand Canyon:

Desert View lookout
This was our first view of the canyon

Ainsley Learns about Wind
It was really windy at one of the lookout points. Tom was on the edge taking pictures so I sat on a rock to relax. I unstrapped Ainsley from the Baby Bjorn and was holding her out in front of me. The wind was blowing like crazy. Every time it did, Ainsley would get so excited like she didn't know what to make of it. She would stick out her tongue and smile each time a gust went by. I sat and watched her do this for several minutes before calling Tom over to take a picture of it. It was hilarious!

Sunset at Mather Point
We sat and watched the sunset from this point.
It was gorgeous how the light hit the sandstone!


Cedar Ridge Hike
We decided to get another view of the canyon so we hiked part of the Cedar Ridge Trail to a lookout point. We only went down 1 mile and 600 feet in elevation but now we can say we hiked the canyon, even if it was only a little ways down.

Waiting for the Shuttle
I carried Ainsley everywhere in the Baby Bjorn-she would sleep almost the whole time. She was really popular-everyone would ask to see her and ask how old she was. Everyone was amazed that we would bring a 8 week old to the Grand Canyon but she did really well-only a few outbursts. She is a pretty mild tempered baby, we are really lucky!


Ainsley meets her Great Grandma Butler in St. George

Happy Fourth of July!
Thanks for the cute patriotic outfit Aunt Cami and Grandma Butler!

Zions Canyon

Zions Canyon is one of our favorite canyons to visit. Tom and I have been there 5 times since we have been married-we have hiked the Narrows from the Ranch, the Subway, the East Rim, Angels Landing (I admit to chickening out and not doing the last 1/4 which is the steepest-I blame my fear of heights) and almost all of the mini hikes. We weren't really able to hike at all this trip because of Ainsley but we just wanted to visit to be able to see its beauty one last time before our move.

Wallstreet Section of Narrows
This is my favorite picture Tom displayed in his photography show at the PG library. He took it last year on our Narrows trip. Tom's biggest hobby is photography and he has some amazing photographs. Check them out at his blog: tomreesephoto.blogspot.com

Ainsley's first dip in the Virgin River
Too cold? It was a bit cold for her so we took her swimming that afternoon at the hotel

Dad and Ainsley hanging out in the pool!
She was a like a little fish! She loved it!

Capitol Reef

After Zions, we took the Scenic Byway to Torrey. It was a beautiful drive! We spent our last day of the vacation in Capitol Reef. We walked the Grand Wash trail, stopped at viewpoints, and visited the historic Mormon settlement of Fruita. They have tons of orchards growing in the middle of the National Park. They let you go into the orchard and eat as much fruit as you want for free. If you take the fruit out of the orchard then you have to pay for it. I was a little chicken to do it on my own, but Tom made me try it because he knew I wanted to. Here I am picking apricots and having a taste. It was a fun end to our vacation. It is always hard to come home from a vacation and we had such a wonderful time. We will miss the red rocks and beautiful scenery of Utah and Arizona while we are away. We met so many foreigners on this trip and it made us realize how lucky we are to live so close to this beautiful landscape!

Yum! Apricots!