Zion Flops

 Don't let these photos fool you- this trip was an epic disaster. Evan could not hardly wait five minutes to take our tent trailer on a trip after we brought it home from CA after Christmas. By mid January he insisted on Zion. The weather forecast actually was very promising and I agreed. A drive to Zion normally takes around 4 hours but with our van pulling the tent trailer and all the potty stops it took two full extra hours on top of that. We went for a little tiny hike the first night and luckily our heater worked well and kept us snuggly warm, but then the disasters really began. Cosette had vomited inside her sleeping bag during the night- and then slept in it without waking up. With no washing machine and only on a two day trip we made the best we could with wipes and trash bags. Next we attempted to enter the park- only to find thanks to Covid social distancing rules they weren't running the shuttle and had closed the gates before 9 am because all the parking spots in the entire national park were already full. There was one trail we could walk to from our campsite so we decided to do that. For some reason, like maybe the fact that she is 3 years old, Vivian decided to have an epic melt down and refused to wear sock. Her feet were freezing. About a quarter of a mile in she just would not stop screaming so I took Noelle off my back and set her down inside the pack so I could turn around to help Vivian. The ground was unstable of course and the pack tipped over slamming her head straight against a rock and blood started pouring out of her nose. At this point we called off the hike and when she was still bleeding an hour later my pediatrician sent me to the ER to get CT scans and make sure she had no internal injuries. I spent the day in the ER and Evan and the other kids spent the day hanging out at the campsite filling out junior ranger books. We finally got all cleared around 4 pm (praise heaven she was fine and also was gifted a stuffed animal Pixie that has become her constant companion). I came back and made a spaghetti dinner, and we all passed out. the next morning Noelle also woke up in a sleeping bag full of vomit and we packed up and drove the sluggish 6 hours home. What a maiden voyage for the Westlake!