The Cabin

Our summer vacation couldn't have started in a more beautiful place. We were so lucky to be able to stay at Laura's sister's beautiful cabin in Kolob Canyon just outside of Zion National Park. Thank you! It was so great that we wanted to just relax there the first day. With 2 stories and 4 bedrooms there was plenty of room for the kids to play monster or go "exploring".

I couldn't believe how happy they were! This is a pic of Anna and Isaac aiming at the monster (Dylan) upstairs. (We'll see if dad or my brothers can restore it)The kids had hoped to roast marshmallows the first night, but since that didn't happen, they settled for homemade caramelled popcorn around a lamp on the deck.
Eventually we did roast marshmallows. It was perfect: the joy of roasting marshmallows in the comfort of a cabin. That's the way to do it! (another ruined pic I love!)
The next day we decided to try a trail that Laura's sister's family loves to do right next to the cabin. From above the trail was a neat sneak peak of Zion's glory.
One evening we went for a drive and came across a reservior so we stopped and skipped some rocks.

At Zion we were happy to find a volcanist working at the visitor's center who answered lots of questions that Isaac had about volcanoes (a recent interest of his since Matt and I had discussed volcanoes in southern Utah). She pulled out a topographic map and showed us some of the local "cinder cones". We were thrilled to find out that we had been driving past them on the road to the cabin!
Those two large hills are 100,000 year old volcanoes!

On our way down the mountain we were able to see what we hope was a rescue drill in action. If you look closely at the top of the plateau you can see a tiny dot of what the chopper was carrying.

A little further down the hill we got this picture.