F F F

Forced Family Fun as my nephew Curtis says. That's what we had this last weekend... a little FFF. That seems to be the only way we can get our kids to go do anything these days. Is it just my kids? I don't remember complaining so much when we went on family trips? Maybe my parents can correct me, but I enjoyed them. I remember them being really fun. We used to head to the Oregon coast or up to Mt. Rainier all the time...great memories. But lately with my kids, if it doesn't involve taking them to the mall or dinner, they would rather be with friends or watching TV. So, we told them that we were going to go to Dix's cabin, stop and see the Bergquists on the way and then Saturday we would walk around Zion and then go shopping at the outlets in St. George. They bought it! On the condition that they got enough time to visit the B's and shop. Little did they know, we planned to spend most of the day hiking around Zion. We really wanted to take Ashley and Mitchell on the hike that we did without them a few weeks before.

So, Friday we went up to Hurricane and stopped at the Bergquists/Armstrongs and had a great time. It was nice to see where they are living now. It ended up getting a little late while we were there so Mike invited us to stay the night. We were thrilled to spend a little more time with them and we would be closer to Zion in the morning. We had a nice evening visiting and catching up. Abby made crepes for breakfast, they were delicious.

After breakfast we took off for Zion and the kids complained the whole way there! Notice the happy smile on Ashley's face in the first picture of the slide show. The funny thing is, about 20 minutes into the hike Ashley said, "I'm only going to say this once, but this is really tight!" I actually had her repeat it and got it on video tape! We had a great time hiking up the Narrows. We didn't get as for as we did last time, but enjoyed it very much! We (except Ashley, she didn't want too) wore our swim suits this time so we weren't hiking is wet clothes. It made it easy for the boys to swim and play in the water.

By the end of the day, I would say that it wasn't Forced Family Fun anymore, it was just Family Fun! 

(the reason I played a Carpenters song on the slideshow is that Ashley & I love to listen to them in the car and John Hates it! It reminds me of my fun childhood trips, we always listened to them. For some reason John doesn't like them.... weird I know.... maybe his family road trips were really bad! haha JK. For the first time ever, he let Ashley and I play the whole Cd on the drive up without complaining. A historical moment in the Barnes family. So, the song is to remind me of that history making trip.)