After a happy first day at Zion, we went back on Saturday and this time met up with some new friends we made on Instagram. They have been living the “Full time” life in their RV for 2 years! We were so happy to find a family to spend time with that has an older boy and younger girls like us!

We met them at their campground in Zion (this pic below is the view from their site) and headed off to walk Watchman Trail together.

The kids hit it off right away, of course!

They all chattered away the whole hike!

I knew with brighter sun everything would be so much more gorgeous and it really was!!! It doesn’t even look real, does it!?

Sooo gorgeous!!!!

Thats how to make any hike easy for AB. Just give her more friends to chat with and she is a totally different hiker!

After the walk we went to a park ranger talk on the history of Zion and enjoyed this view as we learned:

It was dinner time by then so we went back to the campground, enjoyed messy watermelon, grilled some burgers, played on the river banks, and enjoyed a fire with our new friends.

What a fun Saturday! Our life still feels surreal most days. What an awesome “backyard” for the day huh? And nice backdrop to the road games:

A gorgeous sunset was the whipped cream and cherry on top of an amazing day!

On Sunday, Mothers Day, we stayed around the state park and had a great day playing in the water and in our new deflatable / inflatable kayak.

What Mother’s Day is complete without some excitement and drama? Haha Apparently the girls are part of the 7% that gets swimmers itch at the state park and they got the itch hard! I heard it only happens by the trees / plants in the water (south side) so we will avoid that area for the rest of our time here! They were screaming but thankfully a good shower and break helped.

[A ridiculously terrible rash broke out Tuesday as their body fights off the parasites. They are living in constant Caladryl and it looks awful but we are making do. Nothing, nobody and no place is perfect…. except Jesus and eternity with Him 🙂 ]

After all the screaming and having to pack up and leave the south side, we didn’t let the day spiral down but instead went back to the “safe” west side of the park and had a great rest of the day in the sun!

E & RR even went on their own little adventure to explore the big rocks in the center:

They taxi-ed me all over and it was just so relaxing and gorgeous out there.

E found not one but TWO hearts as she ate flip sides when we got back from the water. Little gifts everywhere 🙂 . We have never seen that before.

B and the kids loved me so well, as they do every day, and I couldn’t have asked for more. It was one of my fave Mother’s Days ever, for sure.

To end the day, RR made me a perfect smore. Even using the rotisserie technique:

E & AB worked on their photography skills. Pretty cool perspectives, huh!?

Happy mommy:

I am just so amazingly grateful for everything …. but especially being mom to these 3. There is no greater calling. I just love them so much and love this time together. Our already-close bond has just deepened and strengthened more each month. Thank you Lord!