a day in Zion

Over Thanksgiving break, we hauled our bums over to Zion's National Park and made a day of it. I was so stoked to have the perfect opportunity to try out our pretty new early Christmas present, our Olympus PEN E-PL7. Because I am just the worst at unloading photos from my phone (and I mean the worst, like there's photos from early 2014 still on there ...) I need an actual camera for the events stuff, you know. The big, I-definitely-want-prints-of-this-later, stuff. With a camera, the photos I take are 700x more likely to end up in physical form. The bonus of this camera though, is it actually let's me send stuff straight to instagram too. AND it doesn't feel like hauling a third child around. Guys I could go on ...

But onward! The bus ride into the park was a highlight for Isla, who grows more and more at peace as she senses herself getting closer and closer to the outdoors. And for Everett, who's very much in a "I love school and lunchboxes and 'packpacks' and buses and literally anything that makes me feel like going to school is about to happen" phase. It's fun.

Everett also enjoys being a backpack almost as much as he loves wearing backpacks.

15 minutes into our trek, Isla's nap time hit hard and fast. Here she can be seen mid stare; slowly losing her ability to hold her cheeks up.

Strapped her to me, aaaaand 5 seconds later ...

We love you, magical nap machine.

Along the trail, we stopped off at this river bend for a minute, and right as we did so, the sun burst through the clouds, warming our faces and hands, while white puffy snowflakes simultaneously swirled around us. We selfied the moment, as you do.

My dad filling in for my sister Caytlyn, who was not there to fulfill her photobombing duties.

Pretty sure Taylor Swift could've written an entire song about that river bend with its meandering snowflakes and generous blanket of sunlight.

On our way out, Everett reached over and grabbed Isla's hand and they said "hi" back and forth to each other and giggled their way back to the bus. Because Everett's scheming for more siblings and he knows exactly what he's doing.

Insert a thousand heart-eye emojis right here. 

The drive out was majestic beyond reason. We cracked the window and froze our faces trying to capture the firestorm of color. #touristyandproud

After loading back in the car, as is tradition, we stopped in at the Springdale Candy Company.

Everett decided to go with one of those candy bottle things where you dip the sucker in the powder, and then put it in your sister's mouth. Wonderful.

Do not knock a candied, dark chocolate covered orange until you've tried it. The rind is chewwwwwwy people.

Now all of you other mountain towns need to sit up and pay attention. Springdale is the master.

Even the laundromat was cute. *Cue super artsy photo utilizing reflections in a relatively aesthetic way

And thus concludes our grand adventure through Zion. We'll end on a high note with this shot of chocolate. Notice the sad solitary milk chocolate among its superior peers. Weak, Tyson. Weak.

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Photos in this post were shot with the Olympus PEN E-PL7 with a 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 IIR lens, which is our new favorite toy in every way. Its wifi capabilities and OI.Share app lets us use our phones as remotes and then share on social immediately. Plus the downward opening monitor makes those high-quality selfies easy, and its portability is just generally more realistic than my other camera whom I lovingly refer to as Ginormica.

This post is brought to you by Olympus.