United States

The Epic Birthday Park Tour

OG

27 Mar 2017 • 5 min read

It's hard to pick a favorite but Bryce Canyon was pretty spectacular.

Dear reader,

Because of scheduling problems around Catering's computer, this blog post will be a SmallPaw/BabyPaw joint venture. Please bear with my little brother while he tries to contain his excitement...

HI GUYS!!! I'm so happy SmallPaw and I finally get to do a post together! This is going to be so much fun, right SmallPaw?! :)

Yes, it will be a hoot BabyPaw. Now let's get on it, shall we?

As some of our regular readers might know, it was a very special someone's birthday last week and I have to admit, the authorities really knocked it out of the park this year. Or rather, straight into the park since they took BabyPaw and me on a tour of the National Parks of southern Utah. Despite my moaning that I was "done with Utah" after a couple of days, it was really rather fantastic.

We met up in a town called Grand Junction with Lacey and Luis who had a much cooler car than we did but then we got to stay in hotels with real beds and bathtubs so that was pretty sweet too. Anyway, from Grand Junction we drove to Moab to see the Arches National Park, celebrate SmallPaws birthday and for Papi to throw himself off a bike while trying to ride something called Porcupine Ridge. So everyone had fun.

Our rides through the parks. (We got the boring black one without a kitchen or sleeping quarters.) — This'll do. We'll take it.

They named the Arches park very well. Those things are all over the place here! Pretty impressive too.

Just a few more steps and you're here BabyPaw!

Important soil sampling once again. Found a few interesting ant nests as well.

I made Luis run all the way up to that hill. He almost made it too.

Lacey got us sticks, marshmallows, chocolate and crackers and taught us the beauty of s'mores. We will be forever grateful. [Speak for yourself SmallPaw, that sticky mess was weird if you ask me...]

Everything was perfect that evening, including the sunset.

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear SmallPaw, happy birthday to me! [That was some good cake SmallPaw, thanks for requesting lemon from Catering!]

Then it was on to Capitol Reef via Goblin Valley State Park. That was a loooong day in the car but driving through the river and running around the 'goblins' was fun.

Too bad lunch cut the games short. We could have run around these goblins forever.

The view from Luis and Lacey's campground wasn't all bad.

Whoa, when did SmallPaw get such long legs?! Heeheehee

Bryce Canyon had maybe the most impressive views and it was also the coldest of our stops. The campground still had snow on the ground which was great fun for playing during the day but it got very cold very quickly at night. (But we got hot chocolate from Lacey. Score!!!)

I really wanted to slide down the sides into the canyons but for some reason Mami and Papi wouldn't let me.

The view in Bryce Canyon was pretty spectacular.

All too soon we left Luis and Lacey behind to continue on to Zion on our own. (They had to go back and return their camper.)

And Zion from outside the tunnel. See that tiny itty bitty hole in the rock? That's the tunnel window.

We can just sit here and snack while Transportation pulls us with his bike? That sounds perfect, let's do it.

The bike was a great idea. So peaceful and relaxing. Well, for us.

After Zion we thought we were done but the authorities had yet another trick up their collective sleeve: Las Vegas. It seems more of an adult town but we did see some lions with extremely well-combed manes and lots of funny buildings. Also, a giant buffet for breakfast. Heaven.

Why did they put a little Eiffel tower here? I have no idea. But there's a lot about Las Vegas that we didn't understand. It's a strange town. Pretty lights though!

I agree with SmallPaw that Mami and Papi did a great job with the National Parks tour. We should do more of those. I wonder if I can get them to do another one for my birthday... Hmmm.

I'm sure they'll come up with something nice for you BabyPaw but we can't all have grand tours through parks. That's only for really super special birthdays. Like when you turn 4 maybe.

Bye everyone,
SmallPaw & BabyPaw