Voyageur Days + Early April Happenings

Here are some scenes from early April at the Storm household. 

Ranger spent time soaking up the spring sunshine at the dog park. Leo was along for the ride during one of those visits. ;)

Lucy has an Alexa in her room and uses it to play music; her brother Roman likes to 'borrow' it when he does chores - much to his sister's dismay. One day he went to grab it and he was met with this note. ;)

You know that I love celebrity biographies - checked out this gem to avoid all of the Spring Cleaning tasks. Haha!

Roman had a sleepover with one of his wrestling-loving besties. You can see that they had their wrestling guys all lined up and ready for action in the ring. What a couple of goofballs!

I signed the children out to a Voyageur Day at Beaver Creek. Of course everyone rolled their eyes and grumbled but everyone did have a good time. ;)

Leo learned about the early trading days between French fur traders and Native peoples in Wisconsin. 

The kids worked on building fires without matches.

We played some old timey outdoor games that kids used to do years ago.

The big kids were successful with their fires.

Leo loved all of the beads. 

Roman made a biscuit over the fire. He was very patient and it tasted pretty good!

He is a cool map outlining the Waterways of the Fur Trade. Fun to see the mighty Chippewa and Wisconsin rivers right in the middle. 

We also spent time at the outdoor playground - can you see the leaves just starting to sprout?

We popped inside the Nature Center and saw some of our favorite critters - the badger and bears. 

We had our first picnic of the season at Centennial Park in Altoona.

We wrapped up our afternoon with a stop at Cold Stone. Thanks for the Easter gift card, Grandpa Glen and Grandma Sharon! 

Leo had a 'Taste the Rainbow' Day at his School. He sported his rainbow sweater for the event. Leo is not a very adventurous eater so it is always good for him to be encouraged to try something new. 

We prepped for the solar eclipse in April. I had to pull out this classic picture from America's last eclipse. ;)

Guess what - it was so cloudy here that we could not see a thing! Dang it!

It was Music Monday for Leo at day care - you can zoom in to spot those tiny little cymbals.

Here are some more activities from the week of the Young Child - more taste tasting and sampling.

I think this was from 'Work Together Wednesday'. Amazon boxes make the best toys!

Last up, you gotta appreciate a good puffy paint art project.

Bring on the glitter! 

Happy Easter!

Let's just say that when I planned our Spring Break trip that I did not do a very good job of checking the calendar. I didn't realize that we were coming back to Wisconsin late on Saturday right on top of Easter morning. Insert tired face here. Hah!

It is a tradition for the Storm kiddos to do a scavenger hunt to find their baskets. You better believe Mom was up until the early morning hours putting this together. ;)

100% worth it to see these happy faces in the morning. 

We kicked off the day with cinnamon rolls.

Good news - the children found their baskets!

Gotta love a good Easter egg hunt and sugar rush before church. 

Everyone got cleaned up and ready to go for Easter services. I know that I sound like a broken record but my boys are nearing the end of their willingness to wear matching clothing so you know that I am going to take every opportunity I can right now to get them in the same shirts at holiday time. ;)

After church we went to the youth Easter egg hunt.

You can see it was bright and sunny outside!

Next up was brunch at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Ham and Deviled Eggs for the win!

Everyone was looking good so we had to document with a photo.

We had lots of fun playing with the cousins. 

And spent the rest of the day doing laundry + taking naps. 

Happy Easter to all!

Spring Break 2024 - Zion National Park

We got to Zion in the evening and promptly went to the Zion Brewery for dinner. It was packed! The food was good and it was a beautiful evening to sit outside. 

The next morning we got up bright and early since we knew the Park would be busy. We got our little National Park passports stamped and Roman noticed an alert that said, 'Please DO NOT stamp your government issued passport.' Ai yi yi!

We got in line for the first buses of the morning. Our bus driver said that over 18000 people took the shuttle the previous day. 

During the peak season 33,000 people ride the shuttles each day! You can see the sun just starting to peak over the canyons.

We rode the bus up to the Temple of Sinawava stop ... some of us were still waking up.  

We went on the Riverside Walk along the banks of the Virgin River.

Zion is the 3rd most visited National Park in the United States and we could understand why - it was so beautiful!

So grateful that our crew could go on this Spring Break trip together. 

It was a crisp morning to walk along the river.

We saw some very friendly squirrels on the hike.

The boys saw this rock formation and thought that it looked like a dripping nose. 

Our next stop was the Pa'rus Trail. 

The trail was nice and wide so we saw lots of bikers on the path too.

We spotted some cool plants along the way. 

Some of the plants were pokier than others...

Luckily Roman was just pretending for this photo. ;)

Views for days!

We walked all the way back to the Visitor Center.

By the time we got back to the beginning - the shuttle line was bananas!! Glad that we arrived early in the day for our first hikes.

We had a picnic lunch near the visitors center and checked out some fossils. 

We attempted another hike but our little guy was fading fast.

The big kids were still scurrying up the trails.

They even had energy to act goofy and make mewing faces for the camera. 

It was getting quite warm and we had put in lots of steps over the course of a week. No amount of fruit snacks was going to keep Leo going so we headed back. 

Goodbye Zion trails. 

Good news - we were able to find our car again {no easy feat in the massive parking lot!} and our next activity was to take the scenic trail.

I forgot the official geological name for this feature is but it is the beginnings of an Arch - just like the ones at Arches National Park. 

We drove through the most remarkable tunnel! This was made in the late1920's when tourism to National Parks was just starting up. It is wide enough for 2 way traffic and more than a mile long.

There are window cut outs in the rock so you can see a quick peek of the canyon during your drive through the tunnel. Here is a view from our vehicle and then a look back from the road below. 

Here is an action shot of the tunnel and our exit on the other side. 

It was such an amazing spot.

Guess what - mountain sheep love this territory too!

It is just so fun to watch these guys navigate the cliffs.

We traveled back through the tunnel ...

 And snapped some photos on the other side! Gotta love that new Zion hat - fresh from the gift shop. 

And here is the crew with all of the Zion souvenirs - a hat, sweatshirt, and desert tortoise stuffy. Good stuff!

We stopped by the Museum at the end of our scenic drive - it was great to learn more about the Park and the tunnel.

We had Mexican food for dinner and relaxed in our resort hot tub.

Our resort also hosted a nightly campfire and S'mores session.

The evening of champions for kids who hiked all day! 

The next morning we zipped back to Vegas, returned the rental car, and hung out at the airport. Our flight home was delayed so we passed the time by playing on statues, 

Snapping selfies,

and taking pictures of Mom napping. Haha!

We got back to Wisconsin in one piece! Roman was eager to greet Prince. Grandma Nola took good care of his beloved leopard gecko during our time away.

Whew! What a trip - the Storm family 10 out of 10 recommends a trip to Southern Utah.