Gilroy Family Reunion - Day 1

For our family reunion this year we traveled to Duck Creek Village on Hwy 14 up from Cedar City, Utah. I'm being descriptive because I had never heard of it before either. But it was a great place! It's amazing how much fun we had and we didn't even try everything there was to do there.

Ice Cave

On our first full day (July 29) we headed to some nearby attractions. This Ice Cave was just up the road from the Duck Creek Village Visitor Center. It was a cool cave, literally. I guess it maintains ice inside year-round, regardless of the temperature. The kids had fun getting down into it, many of them getting muddy from head to foot!

Cascade Falls

Up another dirt road from the Ice Cave is a scenic view of Zions National Park, the great white cliffs in the background. From this point we headed down a trail called Cascade Falls. The friendly people at the Visitor Center told us the trail was "officially" closed because part of it had been washed out during the spring storms this year. But they said if we were careful you could still get around it to see the falls.

Once again, Austin gets a free ride. Unfortunately, this time it wasn't just because he was so little. We found out the reason he wakes up so much at night and has to be held so much is because he has severely flat feet. I took him to a podiatrist the day before our trip and he recommended orthotics but he also said too much walking could cause Austin a lot of pain (oooohhh - that explained a lot). So we held Austin for much of this trip.

Eden also got a free ride but that's just because she's got a sucker for an uncle. That girl really knows how to get what she wants. Bat a few eyelashes and they're putty in your hands.

This is where the trail got washed out. Most people made it through just fine but for some reason Michael, Eden, and Cameron all hit a slick spot and fell, one right after the other. I finally clued in to the spot to avoid and warned Grandpa and Kathy behind me. It's always nice to have someone else go first.

The falls were really cool. They shoot out of a hole in the side of the cliffs here. The water comes from Navajo lake up above and flows through lava tubes down into the cliffs. For some reason I always pictured lava in places like Hawaii but there are lava flows all over the place here. So cool.

Pinewoods Resort

We stayed at Pinewoods Resort. It was an older place with various accommodations but it worked for our group. Our first night there we had the kids show off their different talents. Dallin entertained us with a magic show (Austin was his helper).

Eden sang "The Climb" by Miley Cyrus.

And Cameron told jokes. The other cousins did skits, sang songs, and danced for us. It was a lot of fun and totally cute!