Vacation to St. George 2009

Here is the low down on our Vacation to St. George this year!! We had a really nice time!!

This year we went along with some good friends of ours, the Anderson's. (Had some fun on the radios, even found ourselves a few times on the wrong channel saying things that were pretty dorky & others thought we were probably wacko's!) Anyway, we got an early starts so we could get to some warm sun & fun as it has been so cold & rainy here in town! It is always a long drive no matter what & the kids did really good & hung in there. (We stopped in Evanston to pick-up the little kids who had spent the week with Grandma & Grandpa Welling, then we stopped about 1/2 way to visit our friend's dad who was a very nice guy.) Once we arrived & got everything loaded into our Condo. (www.vrbo.com is awesome for renting a place through someone who owns it instead of paying top dollar through travel agent or time share, in some places that is.) It was nice to have a big front room w/fold out bed for the little kids, then 2 nice sized rooms with huge closets (gotta love that!) then 2 full bathrooms w/garden tubs in both, our master bath should have been a whole other bedroom it was so big! Then a full kitchen & dining area to spread out & enjoy. I snapped a few photos as we were leaving (& ooops missed a room!) Here are some memories of our home for the week:

So this worked out great for our family! We were able to cook our own meals to save money, & hang out when ever we wanted. We chose this resort as it had so much to offer for our whole family & I knew the kids would enjoy having more "Activities" to choose from as the week went on. There was sand volleyball, basketball, tennis, weight room, swimming pools (of course), playground, shuffle board, game room... there were many bike trails & parks right by us & that was nice too!

The weather was absolutely amazing!! it got to 95* the night we left but most of the time was low 80's & it was just right!! We arrived to a full rain storm and as we started to unload that was the last of the rain till we were on our way out of Zion's from hiking, which wasn't bad for us... then on the way home at about Price, UT - WELCOME Rain & cold weather again!! (ugh!) Then it followed us all the way home!!

Here are some of the days events once we arrived:

*Sat: Unloaded the van, I went grocery shopping to stock up for the week, the kids & Dave went swimming, ate dinner & organized things, watched a movie... nice & relaxing! :)

*Sunday: We went to church with our Friend's uncle who lived in the suburb next to us & then to their place for dinner later that evening. It was so nice, fun to be outside - they had a beautiful yard we enjoyed, we rested, the kids played some fun games, & we enjoyed visiting. On our way home we went for a drive around St. George to recall fun places we had been on past trips. Then we made it back to our place & played a few fun games I brought on the trip.

* Monday: Swimming, played at the park, then we had the Parry's over for dinner that night & of course did some more swimming! (Fun lazy, resting day!)

* Tuesday: Kids went swimming, then Dave & I went with Rob & Susan to the St. George temple. (I love the St. George Temple... many sweet memories from when my Grandpa Reynolds passed away.) Then we took the kids to a new park that was quite awesome & played for a long time (this was quite hot!), then we went to the visitor center, Brigham Young's winter home (got to eat a fresh fig! YUMMY!), Then we went to the ICEBURG for Yummy shakes!! After adding on a couple thousand calories we thought we better try our luck at Tennis!! We all had a great time!! The kids couldn't have been happier!!

* Wednesday: We went hiking at Zion's national park. Beautiful day! We decided to park & ride the free shuttles in & that was great. We had learned ahead of time which hike were the best with kids & that was fun for all! We were very lucky on our last hike to be at the end of the trail @ 1 mile & it started spitter spattering... by the time we made it out the rain was coming down just right... on the ride out we were able to see lots of waterfalls & huge run-off's of the water down the mountains!! It was a beautiful day!! I got lots of neat shots of course & I enjoyed being able to take LOTS of pics!

* Thursday: More swimming of course - I stayed in, cleaned & got our place organized, then we had a wonderful evening meeting Dave's mission president Tad Derrick who tells one of his pilot stories in John Bytheway's Super Sonic Saints - He & his wife Willa took us to dinner at Chuck-a-ramma. Then we got to go to Tuacahn to see FOOTLOOSE at their outdoor amphitheater!!! It was amazing!! All the performers were amazing!! (LOVED IT!) Small world too - saw many who we knew, including neighbors from home at the show too!!! :) It was a great night & the kids really enjoyed it too!! Afterwards we went to meet Thayne Jasperson & get pics taken with him - his grandparents are our good friends here in GR & they are our Home Teachers too. We are friends with 2 of his uncles & aunts who live here too (one being Dave's counselor in the bishopric!) They were so excited for us that we were going to be able to see the show - Thayne, along with the whole cast was just amazing!!! We got home about 11:30ish & were back to bed!

* Friday was a lazy day. We slept in, played around - went swimming, then we went out shopping, mall, etc... then we decided to for-go cooking dinner & went out for our last supper at Cafe rio!! YUMMY!!! It was great! Then to burn off a ton more calories & let the boys be out in the fresh air after all their BEANS :) ... we went & played tennis again & had so much fun!!


* Saturday... had to come home :( & it was a long trip home. But on the way we stopped in to help Aunt Lisa a bit as she was moving from Las Vegas to Highland, UT, then we stopped in & said Hi to Aunt Chelsea for a few minutes while we finished up our sandwich we got at Wendy's... then we ventured on home stopping into the cemetery where we left beautiful flowers (I snagged from Chelsea's front yard~Thanks they were beautiful!) as it just so happened to be Dad/Grandpa Keith's birthday & fitting that today was Father's day too, to take a moment out to remember & visit... which brought some tender tears! Oh we miss him!

Then we stopped in Evanston for a little visit picking up Darren to bring home & leaving Tyler to spend time with Grams & Gramps! (Raining of course the whole time!!) We finally passed the rain at Little America - then it caught back up to us when we reached home.


HOME again, Home again!! We arrived home! While we were gone we finally had a friend of ours do our tile & install some new carpet for us! Even though it was a lot to get ready & do right before we left... it was nice to be gone for all the action so we weren't in the way & trying to keep kids off of it. The tile is still looking a bit dusty from the grout... I will continue to clean & clean it!! But I really like the look & am glad we got it done!! (I love the smell of new carpet!) Now this week I am off to start painting & putting up new trim!! Ugh... but Yeah!!

It is so nice to be home!! We did have a lot of fun... always nice to take a break!