Trip to St George

Our Christmas break was extra long this year. We had a full week off from school before Christmas so we decide to spend that first weekend of the break in warm and sunny St. George. We left Saturday afternoon after Henry's basketball game. We stopped at Hermie's in Cedar City for dinner and that's where I realized I had left James's backpack with all his clothes on his bed at home. Luckily he had his blanket with him so he wasn't too traumatized but I still had to buy him pajamas, socks, underwear, pants and shirts that he didn't need at Walmart when we got to Hurricane.  

James was asking a lot of questions about where were were going. He didn't remember the little house! We stopped there for a night last February on our way to the Grand Canyon but he didn't remember that or the time we were there the year before that.

Sunday morning we went to Zion. The tunnel is always a good time.

Then we drove around for a bit to find a hike Justin wanted to do.

We hike an area that didn't really have a clear path so it was more like exploring with absolutely no people around and that's how we like it.

James wore one snow glove the entire time.

The favorite part for the kids was this narrow stretch that we had to work together to get through.

Then we drove around the other part of Zion and then got a flat tire on the way back to the little house.

Monday morning while Justin was getting two tires replaced on the car, we entertained ourselves by doing puzzles and watching Mark Rober videos on youtube. Thunder Junction Pioneer Park Red Fort Indian food Tuacahn.

After lunch we met my sister and niece at Thunder Junction. It was so nice to see them!

We said our good-byes and then went to Pioneer Park so the kids could climb on things because that's all they want to do.

This is the hill that Erica took a big fall from and scared me half to death. I was watching from down below because I hate heights (but watching my kids up high is just as fear inducing). Erica was trying to climb down and slipped and I saw her cartwheel fall about twelve and land out of my view. She screamed so loud that people all around turned to look. Justin was near her and so I called to see if she was okay. She was okay meaning she didn't hit her head or break a bone

She had scrapes and bruises on her left hip and ribs. She was pretty sore and sad and scared the rest of the day. We left the park right after that.

We ate dinner at Red Fort. This is an Indian restaurant that is exactly like Bombay House in Provo. Bombay House isn't open for dining so we were all about going while we were in town. This was our kids' first time eating Indian and they loved it which is a good and bad things. Good in that I'm hoping they'll choose it for their birthday but bad because it's expensive to take them all.

From there we headed to Ivins to the Tuacahn theater and on the way we stopped to see the Saturn and Jupiter align. It took forever to find because we didn't think it was actually it.

This was our first time at Tuacahn. We had tickets to see their live nativity. We got there with plenty of time to spare so we wandered around and got hot chocolate.

I gave Justin a hard time for looking at the phone screen and not the lens.

This was his response. Touché. 

We didn't want to wait in the line to see Santa but we did go take a look.

And then we found our seats.

The stage and mountain behind the stage is so cool. The show was great. It was narrated along with some music. There were real animals--a donkey, goats and even a real camel! All the performers wore masks too which didn't even register for a few minutes. It's weird that it wasn't weird.

Tuesday we packed up and went to Snow Canyon. I've wanted to do the Amphitheater hike for a long time but we have either ran out of time or the weather was too bad on previous visits but this day we made it happen.                           

Can we just admire the blue sky for a moment? It was easy to forget the Christmas was three days away when we were hiking around without jackets and the sky was so blue it hurts your eyes.

Erica was really wary at first and held my hand everywhere she went but she slowly started to find her hiking feet again. I stayed close to her.

Sarah, on the other hand, took off.

At the end of the hike there was a sand dune hillside. I think this was the favorite part. They would race each other running up the sand and then race run/falling down.

From there we headed to Veyo for lunch and then drove the rest of the way home. It was a great break from the winter weather and nice to get away for the first time in months. 

But it was also here that I got the news that my dear friend from growing-up died from a six-year-battle with colon cancer. 

I love you and miss you, Mel.

Happy Birthday Justin

Justin turned 37 on Thursday. The kids decorated the kitchen before he came down and then we had biscuits and gravy for breakfast.

He opened some drawings from Erica and James.

Then he worked for a couple of hours and then he opened more presents.

I got him this framed picture of a deer and a photo of me and the kids for his new office.

That's right. A new office to go with his new position as a part owner of Anderson Engineering. He also had to electronically sign the papers that afternoon.

While he was signing.....

After he submitted his signature. Woohoo!

Then we headed up to his parents house for his birthday dinner of ribs and a bunch of other food. We played games, ate wings at 10:30, stayed up way too late playing more games. (All my kids but James made it to midnight).

Happy birthday! You are my favorite.