Trip to St. George Utah

Finally, we made the trip down to St George..... and boy are we glad we did. We had such a great time. After driving 11 hours with 4 kids asking..."When are we going to be there" and "Can we stop...I gotta go bathroom", and freaking out every time we had to go to the pump for gas (gas prices were $3.38 a gal)......we finally made it. Our trip here went off without a hitch.  The Sun was shining, windows came down and the music came up.  We found the Oasis in the middle of the desert!  Memories flooded back of the good times we spent here in St George during our College years. We left our Real life behind and the Vacation had begun!

My mom was so kind to give us her timeshare here in St George.  It was a sweet little villa on the South Gate Golf Course.  It was perfect...Kitchen, living rm, 2 bed 2 bath, 3 queen beds, pool, sports court...what more can you ask for!!

This was our hang out spot most the trip.  It was so beautiful

Well...now that we were all settled in, it was time to go have some fun.  We met Jamie and Shannon Bennett at the Pizza Factory for some yummy pizza and salads.  Then we headed back to Duane's house where everyone was, awaiting our arrival.  It was a great reunion!

catching up with the fam

Duane already planning his golf trips with the boys ....Jamie's in heaven!!

Me and Grammy

We just love this lady

My uncle Duane, aunt Pam, my sister Carly, my grandma Daphne, my cousin Tami, me :), my cousin Emily and my cousin Shelly. 

So after the reunion we were exhausted...we headed back to the villa and had a great night sleep.  The next day we met everyone at a park and hung out.  The day started to heat up and we headed to the pool.

It was great to just hang with the girls and catch up.  Jamie went on his first golfing outing with Duane and Shannon.  They played 18 holes of golf and had a blast. 
 

                                              Lexie relaxing with her favorite aunt pam.
                                  
                            It was just like old times down in St George with these 2 trouble makers.  While the guys golfed the girls planned a girls night out on the town. When the guys got home, we handed them the kids and headed out for a night out on the town. Tami, Shelly, Jamie B, Carly and I  went to the Outback Steak House for dinner and then headed to 31 flavors for ice cream and at least 31 laughs.  We had a ball.

The next morning we went to Duane, Pam and Grandma's ward for Sacrament meeting.

After Church we had about 6 hours before we were to have a big family dinner.  We went to our villa, changed clothes and headed up to Snow Canyon for a hike.  BUT on our way we had to make a stop.

 On the way out we heard that High School Musical 3 was filmed at a golf course just outside of Snow Canyon.  Now I must preface this first with the side note ....My kids are OBSESSED  with High School Musical  movies.  We actually had to listen to the movie being watched over and over in the car ride over.  They wouldn't let us in to take pictures, but said we could hang outside the fences and take pictures.  So that is exactly what we did.  I put all 3 kids up on the walls of the golf course and took pictures.  They were SO excited, pointing out all the sites of each scene in the movie.  Austin was the most fun to watch.  He actually believes he is Troy..the star of the show.  This was his highlight of the trip to St George.

The club house

The Fans.......so excited to just be there :)

Just beautiful

We then made it to snow canyon.  It was hot..about 84 degrees.  Snow Canyon was just gorgeous!! The canyon was filled with red sandstone and lava rocks.  There were many different views and landscapes here. Our favorite was the  petrified sand dunes.  The kids loved hiking these. This was the petrified sand dunes...so cool!

This was a great way to spend our Sunday morning...beholding Gods beautiful creations.

After our  exploring, we headed back to Duane's house for our big family dinner.  Pam made turkey, mash potatoes, salad and all the fix ins. Emily was wonderful with the kids.  She put together a treasure hunt for all the kids and then Duane pulled out all his magic tricks.  He did his nose smelling trick, His mind reading trick, his 3 little pigs trick, and his space rocket trick.  The kids were in stitches...Duane has always been the family entertainer.  I used to LOVE going to family reunions just to hang with Duane.  I was so glad my kids got to experience what I experience growing up.  So fun!

After the entertainment, we went up to Dixie Rock .

We spent a wonderful evening on Dixie Rock...exposing our children to our childish traditions of hiking through the narrows and down into the caves. Alexis and Andrew made it up the narrows and down the cave!!  I was So proud of them!!

The gang exploring Dixie Rock

We found the coolest little caves to take pictures in

 

Shelly and Carly

The hiking gang

Lexie with her cousin Avery and Aunt Carly

When I lived in St George, we used to make this trip down this cave at least once a week.  I was a little nervous to go down...needless to say, I sent about 4 kids down before I got the nerve to go.  I was proud to say after 15 years I still got it!

Jamie and I were having so much fun watching our kids in amazement over these caves.  After our night at Dixie Rock we went back to Duane's for awhile and then went home.  That night we put our kids to bed and then snuck out for a midnight stroll on the golf course under thousands of stars.  It was so nice to get away with Jamie and spend some time together...just me and him.

Monday morning after the hike :)  We got ready and went shopping.  We came back to our villa and had Carly and Avery meet us there to hang by the pool.  Which we did till after lunch.  Then Jamie headed off for another round of 18 holes of Golf with Duane.

Austin had a ball just hanging out on the side of the pool all day...so cute. 

A sweet day on the golf course, neck and neck with Duane. 

While Jamie golfed I took the kids to the mall for fun and Sees Candy :)  Then we met Jamie B at the pool and hung out by the pool for another hour or 2.  We went back to the villa, got ready and met up with Carly and Avery.  We all headed down to Sun River to see Marlene and Doyle. 

We just loved seeing Doyle and Marlene and their cute house in Sun River. The kids just loved their kaleidoscopes and will always remember them.  We then went to dinner at the Parrot Grill.  This was the first time they had met all my kids.  After dinner we headed home. 

Tuesday was Carly and Avery's last day.  Pam, Tami, Shelly, Emily and the Bennetts all left Yesterday.  We made a trip over to the Wildlife Museum with Carly and Avery

This was outside the museum.  The kids got a kick out of this Truck!!

Lexie was freaked out of her mind...JK

The displays were pretty amazing

Up close and personal...how do you do?

Watch out he's gonna eat me!!

The kids were able to dress up like safari hunters and play.  They had a great time.  We had a nice picnic outside on the grass and then said our goodbyes to Carly and Avery.

The kids were so sad to see Avery go.  We headed back to the villa and swam all day.  Then we just hung out all night with the family.  Jamie took the kids over to driving range to hit balls.  They just LOVED that. 

Thursday was a cold and rainy day.  Luckily we had 5 days of Hot Sunshine.  Today

we met Doyle and Marlene at the Temple Visitor Center.  This is the Temple both set of Grandparents work a few days a week.  It is the oldest working temple today.  I learned something new about it.  I learned that when they were building it, there was always water running through the bottom of the temple.  So they decided to dig real deep and lay volcanic rock and I think sandstone or limestone so that water would pass through it, yet secure the temple foundation. So water flows under the temple today....so cool, I didn't know that! 

                   I love the St George Temple.  It was just a big part of my college years here in St George. 

After the temple, we headed over to tour the tabernacle.  It was there we discovered a possible ancestor.  After the tour we went to 31 flavors for a yummy ice cream with Marlene and Doyle.  Then we headed back to the villa for some more pool time.  We enjoyed another night of relaxation with the fam.  The kids enjoyed staying up late, all 3 laying in bed each night and watching the Disney Channel before bed.

The next morning we headed over to spend the morning with Grandma Daphne.  She had been sick most of the time we were there, so our time had been very limited with her. The kids just loved all of Grandmas nick-nacks around her house.  It was fun to see Lexie play the little organ I used to play when I was her age visiting Grandma.  They spent most of the time playing with grandma's cat toys and castle.  Grandma showed us all her genealogy and what she has been working on.  She is absolutely amazing!!  Jamie jumped on the computer to search out his ancestors who lived in St George.  I was right!!  This was the moment with Grandma Daphne when they discovered Augustus Poor Hardy was indeed Jamie's 3rd great grandfather.  We looked up the sites and where they were and you better believe we hit those sites.  But before we did, we said our goodbye to Grandma...I just love this lady.  She is my favorite Grandma, I can't believe she is 88 years old!!  She is so beautiful and so with it.  Seeing her after all these years was the highlight of my trip. 

I will miss her so much

 

I am so glad we made this trip....just so all my kids could meet their great grandparents.

So now we were off to check out Jamie's 3rd Great Grandfathers home, work and jail cell he built and used. Here you read what is outside Augustus Poore Hardy's home.  He apparently haunted the house for years...but hasn't been seen for a long time.  We were able to take a walk through his house, which was awesome.  There is still a hole in the door where the mob shot through. 

This is the house he built

This is the little jail behind his house.  He held Butch Cassidy here  twice.  The building to the right is the Sheriff's office....all these buildings he built.

It is so cool think he built these with his hands and worked everyday inside this building. 

It is such a cute little ancestor square.  We were just thrilled to have stumbled upon this.  After this we went and got dinner and brought it back to the villa. Then went swimming in the cold and rain, which was actully really fun.  We packed up and went to bed early.  We got up at 4 am packed up the car and headed out.  It was sad to leave.  We had such a great vacation here.  And it was the BEST seeing all our family.  The trip home was great until we hit Vail Pass....snow, snow and more snow.  It slowed us down a bit...but we made it home.  We found all well at home. We couldn't have asked for a better trip.