We got spring fever an started our Spring Break a couple of days early. haha 🙂 The rest of Sugar City closed the doors of the schools on Monday, but we headed out of town on Thursday. Just couldn't wait to see the sun and some of our awesome cousins, aunt & uncle – the Lance Parker Family.
We rolled into the town of St. George with high hopes and it didn't disappoint. For me, the mom, it was the perfect vacation spot for the crew I vacation with. There were plentiful bike rides, hikes just the right size for our varied ages, shopping options to fulfill or shopping urges, good choices of places to eat, and the perfect temperatures to enjoy it all! I can't wait to visit here again.
On Thursday after a very long drive we met up with the Lance Parkers. Lance had a fun bike ride planned for the older guys – Mason included and the rest of us headed to a very cool park to get some energy out and feel the sun on our faces. When we returned to the hotel the swimming pool was the first place determined to visit.
Friday morning Anne took us to Snow Canyon State Park. There were many beautiful spots to stop to see. We chose the pioneer names hike and the petrified dunes. I was so proud of Anne and how tough she is climbing along the steep slopes after just enduring surgery recently. Mason and Stephen unpacked their bikes to experience the trail on wheels. We later found out that bikes really aren't suppose to be on the dunes – but they sure had fun, and impressed some of the other hikers on the dunes. After Snow Canyon we met Lance and the little ones at a really awesome red rock park. The remote control cars were unloaded and the kids scrambled among the rocks for good pictures and fun. We later attempted to do a family bike ride with a newly purchased bike trailer at Bear Claw Poppy. We unloaded the bikes and Stephen started unfolding the trailer and soon discovered that a key piece that connects the bike to the trailer was missing! Of course he tried to jimmy rig something – but it didn't really last long. He ended up returning to the store for the piece while the rest of us road around some awesome little trails. We had fun just puttering around at the looping trails. The night ended with a swim in the pool by dad and kids and moms going for a quick shopping trip.
Saturday morning we journeyed out to an Easter Egg hunt that began at 9:00 am and ended at 9:01. It was amazing how many people and eggs were there! We got there just in the nick of time and I think it made things feel more like Easter. After the hunt we did a fun little hike to the Ivin's Petroglyphs. We then ate lunch at In and Out Burger – delicious, and headed for Red Cliff Lake. The hike was packed with people and we had to be shuttled to the trail head. It was a very fun spot with fun pools to take a swim in. I enjoyed watching the swimming – the water was ice cold! My non-adventurous nature won out and I stayed conservative with only going up to my knees. Most everyone else jumped in – crazy people! Sami was the water queen as usual and Mason had fun trying to keep up with her. JT and Josie were great troopers, but by the end they were all tuckered out. After Red Cliff Lake hikes, Lance and Anne headed for home and we headed back toward St. George. On the way home the girls decided we would go hang out at the pool and relax with JT while Stephen and Mason went on another bike ride named Barrel Roll. When they got back we cleaned up and head out for our early Easter dinner. We chose Golden Corral for our restaurant and decided afterward that should be our last time going to a buffet. (I'll have to elaborate on another blog about that)
Easter morning came and we decided to enjoy it by sleeping in! What a luxury. We chose to attend the 11 o' clock sacrament service in a building next to the temple and participated in a wonderful meeting refelcting on Christ's atonement made for us. Afterward we walked around the beautiful temple grounds before heading for Zion National Park. We took along of picnic fixings and ended up having lunch at the trail head of Cannon Overlook. To get to the trail head we drove through an awesome rock tunnel that was 1.1 miles long. We walked along the cannon overlook trail. Lily was concerned about us "hiking" on Sunday – so we decided to be more leisure and stroll casually and with the least amount of energy up the trail. 🙂 Notice in the pictures that I was in a skirt. 😉 We talked about the wonderful world that we get to live in and how beautiful and magnificent Heavenly Father's creations are! We headed back to the bus stop and rode on the bus to observe some of the amazing rocks offered to view in Zion National Park. We hopped of at the Emerald Pools and walked around there. The "walk" seemed to be a little longer than we anticipated, but is was lovely. This walk was the last we enjoyed before heading back to our temporary home at the Economy Lodge. We watched the movie, "to this end was I born" and had a great discussion on how important Jesus Christ is to us in our lives. I love my kids and their faith and desire they have to follow Him. Got back into town just in time to take a picture of St. George Temple at night and drive pass Dixie College and see what it's like.
Monday consisted of us doing a fun family bike ride to Gooseberry Mesa. It was a bit involved for Lily and her bike, but the rest of us enjoyed it. Other than the fact that Lexi was beginning to feel sick. JT and Olivia rode in the bike trailer for a bumpy ride. Mason and Stephen sure heard me tell them to be "careful" a lot as they were getting a little to close to the cliff. In the end it was a great memory. I decided to ride out to the main road with Mason on our bikes. We had fun adding 5 more miles to our odometers and feeling the wind blow in our faces! I was so happy when the van caught up to us and Lexi proclaimed that she checked her email and found out that she made swing choir – the top choir at Sugar-Salem! She was stressing about it a lot on the previous days as she had auditioned just before we left for our vacation. When we got back to the hotel we all went to the pool and soaked up some more rays of sunshine before doing our last minute shopping trip. Lexi and Mason were excited to go to Dick's Sporting Goods to pick out their souvenirs – new soccer cleats. Lily and Olivia loved going to Del Rio. At this point Lexi and Olivia were starting to feel like sick heads, so we ate dinner and went back to the hotel to pack and prepared for an early morning and long drive home.
Next day we made our way home and stopped off in Idaho Falls for Lexi's soccer game before opening the doors of our Sugar City home. It felt good to be back in our own beds, but we sure did have an amazing and well needed weekend of playing in the sunshine.
I am now even more convinced that Stephen and I need to have a winter home in St. George when we retire!