Spring Break

We went to St.George for spring break (surprise surprise) but this was the first trip to St. George that Gramma and Grampa haven't been there. They are currently serving a  mission in the Cape Verde Islands, but graciously allowed us to stay at their home while they are gone.  Fortunately Adam still has 3 sisters and a grandmother that live in St. George so there wasn't a shortage of people to visit and spend time with.  We packed a lot into our trip and even did some new things we haven't done before.

 

Our first day was spent visiting family.  We spent time with Aunt Kimberly, Adam's Grandma and Aunt Bethany and families.

 

The next day the activities began.  St. George has a new Children's Museum.  They don't charge per se, but do ask for a $3.00 donation per person.  It definitely surpassed all of my expectations and I thought it was much better than the one in Salt Lake.  Seriously, it was really cool.

 

This was the first of 2 floors and has several building on each side of the street hallway, post office, farm, bank, grocery store, airport, car mechanic shop and a recording studio.  And that was just the first floor!

 

They really went all out on the facades.

 

Jameson milking the cow.  Water came out into the buckets.

 Here are all of the little cousins in the grocery store area.

Cameron, Akadia, Caleb

Easton, Akadia, Caleb and Jameson

 

The grocery store is always a hit.

 

 The mechanic shop.   

Jenna loved the recording studio. 

And the stage to go with it, of course.

 

 

Downstairs there was a science room, a basketball room, a music room, a dessert room, a castle room and a contraption out in the hall to keep the kids busy making different paths for golf balls.

 

 

That afternoon we went to the Washington Rec center to swim.  The weather wasn't super warm that day, but the pool is indoor so it was perfect. That and we had a free family pass for the day from the Dixie Direct Book.  Sweeeeeet!

 

 

Hey Jameson, look over here!

With the tongue out-- that's so Jameson. :-)

After swimming we met our friends and former neighbors the Davis's at Neilson's Custard for some ice cream.  They moved to St. George last fall.

 

 

Did you know that Neilson's Custard only takes cash and checks?  Neither did we. Did you also know that there are no credit unions on Bluff Street, only banks that charge fees for cash? Yeah, we found that out the hard way. Seriously who would take a paper check over a card??  Fortunately our friends bailed us out and now a paper check in is the mail and on its way to their house. :-)

 

Jameson sure knows how to make a mess with an ice cream cone.

 

 He was in heaven. This ice cream stuff is totally for him.

 

We learned that Jameson refuses to take naps when we are on the road.  After 2 nights of marginal sleeping and no naps we were ALL sleepy by Wednesday night.  Jenna was asleep by 8, Jameson 8:30, Korinne by 9, Hilary by 9:20 and Adam and Britton by 10 p.m. Wow. We were tired.  Fortunately after that Jameson started at least sleeping well at night.  Day naps were MIA the entire trip except for 20 min. snippets in the car. 

The next morning it was off to a park.  St. George has great parks. 

Britton was "it" and chased Adam around a lot.  I haven't seen Adam run that fast in years and he didn't even pull a muscle!

Aunt Kimberly and her 3 boys joined us.

Jameson loves baby Ammon.

 

Britton helps Dallin and Jameson get their swing time.

  That afternoon it was The Wildlife Museum for us.  We haven't been for a few years and the kids really enjoyed it.  Jameson was a little tired near the end, but made it through.

Each person gets their own device to listen to so everyone can move through the exhibit at their own pace.  We let Jameson have the binoculars.

 

And just in case we hadn't done enough for the day we went to Snow Canyon for a little hiking.

 

Hiking with Jameson means that someone will be carrying him the entire time, and when I say "someone" I really mean Adam.  He's a trooper.

We went to the petrified sand dunes.  So beautiful and so much fun to explore.

 

On this day (and most days) Korinne was determined to be in charge. She let everyone know that she wanted to hike for a couple of hours at least and wanted to go really high and go the hard way, or as she put it the "hikier way."

 

"Alright guys, I'm in charge here"

 

"I'm going to go the hikier way!" 

When she asked me how long we had been hiking I may or may not have told her when had been out for an hour even though it had only been 20 min. Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you've gotta do.

Jenna and Britton weren't loving the Korinne attitude, but they were good sports and didn't put up a fight.

By the time we posed for this family picture Jameson was done.  A 20 min. nap in the car didn't quite do it for him.

"Talk to the hand!"

Fortunately Jameson has a Dad that will carry him all the way back to the car.

He is such a ham and started being silly.  Here is a glimpse of what it is like to have Jameson on your shoulders while hiking.

That night Adam's good friend from both high school and college, Matt, and his wife Rachel, invited us to their home in St. George.  The are now living in St. George, but we hadn't seen them since about 2007 when they moved to Indiana.  We ate dinner and had a fire pit with s'mores.  It was just a fun and enjoyable evening and nice to finally be able to catch up with their family.

The last full day we were there was finally the cousin day.  All of the cousins were in school during the week, but they got out early on Friday so the rest of the day was a party.  First we had lunch at Aunt Jaclyn's house.



Jaclyn and Adam

 Then it was off to Jumping Jacks.

 

And then it was off to Bethany's house for her birthday party.  She turned 36 while we were there.

Adam with G.G.

We took G.G. and Jameson home around 8:15 p.m. and I offered to stay with Jameson while he slept. Everyone else partied the night away and got home just before midnight.  The next day was the 1st day of General Conference.  We love General Conference. We packed up and got everything cleaned while listening and got away before the first session ended. Perfect.  Adam and Britton were home in time for the Priesthood session.  It was such a fun trip and so great to get away. This one was for the books.