Getting Away

My mom always got the itch to get out of town at least a few times a year.  She would load us up and head out, sometimes my Dad would come with, and sometimes he'd stay behind to do farm work.  I have many great memories because of this.  So thank you, mom.  Anyway, I must have inherited this from her, because I certainly get the itch.  We try to go somewhere fun as a family at least once a year for vacation and with a new baby coming this summer, we knew it was very unlikely we would be going anywhere in those months, so we decided to make our family trip over Spring Break this year.  We had to go towards warmer weather, so we went to St. George and had a grand time.  I won't do a day by day, but here are some highlights:

We explored the Red Hills:

 My little monkeys loved to climb.

 We were sure to spend lots of time at the pool:

 By the end, we had convinced Ellie that she would, in fact, survive without a lifejacket.  And what do you know, she did!  ;)

We spent several hours enjoying beautiful Zion's park:

Lainey was tired.  And can you tell we are serious hikers with our fancy umbrella stroller?  It worked just fine.

 Our kids were troopers, hiking for a total of 2.6 miles.

Our family at Weeping Rock:

 Our kids were hammered, and fell asleep almost the instant they sat down on the shuttle bus:

 And do you remember this from 3 years ago (particularly the part where we got stuck in the sand)?  Well, I was not to be bested.  We tried once again to get to those dinosaur tracks, and guess what?  We made it!  We are conquerors!  This time around we drove the long way in, the way where there are only small patches of sand across the dirt road and not big sand bars.  I remember going here with my family when I was in my early teen years, and I'm glad we made it back.  It was cool to see dinosaur tracks out in nature, right where the dinosaurs put it themselves. 

Ellie showing a small dinosaur track:

 Did you notice the big track that Maren is standing next to?  It's about twice the length of her foot.

If I ever have to live in a desert, I hope it's the red desert of Southern Utah.  It's beautiful.

 Our kids loved being at a hotel.  In fact, when we drove into our neighborhood, Everett started crying, "I want to go back to the hotel!"

 Lainey loved her port-a-crib.  Seriously, she cried and threw a little fit when I took it down.  She'd hang out in there for bits of time.  I think she liked having a little place all her own.

 After four days of playing so hard, the kids were plain tuckered.

On the way home, we stopped to explore Silver Reef, a ghost town.  Notice the big, new homes in the background?  I guess it's not really a ghost town anymore.

 My kids would play in the sand/dirt/gravel every opportunity they got.

 And one more stop at Cove Fort:

 On Saturday, I had myself a full on "I don't want to come back to real life" depressing day.  I'm over it now, but it's just so nice to be away from home, with my favorite people, with no distractions.  It was perfect.

By the way, if you are ever heading that way, do yourself a favor and stop here.  They have the most delicious sandwiches I've ever tasted.  They go all out with quality ingredients, several of which are homemade (like the raspberry jalapeno jam we ate on our Count of Fonty Cristo - so yummy).  Really, you'll be thanking me.