St. George Trip Summer 2014 (August 6 thru Aug 11th)

We had a great opportunity to head to St. George for a very spontaneous trip. Dad and mom called on Sunday to see if we could and we decided that we could head down on Wednesday. Very spontaneous, but we had all things finished, what we could anyway. It had been raining so we couldn't cut the hay and that was the clincher that allowed us to take the trip.  On our way down, we stopped at Rachel's house to pick up her 3 kids, so she could focus on Annie and her upcoming surgery. We arrived in St. George late Wednesday, but that didn't stop us from taking a trip to DQ for ice cream, so we all loaded back up into the truck for ice cream. Dave and Andrea were good enough to wait for us to get there.

Thursday I had to work but most of the day but the kids played well in the back yard in Grandma and Grandpa's new yard. The spent hours out there playing on the old horse tire swing and in the sand box.

That evening mom took us out to Tuacahn to see "The Little Mermaid," while dad watched Lucas and Kyler (Dave and Andrea were out for dinner for their wedding anniversary.) I wasn't sure how the would depict being under water in the ocean and they knocked it out of the park. They were able to create a screen of water and then projected ocean scene onto the water curtain. The mermaids and Ursula were on some kind of mechanical scooters and they literally were floating across the stage. Chris and I loved it and I know the little kids loved it, even Kaleb. He kept trying to figure out how they were doing everything. We got back to mom's house late and just put the babies to bed.

Friday, I had to work again, but we just put the kidlets out to the yard during the mid morning and then we took them to the Dixie Center's Nature Museum. The kids loved that they had there own little binoculars to search out all of the animals. We spent several hours there and then went home. The kids were wiped out. Mom and dad were so great to watch Lucas so Chris and I could attend a temple session. It has been a while since we have been to the St. George temple it was nice. We were able to sit in the exact same sealing room where we were married 16 years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Following the session, we went to dinner. So we had a dinner and a movie for our date night.

Everyone enjoying grandma's sandbox. They had sand in there hair and made another sandbox in the bath tub.

Saturday - We started our day having lunch together at Costa Vida and then headed up to Veyo Pool. I had so many memories at this pool. It was a nice get away from the heat of St. George. 5 degrees and cool spring water makes a huge difference. It was perfect, exactly how I remembered it, minus the slide and diving board. But we all enjoyed it.

We were playing catch between, Dave, Chris and I with Kyler and Lucas.

They were loving it.

Brynna and Hanna were too big but I was able to give them a little throw.

Chris and I were trying to teach Kyler and Lucas to blow bubbles in the water. They wouldn't do it. But didn't mind getting their heads under when we were tossing them.

Grandpa finally came into the pool and when he did Kyler yelled that the whale was going to get him. Grandpa had to be the whale since Kyler was the shark and trying to eat Grandma. It made mom, Andrea and I giggle. Makes me wonder if he remember the whale bit from our trip to Sea World.

Crossing the bridge of the creek where I used to catch crawdads when I was little.

I love my boys, even if one has a blue mouth from drinking a Gatorade.

 

Saturday evening, Grandpa took all the little kids for a ride down the "Ice Cream Road". So glad this tradition has carried on. Grandpa Cornwell would take us as kids to get ice cream in his little car and Grandpa Cox would always take us down the road to his room where he kept a freezer full of ice cream.

 

Lucas was tiny the last time he road in the car so he loved it. He got to ride with Kyler and they were both stylin' with their sun glasses on. It cracked Andrea and I up. 

I couldn't get a picture of Grandpa smiling, imagine that.
 I do know that he does enjoy it even if his expression doesn't show it.

 

I have a feeling, that these two boys will be best buddies when they are together, and a handful.

 

Sunday, was Hannah's birthday. But we started the day off by going to church and then dad broke out his Traeger and put some yummy baby back ribs on the grill to smoke. I am usually not around when he makes yummy food and just have to salivate over his text messages with the yummy food, but this time we were actually going to be able to savor the yumminess. Mom had prepared a beautiful meal and we had a mini thanksgiving feast with family all around to enjoy it. Grandma Cox, Dave, Andrea and Kyler came over for dinner. 

The yummy ribs. They were so good!



Our birthday girl waiting for dinner.



Lucas waiting patiently for dinner.

Talking amongst the family as we get the table set and you can see the goofy kids in the back ground playing.
Brynna making faces at the boys as they play with their plates.

 

Following dinner, we did a piñata for Hannah's birthday. Chris and I ironically had this piñata in our car, (we intended to use it for Chuck's birthday as a gag, but didn't do it), so dad hung it off  the big tree and was controlling it from off the balcony. We had a blast watching the kids try to hit the piñata and even laughed harder when Kyler figured out that a chair would bring him closer to the target. He wanted an leg up and was clever enough to figure it out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The loot.
 Too bad all the chocolate was melted.

 

We ended our evening having Hannah open up her presents and eating ginormous cupcakes. I could only eat 1/2 of it, but the little kids insisted to have full ones.

Hannah got Frozen dolls and Princess paperdolls.

She had a good birthday even though it was away from her mom and dad.

Grandma didn't have a candle to put in the cake so she improvised and used a match.
Hannah didn't care, she got to still blow it out. 

Kyler and his cupcake.

I was lucky that I was able to get away with only giving Lucas half of one.
He didn't notice or care, thank goodness.

Love this girl. While we were down here she lost a tooth and was visited by the Tooth Fairy.

You would think he would be happy to eat a cupcake.

Love this lady.
So glad she felt well enough to come and join us with all our craziness.



Lucas was singing for his dear Great-grandma Cox.
He sang "I Am A Child of God", and "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree." 

Kyler still eating his cupcake.

Monday, we headed home. It was late in the day but we headed home. Chris had to get his car detailed. On the way down we had given the kids a bottle sof milk and in the heat one of them had exploded and stunk so badly. So in order to survive the trip, we had the truck detailed out.

 

It was so much fun to spend a great weekend with my family. I so love them and cherish the time we had with each and everyone of them. Just wished that we had everyone with us. Kelle and Gene with their two kids, Maggie and Ron with theirs and Rachel, Brandon and Annie.