A break from the snow, kids and responsibilities

St. George Get-a-way

January is not my favorite month.  I'm ready for winter to be over.  This year's been especially cold and the inversion is always terrible.  You can barely see the tips of the mountains above the nasty air.

One way to get a break from the cold and nasty air is to head south.  So on January 26th, that's what Tom and I did.  We left that Thursday afternoon, right after preschool, picked up our friends, Tiffany, Kenny, Chris and Nick and headed toward St. George in our Caravan.

We stopped and had lunch at the Wendy's in Nephi.

We arrived at my aunt and uncles vacation home around 10pm.  We settled in, then went grocery shopping.  We are so grateful to be able to use their home.

We stayed up past 2am playing games and talking, slept in a bit, then headed to the temple to do initiatories.  We knew about the change that recently happened, where we were to wear our own temple clothes for initiatories now, but as I was getting dressed I realized I had never actually put my dress in my bag!  Tiffany had also taken out some of her stuff, so I had to get dressed and go rent some clothing for us.  Luckily I had cash and that service was available at this temple.  Once dressed, us three girls chatted about different spiritual topics and read the scriptures while we waited for our turn.  Luckily, the guys finished only 15 minutes or so before us, despite the dress hiccup and long wait.

We picked up some Swig drinks on our way back to the house, changed our clothes and had a yummy lunch of Chris' grilled cheese sandwiches.

Then we went out for a beautiful hike.  The contrast of the red rock to the snow covered mountains was breathtaking.  

It felt so good to be in the fresh air, with the sun warming us.  It was still pretty cold, but the high 40's felt great to us!

We hiked for an hour and a half!  I don't exercise much, so this was a lot for me.  Although I was tired and sore, it felt good to work out and have fun.

Afterward, we treated ourselves to the hot tub.  It felt good after the hike to soak our tired legs and feet.  And walking outside on the cold sidewalk felt good on my blistered feet too.

After we cleaned up from the hike and hot tub, we headed out for some dinner.  We ended up going to Poncho and Lefties, although the service was very slow.  I've had that problem a few times there, but the food is good.

That night, we put our pajamas on and enjoyed playing games and watching a movie.  We stayed up again past 2am.

We slept in Saturday and then got up and went on another hike.  This time we went and explored the Dixie rocks.  It wasn't as long of a hike as the day before and the weather was a bit warmer, we really enjoyed ourselves.

And the view of the St. George valley was magnificent!

The guys: Nick, Kenny and Tom

The girls: Tiffany, Chris and me

We were like kids, exploring the caverns and rocks.

After our hike, we went back and cleaned up, had a tasty lunch of hoagie sandwiches, then headed out again.  This time to go shopping at the outlet mall.  

We shopped until dinner time, then had a nice meal at Brick Oven Pizza.  Then we went back to the house.  Tom and Kenny went back to the hot tub and the rest of us just lounged around at the house.  That night we watched another movie, then played more games.

I was the champion of Play Nine this time!  

Knowing it was our last night, we tried to stay up as long as we could.  You can tell we were tired, but we made it past 3am.

However, the next morning came quick as we had to get up and get ready to go.  We packed up, cleaned the house and were heading out by 11am.

We took a detour to see Kenny's brother's vacation home, then started for home.  We ate our leftover food in the van for lunch as we drove home.

Although the weekend went quick, and we watched the temperature drop as we drove further north, it was nice to arrive home to our happy kids.

We had two girls in our ward babysit for us the whole time and they did great!  The kids loved having Makayla and Hayley stay and take care of things.

We are blessed to have such great friends, generous family and helpful neighbors.  I'm especially grateful for Tom and the chance we have to do these get-a-ways together.