Memorial Day in St. George

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. One major perk was that it started the Tuesday before with a drive down to St. George. The kids were AMAZING on the ride down, and we actually made pretty good time. This was our first trek down that way since last Thanksgiving, and it's always so enjoyable to just get away for awhile.

Nate (and the camera) left early Wednesday morning for a conference in Missouri, and the kids and I got to hang around with Grandma, Grandpa, Abbey, and Linzy and Micah. We had a great time and ate way too much ice cream (Abbey...). I brought a little pool down for the kids to play in. It was the first chance they'd all year since we live in the great white north. (side note: We turned on our air conditioner for the first time all year yesterday!) They really enjoyed the pool, although Bryn wasn't so sure at first. Here they are workin' their swimwear.

We also watched the finale of American Idol. Bryn seems to have a crush on Ryan Seacrest.
On Saturday Grandma, the kids, and I drove to Vegas to pick up Daddy, who we missed terribly the whole time he was gone. We took the chance to stop by and see Great Grandma and Grandpa and their beautiful new home. It is always such a treat to visit with them - they are so upbeat and happy and faithful. And Great Grandma cooks up a mean homemade breakfast, lemme tell you.

On Memorial Day Nate, Addison, Grandpa and I went for a little hike. Addison loved it. He ran up ahead the majority of the time and looked for cactus, lizards, and "dark caves," which were plentiful. He felt the need to go into every dark cave he saw.

Big muscles run in the family.

Then we met Grandma and Bryn back at "The Skinnies" where Nate and Addison wriggled their way through this:

while the rest of us played with Bryn in the shade.

My favorite part of the trip was Sunday evening. Nate's Mom outdid herself cooking up a delicious turkey dinner that we ate outside on the patio. We followed it up with Grandpa's homemade ice cream (which didn't seem quite as orangey as usual for some reason....). The kids went to bed shortly thereafter and the grown-ups (Grandma, Grandpa, Linzy, Micah, Abbey, and Nate and I) stayed outside till after dark playing games, reminiscing, and laughing our heads off.

The drive home wasn't half bad. We stopped at Arby's for dinner and ate outside. Addison was THRILLED to discover that they had milk.

There were seagulls everywhere and the kids had the best time watching them. Bryn had her neck craned the whole time and did lots of squeals of delight. Addison fed one of them some of his bun and at lunch the next day told me that he needed the bun back. Shucks. All told, it was a wonderful, restful week and I for one can't wait to go back.