Heading South

The winters in Utah are brutal. I guess the only other winters I've experienced are Arizona and Honduras. Both of which are not brutal...so I guess I might not have a true understanding of how hard it really is or isn't. But it feels hard. I was ready for some sunshine and time away from the everyday.

We planned a weekend getaway in March to St. George/Zion's and headed down on a Thursday. You'd think we were leaving for a month with all the stuff we had to pack.

While driving, I got a text from Amy Rathbun saying not to freak out but that they'd be down in St. George that very same weekend. Whuuut. How was I not supposed to freak out. We'd been trying to hang out for months. They were doing an extended family thing so we just decided to meet up for church on Sunday.

After checking into the hotel, I unpacked while Danny went and grabbed a pizza. We watched American Idol while scarfing down some pizza and then Danny and Cole went down to the hot tub while I put Caleb to bed. Priorities.

 Cole crashed on the Hide A Bed and slept great.

The next day we took it easy and puttered around, got groceries from Target and relaxed by the pool. The weather was awesome. Cole was in heaven. He was constantly asking to go to the pool. He would have been content there the entire time.

Caleb discovered that he has toes. He's pretty happy about it.

We went to a Mexican place {Pancho & Lefty's} that was recommended by a friend but it turned out to be a total dud. We had to wait 45 minutes after placing our order for some very mediocre Mexican food. We played "Would You Rather" while we waited and have some good laughs though.

 Saturday we went to Zion National Park. I don't even remember the last time I was there. It was such a gorgeous day. We went through the tunnel right off the bat. Then did some exploring and did the "hike" to The Narrows. At one point we ran into some people in our ward and the woman just happens to be Kelly Pettinghill's {high school friend} older sister. Kelly was in the van right in front of them so we chatted for a bit. It really is a small world.

Oh, hey there Moon.

Oh, hey there Danny. Impressive rock scaling skills.

Oh, hey there animal. {mountain goat?} We thought he/she was fake until it moved. 

On the way back from Zion, we stopped by the Swig in Hurricane. DANG, GINA. So that's why it's so popular. I think I went into a sugar coma after having both a drink and a sugar cookie. That was a bad idea.

We were pretty tired Saturday night and I think we just crashed? Can't remember...but this guy slept well:

Sunday morning we met up with the beloved Rathbuns and sat through an hour of the hottest sacrament meeting I can ever remember. We visited for a bit in the foyer and then out in the sunshine. It was fun to see them if only for a bit.

 Cole took the pic and did a pretty decent job!

We headed back to the hotel for Sunday naps {no doy} and then did my very favorite part of the entire vacation: went to Pioneer Park in St. George. Very different from the Pioneer Park {a.k.a. Drug Exchange Festival} of Salt Lake City. It was kind of a last minute decision to go because it was almost sunset and we didn't know much about it. It had good reviews on Trip Advisor so we decided to check it out and I'm so glad we did. Hello. This place was stunning. There was a lookout over the entire valley but with  me packing Caleb around in the bjorn, I didn't feel safe climbing up there.

This place reminded me of Goblin Valley. Which makes me want to visit Moab. Moab always makes me think of Spring Break when me, Erin, Christian, Scott, Danny, Ken, Eric, Sarah and a few others went down. Danny was trying to get up the courage to talk to me on the hikes and I was too upset that Russ wasn't there to notice. We still laugh about that.

See the bum?

After the sun was down, it got chilly so we headed back to the hotel for our last night. I was so sad to leave the next day. We tried to put it off for as long as we could by visiting Brigham Young's winter home and having lunch at the park. We may have stopped by the St. George Swig while we left town...only this time I learned my lesson and got a triple D. The diet dirty dr. pepper. and a sugar cookie.

It's pretty cool to think that some of these things were actually belongings of the Prophet, Brigham Young. At one point in the tour we walked through his wife's {not sure which one} bedroom and one little girl said in a really shocked voice, "why didn't they share a bed?!" We all had a good chuckle about that. It was a good question though and did make me wonder...

It was such a great getaway and I can't wait to go back.