After my last semi-depressing post I have a really positive one today! We went to St George last week and it was honestly one of my favorite vacations ever!! I guess I had low expectations for vacationing with two kids so it was beyond enjoyable. Josh agreed with me when we got home that it was the most smooth going and fun filled vacation! Makes me wonder if we were so boring before we had kids?
The ride down there went really good, the kids were champs. Colt slept most of the way and Liam didn't sleep but stayed very well entertained. The last ten minutes we were all pretty antsy but Liam kept asking if we were at "sand mountain" yet!
The one stop we made that I let the kids get out, Liam thought it was so cool to eat at the gas station and kept everyone coming and going pretty entertained!
Once we got check into our hotel Liam saw the pool from our patio door and insisted we go out, so we all got ready and headed to the pool withing the first ten minutes of getting there!
Liam still hadn't napped but it was already 5 so we got ready to head to the outlets. On the way there Liam was glazed over and nodding off but at that point it was to late for a nap so we kept singing to him and trying to keep him awake. He fought it so hard, and the second we pulled up at the outlets....
Josh and I took turns running into the stores we wanted to go to and let Liam sleep for a half hour then went to our favorite Mexican restaurant Casa Dona Maria. After dinner we weren't quite ready to go back so we decided to take the kids to see the temple, and Josh and I have never visited that one either.
We notice when we pulled up that there wasn't a statue Moroni on top so after walking the grounds we headed to the visitor center. There was a sweet older couple there that explained to us that there are 8 temples without Moroni, one of them being St George, and 5 temples that have Moroni ready the scriptures instead of blowing the trumpet, one of which is Los Angeles. We really enjoyed talking to them and when the man asked Liam how old he was he said "two" then stuck his hand out to shake the Brothers hand and said "nice to meet you, whats your name." It was hysterical.
The Missionaries also told us an interesting story that when the Temple there was built Brigham Young didn't like the tower they had built on top and wanted it changed. A year after it still wasn't changed Brigham Young died, and short after lightening stuck the tower right off of the temple so they re built it how he had wanted it....don't mess with Brigham.
Liam kept calling the temple the Castle and was so confused why we couldn't go inside. We told him it was were Jesus lives and that just confused him more.
When we got back that night we set up an inflatable kid mattress my Mom had given us to take. I made it nice and cozy and Liam laid in it....for five minutes. Then it became the "ring around the rosie" jumping trampoline. He was SO hyper since he had a late nap that he wouldn't chill out. Long story short I finally got him to sleep at 11:30 by holding him in my arms and not letting him escape tile he gave up and fell asleep. Liam has never slept with us before and I hope never again. He is wild. He moves around so much in his sleep and most of the time no matter where his body was his feet were in our face.
The next day we went to the Black Bear Diner for breakfast, which I found out there are lots of locations and one not to far from us, we had never been there. Holy cow. It was the best breakfast I have ever had, hands down. The restaurant was so fun decorated in all things bear. Even the menus were newspapers all about bears with the menu inside. Liam thought it was the coolest place! But one of my favorite things was watching these two together...twins.
Then we headed to Snow Canyon to the sand Dunes (aka Sand mountain)
It was beautiful and the weather was so perfect! Not only did Liam have a good time, but Josh and I loved playing with the sand, it was so so soft and therapeutic.
"I got all my stuss"
Since the boys were still being so good we headed to the Children Museum and our way we stopped by Swig for some dirty diet coke and sugar cookies. And yes it was as amazing as everyone says, and yes we probably gained ten pounds from eating one cookie.
The Childrens Museum was so fun. It's in an old high school and so its on several floors with each classroom a different activity. And it was only $3 per person, if you go to St George you have to go!
At the museum they had a sign advertising a place with real animals to see, so after we walked there and we were laughing because it was a tiny place with a couple of turtles. I had to get a picture!
We walked over to Judds where we heard you had to go to get good Ice cream, it was ok but nothing special. Then Josh and Liam rode the Carousel and by the time they were done Colt was soo ready for a break, and so were we.
I have never seen Liam pass out so hard and for so long! We all napped for almost 3 hours and it was awesome.
Later that night we went to Texas Road House for Dinner, then headed back to the hotel and swam. While we waited for our table Liam stayed very entertained by lining up rocks outside.
On the third day we went to Unita Golf to look at some clubs, It is Liams favorite store and he always leaves crying.
We were trying to find something else to do and I told Josh I had found something online called the Kite Festival. I said it is free and probably just a small dinky festival so lets just go check it out for fun. Well when we pulled up we couldn't believe it. There were thousands and thousands of people. So many you had to take a shuttle (school bus) in. It was held on a golf course and they do it every year to reward the local school kids with kites and books if they read so many books. It was quite the event. Oh and Liam thought that riding on a school bus was the coolest thing ever.
After spending a couple hours there we could tell the heat was really getting to the boys so we hopped back on the bus and went to relax at the hotel. Josh and Colt took a nap and Liam looked out the window and said "Mom, my friends are at the pool and want me to come play with them!" So I took him out to swim and it was perfect because there were only two other kids out there. When we walked up to the pool Liam said "Hi friends, I'm here" then once he was in the water he yelled to them "I'm a shark and i'm gonna get you." It was hilarious to watch him in floaties trying to chase two older kids.
That night we went golfing on the prettiest course, I think it was called sun brook.
After golf we went to the splash pad and it was so fun. Liam was really confused at first at why we were going to let him just get soaking wet but by the end he was having fun.
We went to firehouse subs for dinner and went home and swam again. It was seriously the funnest trip and I was so proud of my boys for how well they behaved. Liam was so polite and whenever we were somewhere he would tell people please and thank you. I can't wait to go back!
