St. George Utah

The end of June my mom and I headed to St. George Utah with the boys. She really wanted to visit her sister, my aunt and there was no way any of us would let her drive herself. So I was the only one that could go and really glad that I did. Last time I was there was when I was 16 years old. That was 14 years ago! It takes about 9 hours to get there and I was so determined to do it in 1 day. I can't stand splitting trips up into multiple days if it is something that can reasonably be done in 1. Anyway, on the way down I received a speeding ticket. Oh brother and yes I was speeding but come on...ugh! I did have to laugh because we just changed our insurances to a company where you have to rate well to even get it. We rated exceptionally well because he didn't have any accidents or speeding tickets in the previous 5 years. The boys are super good travelers and no I don't have a DVD player that I tote along to occupy them. They find things to do themselves and I would much rather have it that way. Kids can get so addicted to TV these days simply because parent's don't want to put in a little work to make things fun and I don't want to associate the car with TV.

I had such a blast and loved spending time with my cousins. Everyday we did something and between all of them, Gunnar had plenty of playmates. His favorite little playmate cousin that he still talks to this day is Colby who is 5 months younger than him. They were made to be playmates. They hit it off right away and never stopped playing for 4 days straight. I've been told that Colby can be shy, so this immediate connection was surprising. Gunnar is the complete opposite so they must have balanced each other well. Colby was also really excited because all of the cousins his age are girls so to have another little boy around was the best.

One day we headed to the dinosaur museum. It was actually really neat and it was neat to see an actual site that they were still working on and uncovering things.

It took us a while to walk through and I was actually pretty surprised that Gunnar remained interested to the end. I am glad we went despite the taunting my cousin gave me for going and enjoying it. What can I say, we like museums. To her defense, she said that she did go when it was first build and there was not a whole lot to look at. I am assuming that since then, a lot has been added.

One morning we headed to the splash pad. It was so much fun. Well, I sat and talked which was super fun. Gunnar ran around like crazy and Brecken was played with for a portion of the time with my cousin's teenage girls. We have nothing like this where we live. The splash pad was set up like a little shallow (really shallow) river with boulders made out of sandstone. It was great and perfect for little kids. We got there about 9:30am. It makes me chuckle that we had to get there so early knowing the temperatures were going to get well over 100 degrees and we didn't want to be there when it was really hot. The strange thing is that their hot is so dry and to me, tolerable. Our hot in the Boise area is humid and muggy making it miserable at like 90 degrees.



Gunnar was ready and had packed swim trunks before we left home. I didn't even think of myself or Brecken. The first day we were in St. George we went to the biggest Deseret Industries I had ever been in. It was huge and if I could I would have packed up a chair that I liked there too. Anyway, I found the cutest Gap swim trunks for Brecken. I loved that they were red, white and blue. He had a blast in the water. It was nice and shallow for him to splash in. Once he realized that nobody was going to tell him no splashing he went to town.

While I am thinking of the DI. While I was there, I went through the As-Is yard and found the BEST outdoor post lamp. I love it and it totally fits the style of my house. I bought one really cheap in Bend last year and planned to spray paint it but once we got it home, it was too big for our house. The one that I found was cute and already a dark color with seeded glass. The best part is that it was only $9! It was also brand new in the original box. I opened the box just to make sure that it was really in there and in perfect condition. One of my favorite finds and this ugly lamp post light was on my future to do list. I walk through the light section at Home Depot all the time just looking at the lights but become too cheap to really buy one. Too many other important things to focus on.

I had to laugh at this. Before my aunt caught on and looked at me taking this picture, it looked like Gunnar was having this serious discussion with my Aunt Penny and Uncle Walt. It was really funny looking. Gunnar loved them and so do I!

One night we went to a movie called 17 Miracles. It is a church movie that was in town for just the week. It is about the miracles that happened during the Willie Handcart Companies. It was SO good. I can't wait to hopefully see it again when it comes out and show my family. Just the adults went and it was crazy. We got there 40 minutes early thinking we would get there in plenty of time. Oh no, we were near the back of the pack in line outside of the theater. Employees came around with free water because it was so hot in the shade. My aunt had a great idea to totally use my mom's disabilities to our advantage. Somehow they convinced the workers to let her, my aunt and my cousin in very first. They totally went for it and when we finally got in (we still waited in the long line), we had the seat that they so badly wanted and we all sat together. Honestly I don't think all 11 of us would have been able to sit together if we had to wait. The last day we were there (Friday) my cousins and I went yard saleing. It was the best. I loved it and they do to so it makes it really fun. I was able to find brand new with tags brown boy short swim bottoms that I have been wanting for $1. I also found a frame, a little boy blazer jacket for Brecken, kids books...hmmm, what else did I buy. I spent about $12 so $12 worth of fun things. Oh ya, a really large tray for our dog/water food in the kitchen. I was really excited about that one. My cousins came away with some awesome things and it was a blast. We had my cousins Explorer packed full of things. The funniest part was that my cousins were paying asking price for everything. I taught them the Hollingsworth way of yard sales. They started getting things well below the asking price. I even negotiated a guy down from 50 cents to 25 cents for a book. My cousins were laughing on that one. Hey, I didn't want to break a dollar bill and I knew I had 25 cents in coins in my wallet.

I miss them already. I wished that we lived closer. I vow to not let another 14 years slip by before I make it down again. Next time I would love to go with my family and visit the national parks around.