August 2011: St. George

We went on a week long vacation to St. George!

First things first:
One of the first things we did was go to the InstaCare. I hurt my ankle a week before. It wasn't getting better, in fact it was feeling worse. So, Lee and the kids dropped me off and went to find a park. (They ended up helping someone in the parking lot change a flat tire first. Then they found a park.) I got x-rays done and they found three sections of bone where only one bone should be. (It was a re-injury of an old break.)  And I also had a "bad" sprain. The doctor said she could get me some crutches if I wanted. I told her I would be fine without. She replied with, "Let me rephrase that. You'll use crutches." Because of the sprain, they didn't put a hard cast on it, so I was in a "soft cast" until October and used crutches for about five days. Crutches during a vacation week when Lee was around, was not too bad. "Hey kids, move off the couch, give mom the remote, and come do the dishes." It did change a few of our plans though, for instance, we didn't really hike Zion National Park.

Ouch.

Bear Claw Poppy Trail:
Of course mountain biking was part of the week. Lee would usually get up and go early (before we were up and before it got too hot). I didn't go with him on those rides, so no pictures of that, but here is Tyler and Andrew on their first trail ride.

Tyler

Andrew

Lee and Laura

Geo-caching:
We attempted Geo-caching several times. I think we tried ten caches and only found one (with a whole lot of help from a local).

Laura, Andrew, and Tyler

Andrew, Tyler, Becca, Laura, and Emma

Swimming:
We went to the pool at the condo almost every day!

Emma opening the gate for the mom with crutches.

Andrew

Tyler

Emma, Becca, and Laura

Lee and the splash is Laura.

Dixie:
We hiked around the Dixie red cliffs and slot canyons.

Tyler, Andrew, Emma, and Laura

Laura, Lee, Andrew, Emma, and Tyler

Andrew, Emma, Lee, Laura, and Tyler

Tyler and Andrew made it through the crack and up to the top.

Emma and Laura waited in the shade.

Natural Wildlife Museum:

We went to this museum and wouldn't really recommend it. It had lots and lots of taxidermy real (life size) animals. They scared Laura. The kids got to hold binoculars, and they did like that. They gave Lee and I a wand thing that had a speaker in it that told [boring] information about each area if you pushed the right button. You had to have the wand right next to your ear to hear it, it wasn't even loud enough to have two people listen to the same one. The information at each section was three to five minutes long, so it was too long to try to update the kids with. They weren't used passed section three or four.

Andrew

Emma found the real goldfish.

Tyler

Lee and Laura

 As we walk into the next section/room the lights were off and this big guy was right at our feet. I asked the kids if they knew what "nocturnal" meant. Andrew said, "Animals that don't make good pets." That's not the definition I was looking for, but I think he is right!

American Alligator

 There was one small room that had a few fun things to explore.

Laura and Lee doing the animal alphabet puzzle.

Tyler all dressed up.

Emma cooking camping style.

Andrew wrestling a bear.

This is only part of the museum.

The lack of fun was not do to lack of animals.

Cracker Barrel:
I've heard good things about the Cracker Barrel, so we thought it would be fun to try it. The kids liked the outside. The wait was pretty long, so it was a good thing they had a game to play. Nobody liked the food. Maybe we just hit them on an off day, but I don't think we will try them again, so we will never know.

Playing checkers.

Tyler and Andrew waiting.

Laura and Emma waiting.

Brigham Young's Winter Home:
We went on a tour of Brigham Young's St. George Home.

Outside President Young's home.

Town Square:
This we would recommend! The fountains were awesome. Most people had swimwear and towels, but we just happened on it in the middle of the day and went for it.

The little river.

Andrew. Wait for it...

Got ya.

Emma

Laura

Lee was right in the middle of it too.

Tyler

Basketball:
There were lots of fun things to do at the condo too. The boys played some basketball. We played at the playground. We watched lots of movies, and played board and card games too.

Lee got the rebound.

Tyler's shot.

Andrew's shot.

We had a fun trip. School started in St. George the week we were there. One of the days we were at Target (getting new school clothes) and someone had to go to the bathroom. So we ended up taking everyone. Tyler got done and was waiting by the cart which was somewhat close to the front door. A lady that just walked into the store saw him and asked if it was a half day of school (it was the first day). Tyler said he didn't know. She was thinking her kids were going to get home and she wouldn't be there. Tyler finally explained that he was on vacation and didn't go to school there.

Lee also went running several mornings. Andrew even woke up early enough to ride his bike while Lee was running once.