We spent four days down in Utah's Dixie over Fall Break. It was such a nice little getaway, and it was great to enjoy one last bought of warm weather before winter settled in. Here's what we did.
DAY ONE
The guys set up a tee time for the first afternoon--basically as soon as we reached St. George. We got there around lunchtime, grabbed lunch together, and then they took off to have some fun on the green...
While they went golfing, the rest of us took the kids to Pioneer Park. It's a fun park made up entirely of natural rock formations that the kids can climb all over and explore to their hearts' content...
Connor decided it would be wise to model Vivvie's sunglasses, and allow me to take a photo of it for
blackmail posterity's sake...
The kiddos with St. George and the famous D (for Dixie) in the background...
This was the first time that Ashlee and Greg's family has come on a Fall Break trip with us. The kids loved having more cousins to pal around with...
Time for some silly poses (and no shirts, apparently)...
Hard to tell in the picture, but Aiden is posing by his name that he wrote in the sand...
The kiddos by an old structure that a pioneer settler once lived in. It's built between two boulders and has venting for fires inside...
When we go to Pioneer Park, one of the highlights is hiking through a narrow slot canyon there. It just super tight in some spots (as you can see in the picture above). The guys usually take the kiddos through this, but since they weren't there, the responsibility was left to me. I'm a tiny girl, and even I had to really squeeze to get through some parts. I don't know how the dudes do it...
That night, the couples split up for the the first of two nights. This night, Nana, Poppy, Mike and I got to leave the kids at home and go out for a nice dinner at Cliffside Restaurant...
This was the view from our table. Not shabby at all. By the way, if you're not familiar with St. George, the big white building in the middle of the picture is the St. George Temple. It is the oldest LDS temple that is still operating today...
After dinner, we went to Tuacahn to see Odyssey Dance Company's "Thriller"...
They always have zombies walking around while you wait for the theatre to open. Some of them are pretty freaky looking...
When the theatre opened, we took our seats. Tuacahn is the coolest outdoor theatre. It's awesome to be surrounded by red rock cliffs! The show was great, and we had a good time...
DAY 2
The guys started out the next day with a bike ride on the Bearclaw Poppy trail. A favorite ride of theirs...
When they got back, we went to "Glitter Mountain". It's an old gypsum mine just over the Arizona border. They call it Glitter Mountain because the gypsum sparkles in the sunlight. We didn't have any really great tools for mining gypsum, so we used what we could find in our cars (wrenches, allen wrenches, etc.) and went to town as best we could...
By the way, gypsum is what they use to make sheet rock. I had no idea...
Some people that had actual tools for mining gypsum got this decent piece out and gave it to Cohen...
The older boys with their hard earned gypsum...
After trying our hand at mining, we went back to the condo complex where we were staying to get some swimming time in...
That night, it was Ashlee and Kristin's turn to have an "adults only" night while we watched the kiddos with Nana and Poppy...
We brought Chinese food back to the condo, and watched movies all evening long...
It was a nice, relaxing night. Well, as relaxing as it can be when you're watching nine kids...
DAY 3
The guys split up for their bike rides this morning. Dan and Mike went on the Gooseberry Mesa trail, and Poppy and Greg went on a trail that was a little less technical. They didn't take any pictures of their ride, but obviously a crash happened because Mike came home bruised and a little bloody. What's new, right? Good times!
After they got back, we all headed out to a hike that is near the entrance to Snow Canyon State Park called Johnson's Arch. It's a fun, fairly flat hike that is great for kids. Speaking of the kids, they climbed on top of every single boulder they found along the trail, and there were a lot of them...
Me, Ashlee, Ella, Greg, and Lila in front of Johnson's Arch...
The trail continues down the narrow canyon past the arch, so we kept hiking to the end. There's lots of fine sand at the end of the canyon that the kids love to play in...
And, they can try their hand at trying to climb some of the red rock cliffs...
We stayed at the end of the canyon for quite awhile just playing...
Part of the fun of climbing the cliffs is running back down the cliff walls after you climb up them. I'm always very nervous that someone is going to get hurt, but they all made it down okay...
The little kids were mainly just content to play in the red sand...
On the way back, Mike, Vivvie, and I tried to take a selfie with the arch, but we didn't get much of the arch in the picture. Haha...
Vivvie was queen of the world climbing on top of all the boulders...
After the hike, the little kids went swimming in the complex pool again...
While they were swimming, Mike and Poppy took the big boys out to the Bearclaw Poppy trail to try their hand at a little mountain biking. Apparently, they did pretty good...
Our biker gang...
That evening, we played games and watched movies at the condo.
DAY 4
Our last day was a pretty soggy one as rain moved into the area. In between showers, we fed our leftover breakfast food to the ducks and geese in a pond right by the complex where we stayed...
The geese obviously loved Honey Bunches of Oats, and were practically eating it out of Mike's hand. And, they weren't very nice about it either...
We went to lunch after that, and then we all split up to do different things. Our family and Poppy went to see the Jacob Hamblin home just outside of St. George. He and his family were some of the first Mormon settlers in southern Utah. It was very interesting, and we all really enjoyed hearing their stories...
Then we said good bye to the palm trees and warm weather, and drove home in the pouring rain...
It was a great trip! We love our little fall getaways where we can have one last taste of warmer weather and get outdoors. Thanks for another great trip full of memories, St. George! See you next time!! --Lindsay
