In the fall of 2014 my parents pulled up roots and moved from their long time home in Tucson, Arizona. The moved to Washington, Utah (a small town on the outskirts of St. George, Utah). They bought a home there and had only been settled in for a few weeks before the masses decended upon them. In a period of 2 weeks, my 2 sisters and I and our families each came to stay with them. Kind of in a tag-team fashion: One family after another. Our turn was for New Years and the surrounding days.
When all was said and done, Eric and I agreed that it was one of the most relaxing vacations we had ever had. When we travel to the Provo area or to Arizona we have a great time and love seeing lots of friends and family...but it is so hectic and busy. Juggling schedules and trying to fit everyone in is always a bit crazy and exhausting. In St. George we only know 2 families (my parents and my cousin Heidi) and we really didn't see much of Heidi this time (sorry, we'll do better next time). Anyway, it was so low key and relaxing...which is uncommon for our vacations. I took naps. I read my book. I cross-stitched. We even lost track of the days, it was so unlike me to have nothing scheduled. But it was delightful. However, we really didn't just sit around...we actually fit in quite a few things while "being lazy" in St. George.
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On our way down to St. George we were able to stop in Provo and attend my cousin Oliver's Eagle Court of Honor. It was a great event and we are so proud of him. Oliver is my youngest cousin, but he is only 2 months older than Mason. It was a wonderful ceremony...I was wiping my eyes on more than one occasion. Hopefully this helped inspire and motivate Mason to get his Eagle done. He is half-way through his project and has only one Merit Badge left.
The stars were aligned just right and there were 9 Jensen cousins in town that night.
That is the biggest group of cousins that has been together in YEARS.
It made me want to see the rest of my cousins so badly. Who wants to organize a reunion????
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Sugar cookie workshop. Yes, Christmas was over, but my kids LOVE making sugar cookies with their Grannie so they begged to do it while we were there. This nice big bar was a perfect place for them all to work. They were SO delicious to eat!
New Years Eve we ate our traditional Appetizers/Finger Foods on the floor. Yummy. The Party Poopers (including Eric and my dad) went to bed long before midnight. Some of us stayed up and tried to play Settler's of Catan but it just ended in fighting over how to play the game (none of us really knew!). But there were fireworks and floating lanterns that we could see from the back porch. So that was cool.
We woke up New Years morning to snow on the ground. CRAZY. Southern Utah is usually warm and sunny...so we weren't expecting this. It was actually pretty cold the whole time we were there.
One day we did some off-roading and hiking in the hills behind my parent's house. It was lovely. The pictures don't capture it well, but the blue sky and red dirt were so striking.
We spent an afternoon at my cousin Heidi's house. I didn't snap any pictures except of Sadie and their bird. Heidi and I loved the chance to just "chat" and catch up, but the kids didn't hit it off great this time. Her kids were busy with other friends and my kids were acting all shy. We'll have to go do something fun together next time and hope they can rekindle their friendships.
Game playing with Grannie...a made up game called Junk Drawer (Grannie made up the game, and I just made up the name) but it is a sorting game that is fun for all ages.
One of our favorite things that the kids did was go to the Children's Museum in downtown St. George. THANK YOU Debbie for tipping us off to this. It was so fun. We could have spent hours and hours here...we'll come back another time and let the kids play longer. It really was an amazing place for kids to explore and do make believe. Here are just a small portion of the fun pictures I got.
Next stop was the St. George Tabernacle (right next door to the children's museum). We took a quick tour or this impressive building and the kids each got to read a scripture from the pulpit. I can't remember it now...but it was a famous scripture, read by someone famous...during some famous event. I'll have to check my facts and get back to you on that one.
On the other side of the tabernacle is a water park. It was too cold to get in, but the kids still enjoyed jumping on the rocks and giving their mom a heart attack.
Last stop of the day was to the St. George temple. We went inside the Visitor's Center and watched a movie and heard the amazing story of how this temple came to be. The guide inside even gave each of my kids a little piece of gypsum that was left over from the building of the temple.
We met up with Heidi and her fam for a quick "good-bye" rendezvous and a chance to take some pictures. Our kids really do match up well (age-wise) so we'll have to work a little harder next time to plan something fun for us all to do together.
Heidi and I -- Best Cousins
We took this family picture while we were inside the temple. I LOVE this picture. Everyone is smiling and happy and we are sitting at the feet of Jesus. A great reminder of what we hope to achieve in this life...Together Forever as a family.
6 comments:
Looks like such a fun trip!!! This will be a great place to escape to. Two other places to make sure and check out on one of your next visits are the Brigham Young Winter Home & Jacob Hamblin home. They have tours and some cool stories about the history of the area! Also the 45 minute drive down into Zions is so worth it and lots of amazing hiking trails etc.....
Wow, this was a marathon post, but I enjoyed every bit of it. Thanks for blogging!
And that family picture of yours is priceless, why didn't I think of that? We tried taking pictures outside that didn't turn out well because we were freezing!
Great picture! What fun!
It was so fun and you packed in so much in so few days. Look forward to doing more if it next time!!
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