The Nelson Family: Utah Trip

We were supposed to be enjoying a fun cruise, but since it was Covid Season Part II the cruise was cancelled. Erik had some days off, so we decided to use that time to head up to Utah to visit family. The kids get out of school early most Fridays so we headed up there as soon as they got home. They had to wait about 10 extra minutes for me to get all my stuff together, including my guinea pig, Minnie. Haha yep I brought her with. I put her in a cardboard box with her food, water, and hay. I didn't bring her just for fun, though. I asked Makayla ahead of time if she could drop the guinea pig off at the animal sanctuary that is out in Kanab and she said sure. I had posted Minnie on Craigslist to sell, but I wasn't getting any takers. We arrived in St. George pretty late (as usual).

We spent all of Saturday (September 4) in St. George. The kids of course insisted on eating at Chuck-a-rama. I don't mind eating there. Most of the food isn't too bad. The kids sure love going to visit Grandma and Grandpa! Or at least, swimming in their pool!

Pigging out

Ian is so cute and silly!

Back at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Elisa printed out her (and Ian's) script for the play I signed them up for. They are doing Tangled and Elisa got the lead role (Rapuzel! She shares it with another girl) and Ian got the role of Ben, one of the twin ruffians.

Minnie and the bunny were instant best friends!

A trip to St. George wouldn't be complete without a swim in Grandma and Grandpa's pool!

The next day (Sunday the 5th) we headed up to Cedar City to visit my family. Mark and Cindy/Tootsie came, too! My mom, Cindy, and Elisa and I went to the French Spot for a little chocolate mousse. If you've never tried their chocolate mousse, you're missing out because it is the best ever.
Then we went back to the house and managed to bribe Michael to take a bite of cat food (chew and swallow) for $30 cash in front of all of us. Haha, he actually did it! The rest of the day was spent going through stuff, watching the kids play, and just hanging out.

Enjoying some treats at the French Spot in downtown Cedar City.

Michael trying cat food. LOL.

We spent the night and the next day (Monday the 6th), we went back to the French Spot, this time Erik in place of Elisa. But first, a stop at The Grind for some coffee for Tootsie. There was a little book store connected to the coffee shop that we browsed for a bit, but we didn't buy anything. Erik bought (more) chocolate mouse and some macarons. The macarons were really big. They were good, but not as good as the ones that we've had here in Phoenix. Erik ordered pizza from Centro Woodfired Pizzeria. Our usual Pizza Cart was closed that day (Labor Day) and we wanted to try out this place anyway. The pizza was kind of expensive (more than Pizza Cart) and we didn't like it too much. It was a bit dry and sparse. I guess that will be the one and only time we try that place!

Tootsie and Mark

Macarons from The French Spot

Enjoying the Macarons

Pizza time!

Later that same day, we went back to St. George since we had to leave the next day. For dinner, we went to Red Lobster with Bryce and Makayla. The kids had another swim in the pool that evening and were highly amused by the doggy swimming in the pool.

Red Lobster. I wasn't too hungry so I just mooched off of whoever was willing to throw food on my plate.

Ian is a big fish!

Swim, doggy, swim!

The next day (Tuesday the 7th) before we left Erik made sure include two ill-fated car rides that morning. The first was a ride in Grandpa's Porsche, which broke down (some wires became disconnected) somewhere in town not too long after taking it out. Erik wanted to go to Toquerville falls but he read that the roads were rough getting there so he took Ian and Elisa in the Jeep and Gabe and I went in the SUV with Grandma and Grandpa. Rough roads they were. They were so bad that we gave up not even halfway there. There were some parts the even the Jeep had a really hard time getting past. I saw Ian bouncing around in the back of that Jeep like a sock in the dryer and I was getting a headache and hungry so I was more than ready to turn around and was happy when we did. Unfortunately the Jeep pooped out so we had to haul the Jeep behind the SUV which made us not only go slower but we had to take the backroads back to the house. When we got back, we loaded all of our stuff into our van and met up with Grandma and Grandpa for some yummy lunch at Angelica's. We drove home from there and got back home somewhere between 7-8pm: