Utah Visit: Part I (St. George and Cedar Hills)

I didn't keep a log of our stay in Utah, but I took enough pictures of what we did. Hopefully that will be sufficient. 

After our UK trip (we got back June 26), Erik went back to work, and I stayed for a few days at home with the kids, mainly shopping and packing for our stay in Utah. Like the year before, I planned on driving the boys up to St. George myself while Elisa went up a day or two earlier with Grandma and Grandpa. The drive up to St. George was mainly uneventful, thankfully. We listened to book 1 of Harry Potter during the drive. I stopped in Kingman for gas and across the street at McDonalds for some food. Other than that, I didn't stop at all. Good thing, because Ian has a tiny bladder---he filled 4 or 5 empty water bottles during the drive! We wouldn't have arrived in St. George until dark if I stopped every time he needed to go! We did get a bit delayed near Mesquite (I think) due to construction, but I think we made good time. 

Only two pictures while we were home for a day or so:

June 26

Within an hour of getting back home, we noticed that the back yard looked greener than when we arrived. Apparently, a strong wind gust blew down a huge branch on the tree behind our fence. Erik tried several times to get the HOA to come clean it up. They finally showed up 3 days later (the day we drove to Utah) and cut the entire tree down.

June 27

Gabe agreed to massage my feet in exchange for a dollar or two! 

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We finally made it! We didn't stay too many days in St. George. We arrived June 29th and left July 1st. My sister was begging us to come up to South Jordan ASAP. I told her we had a few stops along the way before getting there...St. George was one of them! I would have liked to go get a massage and go to Red Fort, but my mom wasn't living in Cedar City anymore, and I only had a few days to spare in St. George anyway. I didn't do a whole lot there, but the kids enjoyed doing the usual: swimming, watching cartoons, swimming, eating Chuck-a-rama, and more swimming!

Looks like St. George received some of the monsoon that we had in Phoenix.

The kids enjoyed going to Chuck-a-Rama with Grandma and Grandpa

Swim swim swim. These kids are going to turn into little fishies one of these days!

Poor Ian got knocked in the face while swimming, no thanks to Elisa. I'm not sure why I took this picture

Watching cartoons (probably Tom & Jerry)

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On July 1st, we drove up to Tootsie and Mark's house. I guess it's also my parent's house too since they are living in the basement. On our way up from St. George, we stopped in on their old house in Cedar City to check it out and grab a few things out of the freezer. We didn't stay long, maybe for a half hour tops. Then we spent the next couple of days at Tootsie and Mark's house. On Saturday evening, Lisa and her kids came up because I guess they couldn't wait to see us! Michael treated us to pizza for dinner. He was up visiting from Cedar City, where he lives. The kids had fun gobbling up the pizza along with some chips, soda, and watermelon.  Ian and Elisa wanted to go up with the Blaylocks a little earlier than I planned, so I let them go up with their cousins. Gabe stayed behind with me. The next day was Sunday. Me, Tootsie and Gabe went on a short hike on the trail behind her house. I also tried out my dad's new fancy treadmill and the rowing machine too. Gabe is also a fan of that rowing machine! I made some sour cherry jam some time in there. I started pitting the cherries the evening before (my mom and Lisa helped) but unfortunately, I boiled too much water out and I ended up making cherry taffy lol--whoops! We watched some shows and then for dinner, my mom made tacos. That was our last night that Gabe and I spent at Tootsie's for a few weeks, and if I'm remembering correctly, Gabe shared the bed with me the last night (it's a King) because he didn't like sleeping on the sofa and Michael was in the office. The next morning was July 4th. Gabe and I left around 11am to head over to Lisa's in South Jordan, about a half hour away.

Tootsie showed me this nesting mourning dove in her raspberry bushes

Cute silly Ian being cute and silly!

The cousins were happy to see each other!

Gabe brought his remote-controlled car on the walk

Gabe likes that rowing machine!

Just chillin' with the kitties. That Georgie is such a cute, cuddly kitty.