A week in St. George

July 5th-11th - St George trip

After church on July 5th, we headed down to St. George to stay in my cousin's condo for a week, kind of as our pre-anniversary trip.  Darwin's parents came down with us this time to hang out and to watch the girls for us so we could go to a show at Tuacahn.  I had to work a little bit while we were down there and got up early, like usual, to try and pound through some hours before everyone else woke up.  I definitely prefer to go to sleep early and get up early for many reasons.  One of the benefits of getting up early is being able to enjoy beautiful sunrises! Of course our camera can never do justice to the beauty of nature.

I enjoyed the company of my little munchkins out on the porch in the mornings.  Priceless!


July 6th: Sand Hollow Canoe Adventure
On Monday we headed to Sand Hollow after lunch to take Grandma's retirement canoe for it's initial voyage.  She wanted to test it out in warm water, and Sand Hollow was the perfect location!
The girls fell asleep in the car on the way there

It was a lot of work to drag the canoe in the sand down to the water, even with the dolly devise.

They're such a cute couple! We love these guys!

Dragging the canoe through the sand

There they go!


They wanted to practice swamping the canoe and getting back in it so they'd be prepared if it ever happens for real.  Good times to be had!


Our girls were in heaven playing in the warm, shallow water!


They loved playing in the sand too, of course!

The girls got to go for a ride too!

Savannah didn't love it and only lasted a couple minutes before she wanted to get out.  Aurora loved paddling though. I think it's one of her new favorite things :)

Grandma and Grandpa got the girls a fun set of sand toys.  The wagon is good for several things, including a potty for a certain four year old in our family in an emergency ;)

Daddy and the girls sitting in the swamped canoe

Rori had fun trying to hang on to Grandpa's paddle

When it was time to go, the girls found ways to entertain themselves while we got the canoe loaded up on top of the Jeep again.  More fun in the water! :)

This kid cracks me up!


Rori making sand angels in the water :)

Cutie!


Because it was hard enough to get the canoe down the hill in the sand into the water, Grandpa decided to drive the Jeep down to get the canoe loaded up again then just drive back up to the road.  Unfortunately, he lost his momentum going back up the hill and the Jeep got stuck in the sand!  It took a lot of digging and man-power pushing to get the Jeep unstuck and back on the road.  Fun memories for sure!


July 7th: Rendezvous with Koon family in Cedar City
My older brother's girlfriend's dad passed away the week before we went down to St. George.  We we so sad for their loss, but grateful for the opportunity to go support Heather and her family while we were down in the area.  So, on Tuesday we headed up to Cedar City for Ronny's funeral and to spend time with my brother.  The rest of my family (minus my younger brother) came down to Cedar to support Tayton and Heather as well.  This was the first time we had all the grandkids together in a couple of years!
Liam, Hannah, Amaia, Dakoda
Savannah, Hyrum, Aurora

A silly picture is always a must after making the kids stand still and smile. Haha!

When we got back to the condo after being in Cedar City, we got more bad news.  Dar's older brother's best friend, Tammy, passed away unexpectedly that morning.  Darwin's parents made plans to stay to watch the girls so we could go to our show at Tuacahn that night but they would leave as soon as we got back to go home to be with Ryan.  We were devastated by the news of Tammy's passing!  It was definitely a rough week for our family, but we tried to make the most of it and waited as long as possible to tell the girls that Tammy had passed away.  Aurora especially adored Tammy and we knew she would be sad when we told her what had happened.

That night, Darwin and I headed to Tuacahn for dinner and a show.  We saw "When You Wish" which is like a Disney medley on broadway.  It was amazing to be at Tuacahn, and we had front row seats!!  The outdoor theater is incredible!  Where else can you see live horses as part of the show and real water on the stage!  We were amazed with the scenery and the acting.  We will definitely be going to more shows at Tuacahn and highly recommend it for anyone who can take the chance to go!  It was a bonus that the weather was perfect too!
Me and my handsome hubby on our anniversary date!


Grandma and Grandpa were supposed to go see Beauty and the Beast the next night but because they headed home early to be with Ryan, they ended up giving their tickets to one of Grandma's former coworkers who is also retired and living in the St. George area.  Hopefully they'll make it back to see a show another time.  Tuacahn was awesome!!

July 8th: Swimming at the Condo, and Tuacahn with the girls
On Wednesday, we took the opportunity to hang out at the pool at the condo.  The girls were really looking forward to swimming in the pool, although Savannah wanted to go back to lake and still asks to go back.  She loved the lake!  I'm so glad Aurora was a good sport and was willing to play in the little kid pool with Savannah even though she was big enough and skilled enough to go in the family pool this year.  Thanks for being such a great sister, Rori!
Puddle jumpers are probably the best invention ever for kids who love water!

We had to get new goggles for both girls this time around.


Piggy back rides on Daddy are always fun!

Later that night we loaded the girls up and took them to Tuacahn to show them where we had been the night before, and maybe try to get in to see Beauty and the Beast with them :)

Cool stairs headed up to the theater

Check us out! ;)

They thought this statue was cool and wanted us to take their picture with it.

We attempted to get a picture of the girls with us in front of the water feature.  Attempt is a good word for it :)

After showing Tuacahn to the girls and realizing we wouldn't get in to see Beauty and the Beast (Savannah is too young, 3 is the age limit, and we couldn't justify spending another $200+ to take our girls to see the show--I think we've decided that once they're at least 5 and old enough to sit through a show that we'll take them to see a show with us) we took them to see the St. George temple.  It's so beautiful lit up at night!


July 9th: Day in Las Vegas
Before we went down to St. George I wanted to take a day to go to Las Vegas to see my brother and take the girls to the "m" factory (I'm not spelling it out because the "and" symbol comes out goofy).  My brother ended up getting really sick so we weren't able to see him (luckily we saw him on Tuesday though, even if it was under sad circumstances) but we ventured down to Vegas anyway.  To get there, you pass through a corner of Arizona--we like to take pictures of the state signs.

Our first stop when we got to Las Vegas was the "m" factory!

It's amazing to me that they've made a whole store based on a candy product!

We watched a short 10-15 minute 3-D movie with the girls.


We could see Hello Kitty down on the street from the 3rd or 4th floor of the "m" factory and of course the girls wanted to go get a picture with her.  Naive little me didn't think that they would want tips for getting a photo, but Hello Kitty let us get a picture anyway even though we didn't have any cash.  We didn't let them get a picture with a Despicable Me minion after that though. I was a little embarrassed.

 It was free for us to get this picture though! Thank goodness!

Our next stop, after lunch at Carl's Jr, was to Ethel M's Chocolate Factory in Vegas!  It was fun to see the workers making the chocolates and candies right in front of us!  We got samples at the end and then bought some expensive chocolate lolly pops for the girls and chocolate covered raisins for us.  They were yummy, but expensive!

I think the girls (and Darwin) were more thrilled about all the airplanes flying over than the actual chocolate factory--the factory is right next to the airport.

Savy eating her white chocolate happy face lolly pop!

Rori eating her milk chocolate happy face lolly pop!

Outside the factory is an authentic cactus garden. It was really cool to walk around and see all the different kinds of cactus that are native to the area.

Me and my hubby!

Back in the car Savy was funny playing with the fishing toy she got in her lunch at Carl's Jr

The last thing I wanted to see before we left Vegas was the Las Vegas LDS temple.  Savy fell asleep in the car and Aurora didn't want to get out for a picture so it was just me and Darwin

Back at the condo, the girls soaked in their last opportunity to hang out on the deck while Daddy and I packed things up to head back home the next morning.

We had planned to stay until Saturday, but with Tammy's passing, we ended up heading home a day early to attend her viewing and internment.  Thanks again, Tracee, for watching our kids so we could go!  After we got everything unpacked, the girls thought it was super fun to play and hide and the suitcases. Silly kiddos!
Rori all snug and cozy in the suitcase

Peek-a-boo!

Savy snug as a bug!

It's always more fun together!


We're so sad for the circumstances that cut our vacation a day short, but we were so grateful to take a few days away from the hustle and bustle of our daily obligations and we were also more than happy to come home early to support Ryan.  Thanks for a fun get-away in St. George, family!!

Independence Day!

July 4th, 2015

We missed the hot air balloons for Art City Days this year but made it a point to go for the Freedom Festival. We were bummed that it was too windy for them to fly, but it was totally satisfactory for the girls to just see the balloons on the field.  Smokey the Bear is usually there, along with a Smokey hot air balloon.  Our girls couldn't make up their minds about getting a picture taken with him but Savannah finally decided she was brave enough.  The uncertainty of her facial expression in this picture cracks me up though!

She perked up when she saw a puppy!

 Our family at the balloon festival!

Watching the balloons getting filled up


There was a new balloon this year that we haven't see before--Yoda!  Savannah said he was Anger from the movie Inside Out though.  She makes us laugh :)



When we go to the balloons for the Freedom Festival, we like to go for all you can eat pancakes at the Kiwanis breakfast.  It started raining on us right as we were finishing up our breakfast so we took shelter underneath a great big tree and helped the girls stay cozy warm!

After breakfast we headed to the parade route to meet up with our favorite Aussies.  It only rained for a few minutes and we appreciated that it cooled things down for the parade, at least for a little while.
Rori watching the pre-parade

We were sitting pretty close to the emcee table and he had people go dance in the street to win tickets for various things.  Darwin took our girls out to dance with him and several others from our group joined in too.

Everyone cleared out when the biker cops came zooming down the street.  They stopped right in front of where we were sitting.  After the cops drove off, the emcee told the kids to go back out in the street to dance, but the cops came zooming back while the kids were all in the street dancing!!  It was super scary and everyone was really fortunate that no one got hurt.  It scared the living daylights out of our friend's daughter who was in the street at the time though.  Poor, Mia!  It was definitely the emcee who was at fault on that one!!


I must admit it was a little strange to see Darth Vader and bunch of storm troopers walk past carrying all the flags! :)

Me and Vannie watching the parade

One of the planes in the fly over

Jared and Tracee brought a big thing of red vines and Savannah went to town with them!  It was pretty funny, to be honest.

After the parade we went to check out the booths set up for the festival and Savannah fell asleep in the stroller on our way back to the car.  Sleepy kiddo!  I don't blame her though.  We got the girls up early to go see the balloons!

After the parade, we had lunch with our Aussies and then went home for another nap.  After nap time we had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house and then headed up to Squaw Peak to watch the fireworks from a new location.  Unfortunately we were just a few minutes too late and the police had the entrance for Squaw Peak closed off because it was already full.  We just drove around and found a neighborhood on the mountain with a good view of the valley.  We made ourselves cozy in the back of the Pilot and watched all the fireworks going off down in the valley.  It was really fun to watch them from up in the mountains this year!  It probably won't happen every year for us, but definitely fun to do occasionally!  The valley looked like it was boiling with fireworks!  It was like watching 100 firework shows all at once with the Stadium of  Fire fireworks as the grand finale.  It was definitely an amazing scene to behold.

 We had fun being silly together and playing with glow sticks :)

It was almost 11:30pm by the time we got home.  Luckily the girls were already in their jammies and fell asleep in the car on the way home.  I love that Rori fell alseep holding onto a big bunch of glow sticks :)

Happy Independence Day!

Candy Bomber!

July 3rd: Candy Bomber at the Scera

We were at a friend's little boy's birthday party on my birthday (June 27th) and found out that the Candy Bomber, Gail Halvorson, a 92 year old WWII vet, was going to be reenacting the candy drop he initiated in Berlin the next week (thanks for the tip, Bethany!).  Then that night when we went partying with Grandma Diane and family, we found out that Sarah and Angelica were going to be in the plane dropping the candy!  It was definitely a must-do for several reasons but two of the big ones were that

1) this might be Gail's last reenactment of the candy drop and

2) we personally know at least two people who would be dropping the candy!

I called my mom and told her about it and she and my two sisters made plans to join us for the drop.  It was planned for 1,000 candy bars to be dropped and there was an age restriction for kids who could participate so we didn't expect to get any candy.  We just wanted to be there!!  It was SO crowded!  There were several thousand people there, it was about 100 degrees outside with not a whole lot of shade, and we didn't even get to see the candy as it was dropped from the plane, but it was still so worth it to just be there!

The kiddos.  Hyrum wasn't having it. Poor guy!

First sighting!
This was not Gail Halvorsen's plane though.  There were three planes all together and he was flying the biggest one.

There he is!

You can't really tell from this picture, but after the candy was dropped the kids rushed the field that had been cleared for the drop.  The kids running for the candy are on the far side of the trees and it seriously looked like a river of people flooding the field.  It was amazing to watch and we were really glad we weren't in the thick of it!

 We got the behind-the-scenes info from Sarah the next day.  She said the first time they flew over, they couldn't get the hatch open to push the candy out so they flew over again.  When they were able to get the candy out, they only got 1/2 of it pushed out but the kids rushed the field and they weren't able to drop the rest of it!  She was really bugged about it, but we benefited because she was able to hoard some of the left over candy bars and gave 3 to our family as a momentum of the occasion.  Candy bar, parachute and all!  Thanks so much, Sarah!  You rock!

After the drop we decided we'd go for drinks at Sonic (ice cream is usually out of the question for us because of Aurora's dairy allergy) but we wanted to wait for some of the traffic to disperse before attempting to get out ourselves, so we hung out in the shade by our cars. Darwin did his own candy drop for our kids with whatever snacks we had on hand.  They all think Uncle Darwin is pretty silly :)
My little sister, Bri, me and my older sister, Shannon

And added my mom in too!

When we finally got out of the parking lot and made it to Sonic, the kiddos all crammed in the back of our new Pilot to watch a movie together while they waited for our drinks to be brought out.  Cuties!

Thanks, family for coming down to join us!  We love you guys!!