St. George Trip

We wanted to plan a trip for Fall Break.  Our original plan was to go to Arizona and see Meteor Crater, the Lowell Observatory, and Sunset Volcano.  On the way home we'd stop by the Grand Canyon.  It was a little ambitious and by far the longest drive we have ever taken.  It turns out that it was a little too ambitious and we decided to just go to St. George.  We were going to go over UEA weekend but it turned out that I had a concert that week.  So we had to go two weeks later when the boys had a Friday off which was also the day after Halloween.

If you remember from my last post, Jonathan was sick on Halloween.  He was feeling much better the next day, but unfortunately Nathaniel caught whatever it was that he had and stayed home from school on Thursday.  We were planning on leaving as soon as the boys were all home from school.  With Nathaniel home, we could leave earlier - assuming he was feeling better.

We decided to go anyway with the assumption that he would get over it quickly like Jonathan did.  For the most part, it went okay.  He had a little bottle of Sprite that he would drink from every 15 minutes and that seemed to work.  Around Nephi, he decided to try some goldfish crackers.  That turned out to be a bad idea and we had to pull over.  He went back to drinking his Sprite and we didn't have any more problems.

Somewhere in the middle of Utah, I took a turn driving because Jaaromy was getting sleepy.  Just after Beaver I realized that we were almost out of gas.  I really didn't want to turn around and go back to Beaver so we kept going.  Apparently, there is nothing between Beaver and Parowan.  Jaaromy checked his phone for gas stations and it said there wasn't one for 16 miles.  I was getting really nervous.  I had been getting sleepy too, but both of us were wide awake now.  Every little murmur in the car made me think that we were running out of gas.  We started to make plans for if/when we ran out of gas.  We could see some lights in the distance and we were really hoping that we could make it that far.  As we got closer they were definitely gas station lights.  Apparently Jaaromy's iphone app didn't know about this gas station.  We made it all the way.  We were so relieved!

We stopped in Cedar City for dinner at Wendy's and Nathaniel was disappointed that he couldn't eat with us.  He didn't feel like eating at all, but he was still disappointed.  We promised him that we would eat at Wendy's again on our trip.

We got to St. George just in time to go to bed.  I had originally reserved a family suite but for whatever reason it didn't take so they put us in two adjoining rooms which actually worked out pretty well for us.  I assumed that I'd have to share a bed with Brigham since that's what I had to do on our last trip, but he was perfectly happy to share a bed with Jonathan.  So, the boys were all in one room while Jaaromy and I were in another.  Pretty sweet.

It was warmer in St. George than it was at home but the mornings were still chilly.  Jonathan was dying to go swimming, but we said it was too cold.  Also, we happened to be sharing the hotel with a group of band students who were always in the pool it seemed.  We told him we would try later.

Our first stop after breakfast was Dinosaur Discovery.  I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be really fun.

 We came at the same time as a group of students from Dixie College so we looked around the lobby a bit while we waited for them to watch a video and move on.

 While we waited for the students, Brigham and I looked around the gift shop.  He played with this dinosaur head and was saying "rawr".  It was so cute that I was totally going to buy it for him before we left.  On our way out, I showed it to him again and he barely looked at it.  (sigh)  No dinosaur head for us.

 We watched a short video telling about the site where and how they found all the fossils.  Then we went to a room with a bunch of kids activities.

 There were a lot of fun things for the kids to do.

They had an impressive collection of fossils.

An actual skin impression!  I thought that was pretty neat.

This is the dinosaur character from the video we watched.

Brigham followed the footprints all around the room.  He'd start to get far away but I knew he would just follow the footprints and he always did.

Jaaromy would not play along when I asked him to act scared.

We found out that for $5 you could buy a foot print and write your name on it and stuff.  So Jonathan picked a foot print and sat on it until the museum guy could come with a pen.

  This is what we wrote.  So if you're ever down there, see if you can find it!

After the Dinosaur Discovery we decided to drive to Santa Clara and see if we could find the house Jaaromy's family lived in when they lived in St. George.  We found it easy, but the outside looked different and it threw Jaaromy off a little bit.  It was fun to see his memories come back.

We decided to drive around the red rocks that are north of the city.  We found a place to park and walk around so we did.

 Jaaromy wanted to climb up high.

 So the boys followed.  In fact, I have a lot of pictures where I'm down bellow, thinking that was as high as they would go.  But they kept wanting to go higher.  I was nervous to follow, partly because of heights, and partly because I didn't want to break my awesome camera while climbing.  But I always ended up following.

 The boys really loved to climb.  Jaaromy climbed up one rock and decided that it was too hard for the boys, then Jonathan popped up beside him and we couldn't figure out how he got up there with him.  Brigham started climbing up a couple of rocks and we had to stop him because there would be no way to get him back down.

 They really loved it.

 The view was amazing too.

 On our way back down we found this "cave".  A gap between two really big rocks.

It felt so good after being in the sun.

It was an unexpectedly fun hike.  We weren't planning on it but it turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.  It wore us out though and we decided that now was the time to go swimming at the hotel.  The band kids were off doing whatever it was they came to do so the pool was empty.  Jaaromy didn't feel like swimming and Nathaniel forgot to pack his swimsuit, so it was just me, Jonathan, and Brigham.  This was also really fun for me because Brigham had so much fun.  He was grinning practically the whole time.  By the end I even got him to go underwater, and he even liked it!  Jonathan is still too nervous to go underwater but they both had so much fun, it was fun to watch them.

After swimming, I decided we were going to go to the Rosenburch Wildlife Museum.  Jaaromy didn't want to go but I showed Jonathan some of the pictures on their website and he was sold.

 They gave the boys their own set of little binoculars and an audio player that told you about each of the sections.

 There were some interesting animal poses.    This one was actually in semi darkness for effect, I'm sure, but the flash lit it all up.

 This raccoon was easy to miss if you weren't looking up.

The boys thought the baby skunks were super cute.  They had an impressive collection.  While we were looking around the lights turned off and there was some thunder and lightning.  I thought it was kind of neat, but Brigham had run off just then and I was worried it would make him nervous.  It didn't.  We were in and out pretty quick.  I wonder if we missed a room or something.

We went back to the hotel to play on the indoor playground.  Jonathan had been looking forward to it as soon as he found out they had one.  It was nice for Jaaromy and I to just relax while the boys played.  After that we went to dinner and hung out at the hotel.  What a busy day!

The next day after breakfast we went to see the temple.

 Another family was there taking pictures so we did a camera swap.

 Jonathan was really excited to see the temple.

We walked around a bit and then left to start our drive home.

 We drove by Brigham Young's winter home.  We didn't go inside which is kind of lame, but we were anxious to get going.

We stopped in Filmore to see the lava fields.  We looked at them on Google Earth and Jonathan was really excited to see them.  There are also caves but I had no idea where we were going other than towards the volcano.

 On one of the ATV roads we were surprised to see some tanks and other army vehicles coming down the road.

 It was pretty cool to see and one of the Army guys waved at us.

 Since we had no idea where we were going we decided to just pull over and take a look.  Nathaniel wasn't impressed so he stayed in the car.

 In these pictures it kind of looks like a hill but it's actually a fairly flat field.  It's just really big.

That's the volcano behind Jonathan.  If we had some 4 wheelers or something we could probably find the caves, but we really didn't have the time nor the inclination.  Jonathan took a couple of lava rocks as a souvenir.

Then we went on our way.  We were still somewhat full from breakfast but we made it a point to stop in Nephi so we could eat at Wendy's for Nathaniel's sake.  Even though we eat at Wendy's about every other week, it just isn't the same as eating at Wendy's on vacation.

It was a fun trip.  I'm glad we went and that it went well.  Some minor bumps, but overall a success.  I wonder where we'll go next.

Halloween

Halloween was a little different this year.  When I went to get Jonathan and Brigham up, I found that Jonathan had been sick in the night.  He still really wanted to go to school in his Luigi costume.  He was so excited that I decided to send him anyway, but I told him that he should call me if he doesn't feel well.  I even had him practice what he should say to his teacher: "I don't feel well, can I call my mom?"  He said he would.

Part of why I needed him at school was so I could go to the parade at Brigham's school.  Both schools were having a parade but they were at the same time.  I've actually never been to the parades.  I don't remember if it's because they haven't always had them or if I just didn't want to go.  I think it's a combination of both, but this year, going to the parade seemed like an easy choice, so I don't know why I would have chosen not to go in previous years.  When I got to the school and had to park at the church up the street, I started to remember why I don't go to the parades.  Luckily, my SIL Rachel saved me a seat.

We saw Dallin, then Josh, then we started seeing the special needs classes so I figured we were close.  Then I saw Brigham with an aide at the end of the row covering his ears.  He didn't look like he was liking all the people in the gym.  I could see that the aide was pulling him out of the parade so I hurried down the row and stopped them before they left out a side door.  I picked him up and walked with him the rest of the way through the gym.  So, I didn't get a picture.  But he looked cute.  He even looked like he was enjoying himself.  I let him go with his class before they left the gym and went back to my seat.  We watched the parade a little longer to give his class time to get back to class.  I was about to go when I heard the 6th grade coming in with their Thriller dance.  I hurried back to my seat in time to see Kaitlyn in a group of 6th graders coming down our row doing their Thriller dance.  It was really cool, they did a good job.

I went back to Brigham's class and hung out there for a little while.  The activities were Halloween based but I think it's still similar to their regular routine.  It was fun to see him in his class.  He's doing so well there, his teacher doesn't think he'll need to be there long, although I certainly don't want to him to change classes again this year, so we'll at least stay the rest of the year.

After I left Brigham's class I decided I should stop by Jonathan's class to see how he's doing.  When I got there I looked in and he had his head on his desk.  When I went in to ask him if he was okay he was so sad and said his stomach hurt.  So I took him home.  Poor kid.

When it was time to go Trick-or-Treating, I was starting to wonder if we should just not go.  Jonathan is often the driving force in our family when it comes to doing fun stuff.  Nathaniel wanted to go, and I said he could but he didn't want to go alone.  Brigham was perfectly happy to play on the computer all night.

He smiles for pictures even when he's not feeling well.  In the end he decided to go, so we got everyone ready.  Jonathan was Luigi again.  He's too big for the homemade Luigi costume, but I managed to find a store bought one in exactly the right size on the West Valley City Online Yard Sale Facebook page that someone was selling.

Nathaniel decided to go as Wario again this year.  Worked out for me.

I wasn't sure what Brigham was going to be.  He was too big for the astronaut costume.  I remembered we had a Link costume and it worked out perfectly.  Plus, it's a character he recognizes so even though he didn't want me to put it on him at first, once he saw himself in it he loved it and didn't want to take it off.

 Here's a full length shot.  I know I probably say this every time my kids dress up as Link, but he was the cutest Link I have ever seen.  EVER!

For some reason he really liked making his hat stick straight up.

I'm glad we went Trick-or-Treating.  We didn't stay out long because Jonathan was kind of weak, but they had fun and got plenty of candy.

Halloween Cookies

I'm getting into the groove of the cookie decorating thing.  I think the boys are too.  Funny thing, I had just made cookies for my nephew's welcome home and I made two batches.  So when I made the sugar cookies two days later I had it in my mind that I needed to make two.  Well, we had about twice as many cookies as we needed, so I bagged them up to be decorated another time.  I'm not sure when that will be, though, since Halloween is over now.

Anyway, it went well and I even found some cool Halloween sprinkles to use.

 Brigham did so well.  Usually he just makes one(or rather, I make it for him) and then eats it.  But he did two this time and he even told me exactly how he wanted it.  I asked him what cookie shape he wanted and he told me.  I asked him what color of frosting he wanted and he told me.  I asked him what kind of sprinkles he wanted and he told me.  Usually when I give him choices he tends to not answer right away, but this time he got right to it.  The sprinkles were particularly impressive since I didn't tell him the choices.  I didn't know how to describe them so I didn't say anything and I expected him to point.  He surprised me by coming up with his own description!  He's really getting better.  I'm so excited for his new school class.

 I made Jonathan decorate a few before he chose which one to eat.  I think that might have been a big motivator for him.

 Nathaniel kept dropping the frosting knife on the floor.  I think next time I will use plastic knives.  I think they'll stay in the bowl better.

There he is!

 Jaaromy always takes his cookie decorating very seriously.

Jaaromy's cookies are on the left, mine are on the right.  Another fun thing I found was candy eyeballs.  I loved them!


I love how I can see the full moon through our kitchen window.  This is often the case, but unfortunately, it also means the sun is often shining through that window right in my face.  I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

Pumpkin Day

The day finally came to carve/paint our pumpkins.  Once again, I was the only one who carved.  I really thought I had won over Nathaniel last year, but he decided to paint.  Either way, it's a lot of fun.  My carving takes longer but this year the pumpkins were soft and it didn't take as long for me to finish.

 I didn't think to get the camera out until we were almost done.  I had to help Brigham quite a bit.  For some reason he doesn't like to color anymore, and that extends to painting too unfortunately.  Jaaromy was nice enough to take pictures for me.  Hmm, I think I understand why it takes me so long to finish my pumpkin.

 In the past, Jonathan didn't seem to have the patience to really paint.  This year I think he did a great job.

 I didn't get a picture of Jaaromy working on his pumpkin, so here's an exclusive look at his awesome work.

 Here I am, finally getting started.

 Nathaniel did a great job too.  Maybe I can win him over next year.

 I think they look great.  I like how they're both looking to the right, towards the boys' pumpkins.

Good work boys!