Major Catching Up...St. George Birthday Weekend

Todd surprised me on Thursday by staying home from work...but I didn't know he was at home. He got dressed in his work clothes, and even open and closed the front door after we had said family prayer with the kids upstairs. I got the kids ready and they had breakfast. Then Todd sent me a text saying to have Savannah go down to the storage room for a birthday surprise for me. She came back up and handed me a paper and said, "Daddy said he'll be up in a minute." Wait, what? Daddy is downstairs? I looked at the paper...two tickets to Tuacahn that night! I ran downstairs and he was just on his way to sneak upstairs. (Apparently, he had told Savannah not to tell me that he was downstairs). I was so excited! We hurried to do our grocery shopping, packing, and laundry. We left just after lunch. Jackie slept on the way to St. George. I was so excited; I had never been to St. George before. That is what I had asked for, but Todd was being so secretive, so I had no idea when we were leaving or what we were doing. We got to my cousins house around dinner time and had a great dinner with them before going to the show. They put the kids to bed! Thanks Jess and Aaron! We saw sister act, which was a really fun show. But my favorite part was just being there! It was an amazing environment, just built right into the red rocks. And when they would turn the lights off, all you could see were millions of stars! It was so fun!

The next day was my birthday. After getting a breakfast smoothie, we headed to Snow Canyon to do some hiking. We went on two amazing hikes and I couldn't believe all the colors. The bright green of the dessert plants, the stark white of the lily flowers (or whatever they were), the deep orange of the rocks and mountains, and the brightest blue sky ever! It was amazing. The first hike took us to this arch, and the kids liked the echo in that canyon. The second hike was through a slot canyon. Later in the day we went on a tour of the Brigham Young Home and to a children's museum. The evening ended with tacos (yum!), ice cream, and cake. We ate way too much food!

On Saturday we went to an early session at the St. George temple. Then we drove to Zion and our cousins came too. We did two hikes there too, and had a blast! The first one overlooked much of the canyon. And the second one was to weeping rock, so the kids loved the water, and it was a nice cool down. That night we made homemade pizza. On Sunday morning we took the kids to the temple visitor's center (after an amazing crepe breakfast!). Then to church and then home. An awesome birthday weekend! Thanks to my sweet companion!