We got to kick our warm weather season off by heading down to St George! I was so excited to go back, and couldn't wait to hit the pool. But as we drove down the snow started and then came down harder and harder. We saw some slide-offs and then saw a truck flipped on it's side! It was a very white knuckle drive and unfortunately not much warmer when we got there. We got settled, had dinner and took turns taking Braelyn up and down the elevator, which she loved! I was nervous but how the girls would sleep but when bedtime came they both settled down quickly and slept all night. The next morning I grabbed Berkley when she got up and we snuck down to breakfast so the others could sleep in a little. They joined us an hour later and Braelyn loved choosing anything she wanted to eat and making her own waffles. After we finished eating we headed out for a quick walk to get the wiggles out before conference (and also to get me a Dr. Pepper from the gas station on the corner. We settled in for the morning session, and even got to get a workout in on the elliptical while I watched. It was still too cold for swimming so we went out for lunch, and I got to drive past the college campus and some of the places I used to live and work. It was a lot of fun to see things again, and I was hoping to see a few more, but in between sessions it was hard to fit a lot in. After the afternoon session Braelyn was insistent on swimming so we jumped in, but it was so cold we ended up just playing in the hot tub until priesthood. The next day the sun was finally out and the temperature was rising! We had a hard time keep Braelyn entertained while we watched so we pulled out the finger-paints. I thought it would be less stressful to do in the hotel because it wasn't my carpet, and we had a blast making fun pictures. Braelyn also had her conference packet to work on, and she loved coloring the ties the same color as the speaker, and she liked seeing if they had glasses or were bald. We were so excited that after lunch we went straight to the pool, and we couldn't drag ourselves and the kids out so we were grateful for the DVR to watch the Sunday afternoon session. We watched the country music awards and ate microwave dinners in our room that night. We had one more day so we headed out for one more dip in the pool, then packed up our bags. We weren't ready to head home just yet, so we stopped at the temple, spent a few hours cruising the outlets, then got a pizza and ate at the park, before we loaded up for the very, very long drive home!
The girls and I got invited to tag along with my parents and youngest brother Taylor for spring break this year. We got a big motor home and headed out Friday afternoon. We hit a huge traffic jam in Orem and it took us about 2 hours to drive what usually takes about 40. We were a little behind schedule so we had to drive a little later than we had planned. Both the girls fell asleep before we stopped, and when we finally found a vacant parking lot to stop at Berkley woke right up. We got her back to sleep and Braelyn fell out of her bed, started crying and woke Berkley up. It was after 1:00 am before everyone got settled, and nobody was well rested the next morning. There were a lot of malfunctions with the motor home, like lights not working and fuses shorting out, but luckily my Dad is good at fixing anything, so after a stop at the Wal-mart in Page everything seemed to be going smoother. The goal for our first real day was the Grand Canyon. We stopped at this little viewpoint run by an Indian tribe. It was freezing and I hadn't brought coats but the view was amazing. I couldn't believe how steep the walls were. I was so nervous to get close to the guardrail! We stayed until our fingers were frozen and then drove into the actual park. We made another quick stop and it was even more beautiful. There were some clouds moving out of the canyon and some mist settling in. It was so majestic, I didn't think it would be that neat, but now I would really recommend seeing it at least once in your life. There were a lot of tourists, and many of them had climbed out over the guardrails, and onto the ledges and points, and it was disappointing to see their disregard for the boundaries that were set-up to preserve the area. We moved on to where we were going to meet the shuttle and as we were driving up, it started snowing. We wanted to try and wait it out, so the girls took a nap and the boys decided to hike around. They came back an hour later and said the entire canyon was fogged over, you could barely see in front of you. While we were deciding what to do it started hailing! They were huge and pelting down, and we didn't want to be stuck up at the top in a snowstorm in a 35 ft motor home so we had to head out. It was disappointing to miss but at least we caught a glimpse. We were definitely ready to head for warmer weather at that point.
