St. George Vacation

We decided to start the summer off right with a trip to St. George, Utah! Luke had 5 days between the end of the school year and the starting of his summer class so we took advantage of it. All 4th graders get a pass that gets you in to all National Parks for free so we wanted to make the most of it so our first stop was Kolob Canyon which is part of Zions National Park.

It was a really awesome view!

  We tried a short hike but didn't make it all the way. Poor Livvy had a fever and wasn't feeling well and Gabrie was worried because we saw a sign that said Beware of Mountain Lions.

 The next morning we tried another hike which went about as good as the first! Livvy still wasn't feeling well and was grumpy, Gabrie was worried about scorpions and that we weren't supposed to be on the particular trail that we chose (which we technically weren't) and it was hot and sandy so we turned back.

We were enjoying Livvy's grumpiness and had to take some pictures to really remember it! We are mean parents.

Next we tried "Pioneer Park", we thought it was a park but turned out to be a bunch of red rock formations that we climbed around. We were beginning to think that our family wasn't cut out for outdoors vacations but we had a lot of fun here. We were warned about a rattlesnake but we just stayed clear of the area it was spotted.

After stopping for Icee's we went to the Town Square where there was a carousel and Children's Museum.

Carousel

Liam and Livvy

 Mommy and Dash

 Gabriella

 Everyone playing their "air guitars" in front of a giant guitar sculpture.

The Children's Museum was awesome, there were so many fun rooms we stayed there for a couple hours and had a lot of fun!

They dressed up and did a performance

Dinosaur Room

After lunch at McDonalds we spent the afternoon swimming at our hotel's indoor pool. We did the outdoor pool the night before.

Gabrie and Luke's handstand competition 

Olivia doing her tricks...

 Fuzzy picture but cool trick!

Dashy and Liam did a good job swimming around on their own with their life jackets on.

After showers and a rest in the hotel we went to the Pizza Factory for dinner.

The next day we went to Thunder Junction - a really fun play ground with a train and river and zip line (among other cool things) to play on. It was about 10 minutes from our hotel and once we got there and were getting out of the van we realized Dash had gotten in the car without putting shoes on first! It was way too hot for him to play without shoes so Daddy took him back to the hotel while the rest of us stayed and played. Oh that Dashy! I wish I could say that was the only time that has happened but it is not.

On the train

Olivia and Liam

Dash, Daddy, Gabrie and Mommy

St.George Temple and Visitor Center

Liam's only request to was to ride the carousel again so we did.

Then we met Grandma and Grandpa Williams who joined us for a tour of Brigham Young's house. We split off and went and saw "Wonder Woman"(it was too hot to be outside) then met back up after for dinner at Denny's. We finished up with some night swimming in the outdoor pool.

The next day we caravanned over to Cedar Breaks on our way to Panguitch.

We stopped at a couple of really cool overlooks.

  Luke ---

 Cedar Breaks was really awesome to see and it was a much cooler temperature than St. George which felt great!

Dash and Liam washing their rocks.

 Panguitch

I really wanted my kids to see Panguitch with Grandma so she could show it to them and tell them about where she grew up. We went to see Aunt Barbara (Grandma Williams sister) and then to Uncle Lyle's (Grandma's brother, but he wasn't in town) house which used to be Grandma Talbot's house where they all grew up.

We stopped to eat at Henry's Drive In, where I remember eating when I came to visit. 

Then we got a personal tour of the Daughter's of the Utah Pioneers Muesum by Aunt Barbara who is the President of the Panguitch Chapter. Gabrie was in heaven, she loved every minute of it! It was cool to see it all because a lot of the stuff in the museum had belonged to our ancestors.

Our last stop before heading home was to the cemetary to Grandma Talbot and Grandpa Talbots graves.

Then we headed home and Grandma and Grandpa continued their trip through Southern Utah. It was a really fun trip and a great way to start the summer!