Come to Zion Come to Zion

Like the wild and crazy people we are, we went on holiday to St.George, Utah for some rest, relaxation, and  red dirt.

We rented a gorgeous condo with a fabulous pool. I love this picture of B and S, mostly because I think B looks so grown up. Just.stop.it.

It was a simple but fun vacay. I took way too many pictures and now it's hard to decide which are blog-worthy. I think my family is so cute I want to post them ALL!

Really there are two types of photos---the ones that tell what you did, and the ones that you just love mostly because you love the people in them so much. So first things first.....here's what we did:

Our first day in St.George we drove to Zion. It poured rain and we loved every minute of it. The temperatures were cool and despite the red mud, we managed to time our hikes just right in between showers. Above, we spent an extra long time waiting under the ledge at Water-in-the-Rock, waiting for the rain to stop. It allowed for lots of picture taking moments:

This is Rich bringing-down-the-hammer just moments after Garrett almost plunges to his death over the side of the cliff. Can't you almost here R's lecture????

Photographing Zion in the rain was really beautiful. The lighting was perfecto!

And don't forget the critters. The kids are obsessed with photographing bugs in macro mode.

Day 2 of our weekend-away found us in Snow Canyon, a favorite place of ours:

Pioneer Names

Non-Pioneer Faces

Jenny's Canyon

Our trip also included lots of swimming in the awesome pool, a splash park and a really hot park (it was 106 on Saturday), and lots of sleeping in, watching movies, and eating yummy food together. We went to a Sacrament meeting down there and marveled at how you can go any where in the world and feel at home in an LDS chapel. 

Rich and I also took an off-road excursion. We ditched the kids at the condo (they were in the movie-zone and probably didn't realize we were gone) and went and explored the old town of Leeds, a few miles north of St. George. Rich loves to have the 'Burban in 4WD and I love love love exploring back roads, pioneer cemeteries, ghost towns, etc. We make a good team.

The "tithing office" in :Leeds and a gravestone from one of the cemeteries nearby.

Now for the second type of pictures, my faves.......

King-of-the-world!

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th with a small BBQ and pool party at grandma and grandpa's. I'd like to say all the cousins, aunts and uncles came over but alas, it was just the 8 of us. Some day I might place an ad on KSL to see if there are any cousins or uncles or other myriad relatives available for rent. Probably not.

But even with just us, we had a great time.

There was a cannonball contest,

lots of cute pictures,

some serious concentration and assembly-instruction reading,

and two quarrelsome-brothers even  managed to play a little catch.

This was my favorite pic, but these others were also nice:

We played a little Phase 10 and gin, ate some homemade strawberry ice cream, and watched the hills burn up in Alpine. Right after this

we headed over to Pleasant Grove Junior High for an AMAZING fire works show, at which I chose not to take any pictures. (Really, do we need to photograph fireworks?) 

It was a simple, happy 4th of July. 

Float

Just wanted to give a big shout-out (although belatedly) to our wonderful friends and neighbors who were the masterminds behind our ward's float this year. Congratulations on a job well done, and glad it was you not me!!!