St. George

Ahhh, St. George. We love St. George. I used to go every year growing up because my dad had a work conference down there. I remember so looking forward to each trip - staying at the Holiday Inn and swimming at their indoor/outdoor pool. It was the best trip EVER as a kid. Well, now we get to go to St. George every year because Dave has a work conference down there that he can attend every year. We had so much fun down there this past weekend, so the every year thing is looking pretty nice!

We left on Saturday morning and got there around 4ish. Lydia was a trooper in the car! She ate some snacks, read about a zillion books, told us all kinds of stories, and even took a little nap. She hardly even cried. Seriously, she was great. We were pretty hungry when we first got there since we didn't stop anywhere for lunch. We needed gas and knew there was a Costco on the way into town, so we decided that we would go get a slice of pizza to share to tide us over until dinner. Well, in the Costco parking lot was the Waffle Love truck. I had never had one before, so we decided to share a waffle instead of a piece of pizza. I'm so glad we did. It was the best waffle I've ever had in my life. Really. I wish they weren't so expensive, but I think every time I see the truck I'm going to have to stop now that I know what they taste like. Imagine the tastiest waffle in the world and you've got Waffle Love. Have I mentioned that their waffles are really good?? Haha. We got a waffle covered with nutella, then topped with strawberries and whipped cream. YUM!

We went and checked into our hotel, dropped all of our stuff off, and then went back to explore the town a bit, scope out all the things we wanted to do, and ate dinner at the Olive Garden. We had a gift card there, and we had just recently seen a commercial for a special they had that was buy one meal, take one home. So we thought that would be perfect for us - we could take a meal home to our hotel room to heat up on Sunday, the next day, so we wouldn't have to go out that day. BUT - we missed that special by 2 days. We were bummed, but the food was still as tasty as ever. :) After dinner, we went to walk around the St. George temple and took a few pictures. Lydia was having the time of her life not being buckled in anywhere, and being able to run around like a crazy woman. It was a hopeless battle trying to keep her hair nice and tidy - she kept ripping out everything I put in. So she looked like a complete ragamuffin. But a cute ragamuffin. 

She kept trying to climb under this fence to get into the pool. She didn't understand that there was no possible way her body would ever fit underneath the fence. She just kept sticking her legs under there and was getting so frustrated that the rest of her body wouldn't fit. Hahaha. 

After the temple, we drove to a look out point that showed us a nice view of the whole city. It was fun to see everything from so high up. It was pretty windy, which Lydia didn't love, so we didn't last too long here.

Daddy kisses. 

Doesn't her hair crack you up??? It was really windy and she looks CRAZY.

The next day was Sunday, and we got to sleep in! Yahoo! Lydia slept in until 8:15, which was crazy for her. We had a relaxing morning in the hotel room getting ready for church. We had found a church that was really close to our hotel, and that started at 11, which is the best time for Lydia right now. When we got there, we found out that it was an old folks ward. Like, imagine a singles ward, but a ward for old folks. Seriously. Only old people attended it. It was crazy. I ran into some of our neighbors from our old house in Bountiful that attended that ward. It was fun to see them. But guess who was visiting the ward?? ELDER HOLLAND! My favorite!! He was sitting just 2 rows in front of us, attending with his wife. It was so fun to see him there. I wanted to run up and talk to him after the meeting was over, but Lydia ran out of the sacrament meeting room and was making her way outside into the parking lot. By the time I grabbed her and ran back in to find him, he was gone. I was really bummed about not getting to talk to him, but it was still fun to see him there.

After church we went back to our hotel to put Lydia down for a nap. When she woke up, we went to Snow Canyon National Park - named for Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, some of the pioneer families of St. George. There were lots of hiking trails, and we got to go on two of them. One was called Hidden Pinyon, and it was beautiful! We had to hike through a bunch of sand, which was hot and sometimes hard to walk on, but it was fun to be out in nature with my little family enjoying some quality time together. Lydia loved being in the backpack, and she actually wore her sunglasses for most of the time! Usually she just rips them off. 

My two favorite hiking buddies.

The other hike was called Pioneer Names. It was really more of a walk, but it was fun to see. There were pioneer names written on the rocks in axle grease. It was kind of a steep, treacherous climb to the actual names, so only Dave made it up there. Somebody had to take his picture though, right? 

We were all pretty dirty that night, so after a quick dinner at Red Robin (YUM!) we all went back to take a shower before hopping into bed. Lydia LOVED laying on the pillows of the bed with her little bum in the air. We couldn't stop laughing at how funny she looked.

What is cuter than a baby bum?? Not much!

The next morning, Dave didn't need to be at his conference until the afternoon. So we slept in again (YAY!), took turns exercising, and then went out to breakfast at the Bear Paw cafe. They had some pretty yummy french toast that of course Lydia refused to take a bite of. She just ate string cheese. She is such a funny eater. We have made some progress, but she is still kinda bad.

After breakfast we went to the splash pad in the center of town. We weren't sure how Lydia was going to like the water. She was pretty timid about getting in at first, but once she was in there was a meltdown when we had to go.

We took Lydia back for a nap, and then Dave had to go to his conference. I got some good reading in while she was sleeping, and when she woke up we went swimming at the pool. I didn't have anyone to take pictures for me while we were there, so I don't have any. But she LOVED it so much. The water was kind of cold, but she kept wanting to get out and jump to me. I think we are going to have fun at grandma's pool this summer!

When Dave got back, we went to dinner at Applebee's. This was my favorite place we ate at. I tried their Fiesta Lime Chicken for the first time and holy smokes. It is delicious!! I liked my plate clean, which is pretty surprising for me. I'm not usually a big eater, but I ate every last bite on my plate. I think Dave was sad about that, because he usually gets to eat whatever I don't finish. Haha. Sorry Dave! They also had a yummy new dessert, churro s'mores. Two of my favorite treats mixed into one!? We had to try it! And they were as delicious as they sound. Yum!!

Mmmmmm. Churro S'mores. 

After dinner, we went to Dave's mission president's house. He lives in St. George, and so we got to go spend the evening with him and his wife. Dave really loves and respects his president, and has always had a good relationship with him. He drove all the way up to be at our sealing, and it was so neat to have him there. Since my brother Jeff served a mission with Dave, I have heard lots of stories about President Davies. He is the funniest, coolest guy, and it was so fun to see them for awhile. 

I'm so bummed that I didn't even think to take a picture with them while we were there. But here they are at our wedding. 

 The next day Dave had to be at his conference early, so Lydia and I spent the morning shopping and playing at the park. We got some cute new clothes for her and some new shoes for me. Dave gave us permission to buy a few things, so it was fun not feeling guilty about buying things for us. It was a fun morning. When Dave got home from his conference, we all went swimming together. Lydia wasn't feeling too great though. She is right in the middle of some pretty bad teething, and so she was pretty whiny and cranky. She didn't love swimming this day, which was a bummer because that's the only time she got to swim with Dave. We went to get some pizza for dinner that night, and we were going to take it up to this awesome looking garden that overlooks the city. The garden was closed though, so we had to go find another park. It was a definite second to the first park, but it was still pretty. We enjoyed our pizza, went to get some ice cream with some gift cards from cold stone, and called it a night.

Dave found this super creepy civil-war era prosthetic leg in an antique shop while we were waiting for our pizza to cook. He was like a giddy little school boy and was begging me to take his picture. I said that for the record, I thought it was the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time. He didn't care. He was so excited.

I'm sad that I didn't get a video of this earlier in the week. Every time we listen to this song by One Direction, she sings along. She only sang along for the first two parts of this video because she was sick. But earlier, she was singing along to the whole song.

The next day was our last one there. Dave had his conference early in the morning, so Lydia and I were in charge of packing up the room and loading the car. With a sick cranky baby, it was an almost impossible task. Somehow I got it all done though, and we were only 20 minutes past check out time. I felt like that was a big accomplishment!

This is how Lydia spent a lot of the morning. Just laying on the floor. I felt so bad for her. It is so unlike her to just be so lethargic. 

My sick little ragamuffin.

Luckily, someone had mentioned to us that there was a great children's museum downtown that was definitely worth checking out. It gave us something to do during the morning while we had to be checked out of our hotel, but Dave wasn't ready to drive home yet. The children's museum was a total success! Lydia loved it, and kind of forgot for awhile that she didn't feel too hot. She was never really animated about any of the exhibits, but she still liked playing in them and seeing everything there was to see. It was a huge relief for me to have something that she liked so much to occupy our time in the morning.

The grocery store section was her favorite. She loved loading as many things into her cart as she could. She actually got mad when there were too many things in her cart and they were spilling onto the floor. She just wanted to keep piling them in. That's my little unloader for you. 

This is how I knew it was time to go. She started melting down about the silliest things. She didn't want to climb down the steps on her own, something she LOVES to do at home.

After the museum, we went and picked up Dave and then headed home. She was pretty good for the ride home too. She didn't take too long of a nap, which she desperately needed, but she was still pretty good. We had a great time in St. George and are excited that we can make it an every year thing!