We did a little shopping while in St. George. Not as much as usual. But, the kids needed shoes. We found Brandon some new shoes, but he loved these 'van-type' shoes so much he asked me to take a picture of them before I threw them away! A moment of silence, please....
So, Thursday morning, I took Mike to the airport early so he could go back home to work. We hadn't been to the new airport yet and it is waaayy out there! The road basically ends and you have to go to the airport. The airport itself is really nice. Way to go, St. George!
After everyone else got up and going, we decided to head to Spencer & Tyra's pool again because the bad weather was going to roll in that afternoon. We got everyone ready, headed over there and couldn't find the Joneses. Just as we were giving up and starting to leave, they pulled up in a Ranger they had rented to go 4-wheeling behind our place. Glad that the prep wasn't wasted, we spent a little time at the pool and left when the clouds and the wind picked up.
Jensens set off shopping and the kids and I went to visit Bud & Kay! We love Bud & Kay and it was a great visit. We found out that they are temple workers in the baptistry and were working on Saturday. The Jensens had suggested we go to the Temple while in St. George and so Mike & I had packed clothes to do that. Since Mike was home, I asked him to bring Amanda's baptism temple recommend back with him. More on this later.....
We met the Jensens at the movie 'Hop' after visiting the Flowers. We were about 10 minutes late, but it wasn't hard to catch up and the kids loved it. After the show, we ran into the Woods again and then Hendricks! Amanda then went to hang out for the night with Brynna Jones. They get to play/hang usually a couple of times in the summer and they have a good time. It was fun for Amanda to have some girls her age there.
Just before the movie, I got a phone call from Mike. He was home and we had a problem! The irrigation water was turned on that day and we had spouts opened in the yard. Someone had turned off our front spout, but there was one on in the back and it had filled 3 window wells and broken one window; spilling that lovely water into our basement!
It took Mike about 2 hours to get the flow of water to stop coming in the house. Luckily, we have a wet/dry vac and a portable sump-type pump or this would have been even worse. Also, the blessing of not having the basement finished yet! The water did reach the bottom of the stairs and soaked that carpet and it did get the 'rug' we have laid out for the kids to play on wet as well as some toys, but overall, the damage was minimal. It took Mike about another 3 hours to get the mess cleaned up, but thank goodness he came home to work for a couple of days! If not, the water would have been filling our house for 4 days straight!
Mike spent most of Friday morning trying to get the window replaced before he got on a plane to come back to St. George. After a new $205 window, he was ready to go to work for a bit and then head south!!
Friday, we took the kids to the Washington County rec center. We haven't been to this pool before, but it was awesome! The kids loved it! We ran into more neighbors, the Norton's kids with their grandparents, Clingers and the Foukas'. When it was time to go, Darin took the boys into get changed and then to the rock climbing wall! Elise said they have some pictures for me, but Brandon made it to the top at least once and almost another time. He was really excited! That is a fun place and I'm sure we'll visit again.
I took the kids with me to pick up Mike. His plane was a little late, but we were glad to have him back! Elise & Darin got the kids McD's and then we all headed out to sushi! We tried a new place, Osaka. We were laughing because as we walked in, you could see many empty tables, but the wait was 10 minutes. After we came in, about 5 more people came in and when the girl told them the wait was close to 30 minutes, they left! Interesting way to run a restaurant, but we decided to try it. It was so good! We stayed for a long time. You could tell we all needed some parent alone time. We love the kids, but to have this little break was fun fun. Jensens are our sushi friends and we always have a good time when we are with them!
Saturday morning, Darin & Elise rode their bikes in the Tour de St. George. It was freezing! Part of the race was closed because of SNOW! Mike acted as their support; dropping them off and picking them up.
Mike & I then took Amand shopping to get a dress for the temple. She was too tired and it was quite an adventure, but she walked out with two darling dresses and Mike found a white shirt for the temple, plus another dress shirt. As we were walking through the mall, we saw a kiosk with Steph Read's picture on it ( a friend from high school). I was telling Mike that I'd heard Deborah Schone and her hubby now had this company....Life Strength or something like that. Those ion bracelets that are supposed to improve your health. I guess Steph has MS. She is a trooper! As we walked by, we saw Deborah! So, we chatted for awhile and met her daughter who was working the kiosk. We both like Deborah a lot and it was fun to catch up.
Next stop: The Temple! What a beautiful building! It was raining like crazy and cold! We went to the baptistry and it was PACKED! Aunt Kay kind of sneaked us in. Darin & Elise had to go to sealings instead. We had to wait behind a big group of kids, but eventually it was Amanda's turn. This was her first time and her Dad got to be the baptizer (is that a word). Aunt Kay and I went right up to the font to watch (thanks to a cute sister worker who told us to) and Uncle Bud was the guy in charge of the names. He accidently put 'Sister Gibson' as the one being proxy and when Mike automatically corrected it during his first baptism, Uncle Bud laughed and said, 'Nice catch, Mike!' (My maiden name is Gibson) It was a funny moment. Bud kept asking if they wanted to do '5 more names?' and asked if Mike wanted to get dunked, but Kay said there was a young girl that had been waiting for 2 hours for her baptism and we felt like she needed to have her turn.
It was so fun to be in the temple with them. Aunt Kay even showed us how a picture of Christ at the top of some stairs 'moves' as you walk up and down the stairs. :) Just a little trivia!
We found the Jensens and went back home, and Bud & Kay came over after their shift for a visit. (I have no idea why this picture posted like this. It wasn't taken this way....any ideas?)
We fed the kids, played with the neighbor kid's new chicks
and then went to Don Pedros for another parents night out! In all the years we have been coming to St. Gorgeous, we haven't ever eaten there even though it's 2 minutes from the house (and they deliver!). It was GOOD Mexican food and very friendly people, especially since we showed up a half hour or less before closing time.
Sunday was a slow day. We cleaned up the house, did the laundry, watched the Masters, said good-bye to the Jensens, took a little nap, had some In-and-Out for lunch and then hit the road about 4:30pm. To our surprise, no one had to stop for a potty break, so we drove straight home! We can do it on one tank of gas just barely.....So, another wonderful trip to St. George! We love it there and are soooooo grateful to Jim & Renae for sharing their vacation home with us! I wish we could go back today!
No eating PEEPS! in the car again this year!
Lots of treats and new pjs for summer (it would be nice to get a little warm weather!)
Wow! Justin Bieber nail polish! Ninja Zhu Zhu pets! Thank you Easter Bunny!
Our cute boys! Love that Brandon's shirt is already untucked before we even got to church! They look so handsome in their matching ties!
The loves of my life!
Ok, there is a great picture! And the sun was out!
Brandon giving the sisters squishy hugs!
We love our kids!
Sydney with Halli Davis checking every last spot for eggs!
Our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt has, for the past few years, been freezing! April is turning out to be a really wet, snowy month.
Every year it seems we are doing our coloring late at night! I hate that it has become such an afterthought...something that we can't quite get to, instead of building the anticipation slowly.
I couldn't get a good shot of Amanda during her speaking parts, but she was amazing! We are so proud of you, Amanda!
Sydney playing 'buried alive'
Mike and Darin cooking up some mean hot dogs!
Cute smile from Sydney
The kids started hiking. We usually hike the other side of this rock and when I hiked up, I was surprised how steep it was. The kids, however, were up and down this thing all during lunch.
Amanda and Brandon
Then, we hiked up to the Pioneer Names. The top of this is really, really steep. Darin got up there with all the kids and then almost all of them were scared coming down! Mike had a HUGE blister on his foot, so he had waited in the truck, but when he saw that Darin was trying to get all those kids down, he came to see if he could help!
Our human ladder worked....
and everyone got down safe and sound!
Our cute kiddos!
Silly faces...
B climbing another rock with Nash
We ran into the Woods family, so a group picture was in order. l to r: Woods kids, Sydney, Justin, Branson Wood, Amanda, Brandon, Nash, Maya, Audrey, Chase
Crazy pose