St. George, Utah

We spent the last couple days in St. George so Craig could attend a Utah Builder's Conference. We actually stayed in Hurricane (20 minute drive north of St. George) which is just outside the entrance to Zion National Park. St. George will always have a place in my heart for these three reasons.
1. My parents were married in the St. George Temple

2. I spent my family summer vacations in St. George. It was only a 6 hour drive from where we grew up in CA so we'd stay there a couple days and then head to Orem to visit relatives. Some years we'd just stay in St. George for the week and then head home nicely tanned from spending all day at the hotel pool.

3. The St. George Temple is my favorite of all temples. Maybe because I visited it every year as a child but it is such a bright white building painted against the red rocks in the background that you can't help look at it in awe of its beauty.

Funny that after many years (too many!!) that I still could find my way around. We arrived Thursday afternoon and dropped Craig off at the Dixie Center for registration. I found an elementary school down the street with a playground so the kids could play. We ate dinner then headed back to the hotel to take the kids swimming in the indoor pool. Briana could care less about getting wet and just sat in the floatie we brought with us. Brandon on the other hand could not get enough splashing around the pool and hated the fact that we had to hold onto him while in the water. Then of course when it was time to get out, he threw a HUGE FIT!!

Friday Craig was at his conference all day so I took the kids for a drive out to Snow Canyon State Park - a place I loved to go to as a kid. I got the kids out of the car a couple times to do some short easy trails and they loved kicking around the red sand and picking up rocks.

Here is Briana petting a rock saying "cute" over and over treating it like she does her stuffed animals.

As I was looking up at the rocks, I saw two people climbing up the cliff. You can hardly make them out but they look like little specks in the middle/bottom of the picture. It gives you perspective just how massive this cliff is.

We stopped at a picnic area to have a snack and take in the scenery.

The rest of our day went something like this: lunch, naps, parks, scenic drive, pick up Craig, dinner, pool, bedtime.

Saturday we checked out of the hotel but before heading home we went to the temple to walk around the grounds. It could not have been a better day without a cloud in the sky. Brandon was not being a team player and pretty much cried the whole time we were there so that is why he is missing in most of the pictures.