For the kids Spring Break this year we had some of our awesome friends the Ashby’s invite us to join them on their first family vacation EVER! We were a little surprised to learn they hadn’t taken a family vacation, but once we remembered Nicholes health struggles over the years – it became very understandable. We were especially excited when we heard the Jurgens were coming along too!
Nichole and Gerald ended up finding an awesome place for us to stay in a little town called Washington, which was just 5 minutes from St. George. And oh MY was this place awesome! It had like 3 HUGE master bedrooms for the adults to sleep in (most even had their own massive master bathroom and closet) and then they had a fun kids room as well complete with 2 sets of bunk beds and tons of toys! It was probably one of the nicest and fanciest places we’ve ever stayed. And to top it all off, it even had its own hot tub! Wowsee wow wow! We loved the place and had so much fun spending 3 glorious nights together!
We ended up driving down to Southern Utah on conference Sunday and loved listening to the afternoon session of conference as we drove. We also had fun keeping track of the Jurgens and Ashby’s via the “find your friends” app since we had all left within 10 minutes of each other. The race was on! We were even set to win the race and be the first to the condo (even though we’d left last) but we saw that Adam’s Mom and Dad were actually only 5 minutes from us in St. George (coming home from their trip to California) so we decided to make a quick stop at the In and Out burger where they were eating lunch to say hi to them. It was Smurfs 80th birthday afterall and we couldn’t pass up the chance to wish him a Happy day in person.
Then it was back to Washington to see our friends. We ended up having red and white pasta, salad, grilled veggies, and garlic bread for dinner, and then eat our weight in leftover Easter candy that night! ha ha. I had planned to do hot cookies and ice cream, but for some reason none of us were up for more sugar! đ
Then on Monday we decided to head out to St. George to spend a day at Snow Canyon. Adam and I love this place and always enjoy any chance we get to come to this amazing place. The kids also had a blast being able to play in the sand, climb all the rocks, and be out in nature! We loved that we had 12 kids between the 3 couples! I don’t think anyone can accuse us of not multiplying and replenishing the earth! đ
Adam bless his heart was so awesome and stayed back to watch Jamis who was sleeping in the car. He also got a work call just as we pulled up that he needed to take, so it worked out. We missed him though.
Cute Henry!
Gerald and baby Sarah who is just a few months older than Jamis.
Missy rescuing Henry who was able to climb up some big boulders, but got nervous coming down!
Mom’s are the best!
And here was the big attraction! Pioneer names written by some of the first settlers to the St. George area. These names were all written in the late 1800’s!
We saw some pretty amazing views while we hiked!
The kids all loved playing together and climbing on top of big boulders.
These next few pictures are ones Missy took. Look how hight Brans and Sam got!
I have to say that Nichole was SUCH a trooper this whole trip! She gets some pretty serious leg pains and has to be really careful when hiking, but she attempted most of the hikes anyway and did a great job! It was awesome to be able have her along with us!
Only 10 boys between us and two girls!
It was an awesome first hike up Snow Canyon.