I'm Back!

Okay, so somehow I can't manage to find a half hour in my days to sit down and blog. What is the deal here? The deal is that I am caught up on my laundry! Could it be because I haven't been blogging? I will choose to reject that theory.

We went to St. George during the fall break last week. The Greens came with us (our annual trip, 7 years running!) and we stayed in Greg's parent's house down there. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) We had a blast. We kept joking that this was the trip where we pretend we are active families.

We got down there on Wednesday night. After a big Turner breakfast Thursday morning, we loaded up the bikes and headed to Zion's National Park. I was expecting to go on some flat little trails with the kids. You can imagine my surprise when the flat little trail ended and we began to climb the main road up into the canyon! It was a great (14 mile!) bike ride and tested my quads for sure. Heidi, Matt, Greg, and I all agreed that our kids did fantastic. They were so awesome going up the hills. At one point Aaron had totally given up. We had one more big climb to do. We were all stopped getting a drink and I looked up and there was Aaron, halfway up the road. I think he'd just decided that it was going to be hard and he wanted to get it over with as fast has he could! Heidi's daughter, Lauren, found her hidden reserves of energy when Heidi told her that fairies lived in the forest. From then on, Lauren was so busy looking for fairies that she forgot about the tough bike ride. Kate and Bradley just powered through. The little ones had the best ride of all - in trailers behind the dads' bikes. Here are some photos of our ride.
Since we were trying to be active families for this trip, the next day we went boating. Heidi's brother Dave was in St. George with his boat. We went to Sand Hollow reservoir and spent the day there. I have to admit I wasn't too excited when we got there because the beach was kind of barren and there were a lot of gnats. Happily, the gnats went away and the beach sand was PERFECT for the kids to make all sorts of castles. That red sand clumped up easily to form the all important dribble ball bombs that the boys made all day. David's boat is different from any I've water skied behind. The prop is underneath the boat in the center, so the wake is much closer to the boat. Because of this you can surf behind the boat! Maybe I'm just behind on the times, but this was my first time doing this. It was so fun! Once I caught my breath (it was cold water!) and figured out how to get up on the board (thanks to Matt coming out in the cold water and giving me a lesson) I had a blast! I am proud to say that I was able to surf longer than Greg. I have to mention this because he kicks my butt at anything athletic, but I felt like the winner of the day! Of course, everyone else - David, his wife Cindy, Matt, and Heidi - were far better than me, but hey, they have a bit more experience. This was such a fun time. I can't wait until Matt breaks down and buys a boat. I promised him I would always bring treats if he lets us come with. Hey, I'd even bake a bundt!These are photos of some different hikes we went on. The red rock photos are taken at Pioneer park in St. George. We go there every time we are down there. The kids never get tired of climbing the rocks. The other photos are near Zions. Greg drove us all around to see where a flash flood had taken everything out. The highlight for the kids was catching frogs there. Aaron was baffled by my refusal to take the frogs home with us.
If you are still reading this, you must be related to me or something, because this is a boatload of pictures! These next pictures are in Zions. This was one of my favorite parts of our trip. We pulled over where there was a little canyon. There was a tunnel that went under the road. Then we explored this little canyon. A couple people were walking out as we got there, but other than that, we had the whole place to ourselves. It was so fun to just climb and play with the kids. They loved running up the sloped wall to see how high they could get.

Last but not least, we detoured over to Bryce Canyon on our way home. This added a couple hours onto our trip, but it was totally worth it! In fact, Greg and I were wishing we had our camping gear so we could camp that night there. If you are a Utahn and have never been to Bryce Canyon, you have to go! The pictures don't come close to doing it justice. All of the rock formations look like God was making dribble sandcastles for fun. You come upon the overlooks and it takes your breath away. It is simply spectacular. This detour put Bryce on the top of our list of camping trips to do next summer.

So, now you know the biggest reason I have been blog absent. I have more to say, but really, let's be frank. You've heard enough and seen way to many pictures for me to go on. See ya tomorrow!