Tales from the Taylors: St. George

Chelsea and I decided to be adventurous and head to St. George to spend the week with my parents. My grandparents bought a second home in St. George several years ago and it has been a great vacation getaway with it being only 4 hours away (5 if you drive slow 3 1/2 if you drive fast, not that I've ever done it that fast right Ginny?) My parents headed down Saturday and Chelsea, Carsten, Variah and I headed down Sunday morning. The longest drive Variah has even been on was the trip to Logan back in October and that one was about 2 hours. So I was interested to see how she would do.

The kiddos loaded into the car ready to go

Within about 1 hour, the kids weren't too happy. Both of them were tired but crying and keeping each other awake. Bless that Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song on my phone! I played it for the kids, they calmed down and went to sleep. Hooray! We stopped in Fillmore for gas and for the kids to eat, then we were on our way. About 45 minutes away from St. George the kids got upset again and wouldn't calm down. I was driving so Chelsea entertained them by reading them books. Here's what it sounded and looked like:

Finally we got to the house! HOORAY!!

Inside there was even a bit of heaven waiting for me...Caffeine free Mt. Dew.

The weather was wonderful the whole week. We were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine, go for walks and eat our meals out on the patio.

I love the red rocks of St. George

With the weather being so nice, Chels and I decided we better get some hats for our little ones to wear outside. I also got some darling shades for Variah.

We drove out to Kayenta to look at a friend's house and to try the Royden Lemonade Supreme from the restaurant Xeteva. It is an all natural lemonade blended with vanilla, coconut and fresh mint. Delish! They had some really cool (and expensive) windmills we looked at for a bit.

THE lemonade

Even Variah loved it :)

I had to include this picture cuz it totally reminded me of the picture of these two at the cabin back in October.

I put strawberries and pears in this mesh thing and Variah LOVED it. You can see the juices all down her tummy.

We also took the kids swimming for their very first time. Variah fell asleep on the way to the pool. She was a bit fussy walking to the pool but she found the strap to her hat and it soothed her to sleep.

She was zonked out!

Our matching toes and flip flops

She was a champ! She didn't cry or anything, just loved being in the water and riding in the lady bug. Carsten had a train

Dustin missed Carsten and Chels, so he drove down for the rest of the week

Swimming with Grandma Laurlie

She would sit on the edge, "jump" off into my arms and we'd "swim" to the other side. Variah would just giggle while we "swam".

My little fish

Tubby Time

We cleaned off the back of the house with the hose, Carsten liked the pressure handle

Haha, I found this plastic frog in a cupboard in the garage, so I hid it like this under the bed in my parent's room. My mom found it and freaked out a little. I was outside so I missed her reaction, but Chels said it was pretty good.

Out on one of our walks

Look at that concentration

Raclette dinner-thanks Aunt Tina for letting us try it out. The top marble slab cooks your food while underneath melts cheese for dipping the food.

Swig run #1

Sprite with Mango puree

(If you haven't been to Swig I highly recommend it. There is a wait, but the drinks are yummy and the snow cones are like the ones you get in Hawaii. And we've heard the sugar cookies are divine.)

Play time with Carsten

Swig run #2

Variah and I usually ended up sleeping in the same bed the whole week we were there. She would start out in the pack and play, then end up in the middle of the night crying and falling asleep in my bed. I haven't shared a bed with her since she was 4 months old. Man that girl moves a lot when she sleeps! And she loves having her head against the wall. Silly. I do miss seeing that peaceful face next to mine when she's sleeping though. And luckily she went right back to her regular sleeping schedule and habits when we got back. I was worried about that!

Before we knew it, it was time to head home.

The ride home seemed to go lots faster than the drive down. It might have been because we listened to General Conference for the drive home or because I sat in the back and entertained the little ones for the whole ride home. We got home just in time to watch the last session of conference. It made me laugh to watch Variah this time around with conference and remember what it was like with her just 6 months ago during October's conference.

Daniel got home from Mexico later that day. I have to share the cute thing he did for me while he was gone. Every day I'd get a picture from him and an assignment. The picture each day was of 2 pages from a SkyMall magazine. During our first flight together, back when we were dating, we flipped through a SkyMall magazine and picked out certain things on different pages that we thought the other would like or hate or whatever. Daniel recreated that experience while he was in Mexico and I was in St. George.

Courtney,

Since we both know you love to shop I decided that on this trip we would shop together every day. Each day I'm going to send you two emails. The first will have an attached photo with the items that you can choose from. There will be a topic/theme to the item that you should chose. You get to pick the item you would choose and respond to me with what you picked and why.

The second email will have what i chose for the day and why. The rules are that you CANNOT look at what I picked until after you have already sent me your email. Honor system.

Attached are today's shopping items. Choose the weirdest item. Happy shopping!

Here are the pictures he sent me: