Spring Break

For our Spring Break, we took a quick trip to St. George. When the kids asked what we were going to do, I told them we were going to go on a hike or two, swim, eat out, sleep in, read books, and relax. And we did all of those things.

When we arrived at our hotel, we had to check out the pool, and we were pleased that there was both an indoor and an outdoor pool. John wanted to swim right away, so we went down with him.

It was great to just lay on a lounge chair with my book and enjoy the sun.

We decided we were going to explore, so we headed to the Johnson’s Farm Dinosaur Tracks Museum. We’d never been there, and had always wondered what it was. It’s a good thing it was only $6 per person. It was barely worth that much, honestly.

It’s cool to see all the actual dinosaur tracks that have been found RIGHT there, but it’s a small little place, without that many actual dinosaur bones.

The kids’ favorite part of the museum was the ORIGAMI. Seriously. They sat down at the tables with paper and folded away. These guys are pretty adept at folding, especially Jenna, who does all kinds of origami all the time.

We stayed at the folding tables for quite a while.

It cracked me up, this challenge to make a SMALL dinosaur.

The kids all had fun seeing the tracks, and the dinosaurs. It was good for an hour of educational fun.

After we left the dinos, we went on to some St. George history that’s not quite as old. We went to tour Brigham Young’s summer home.

I love all the history that is in these old houses!

I just wonder who used that spinning wheel, who made that quilt, and how did they get that piano all the way across the plains.

The missionaries do a great job with tours, and are always willing to take a picture or two.

Next we went to visit the Jacob Hamblin home. We’ve been there a few times, but the kids couldn’t remember anything about it, so we went again.

Our tour guide was from France. He apologized for his accent, but I thought his accent was the coolest. It made us have to pay attention, since sometimes we couldn’t exactly understand what he was saying.

Hopefully this time the kids will remember a few things about Jacob Hamblin. After some lunch we wanted to stop in at a thrift store we had found last time we were in St. George. The Hope Chest thrift store is well organized, has good quality stuff, and great prices. The kids all found a few things they wanted. I saw a dress that I loved, but it was $10, and I thought I would pass. But when we got to the hotel that night, I regretted my decision, so we went back the next day, and I bought it quickly.

We did more swimming, or in my case, reading by the pool, then got some dinner and went for a walk. The weather was just lovely.

The next day, we got an earlier start so we could go on a hike. Ryan had found some crazy hike directions online, and took us to see some petroglyphs. We started the hike turning off on some dirt road, driving past a farm and a ranch, and then climbing through a fence. We didn’t have much confidence in his information. I may have mentioned something about at least there would be pictures that someone would find when they found me dead. The kids got a big laugh out of that.

We started off in the wrong direction, I’m pretty sure. But we eventually found a slot canyon, and in reaching the END of it, didn’t know where to go, or how to get back out. As we turned around and climbed back out, we found that we had just passed a bunch of ancient writings on the rocks.

Can you tell how excited we all were about hiking? Especially Jenna. She told us many times how she does not like hiking.

Eventually we made it to a HUGE rock just FULL of pictures. We all had to admit it was really cool.

There was much more hiking, some getting lost, and more pictures.

Even though it was getting quite hot when we finished, we DID eventually make it back to the car. We were tired, though. My fitbit said I’d climbed 37 levels or and the hike was about 3 miles. I think those internet instructions could use a little editing. We were wandering around, trying to connect with the GPS, and Ryan saying, “we are supposed to look for a big black bluff and go towards it.” But no one died.

Later that afternoon, after ice cream and showers, we took a tour of the Tuacahn theater.

They don’t have any plays running right now, in fact they are just about to start rehearsals, but they still do tours. They had things set up for bull riding, of all things.

We got to see sets being built, tour the costume shop, and learn all kinds of inside secrets. We loved it!

Megan had been there the week before working stage crew through her spring break, so that was fun to see what she had been doing.

Ryan even got to wear a mushroom hat!