Presidents Day Escapades

Last year when Presidents Day rolled around our valley was still encased in a foggy smoggy freeze.  We could not get ourselves out of the valley and down to Dixie fast enough.  This year....well, we were still very excited to go visit St. George but Salt Lake has been experiencing this crazy warm and gorgeous spring with clear wonderful air and flip flops every afternoon.  Both alarming and delightful.  Ok, now it's cold again but two weeks ago St. George was a lovely allure but we didn't head there quite as desperately as we did 12 months ago!

We still had a fantastic weekend.  We headed down Friday afternoon, stopping along the way for some In-N-Out (always a good way to get a trip started). We enjoyed a lot of time relaxing and letting the kids play in the sand, which resulted in some serious cavern excavation in P&S's back yard.

Sheri was excited to take us on an adventure on Saturday, and I was so glad she did.  I was a little surprised that we found a place to go in St. George that wasn't completely overrun by hoards of people.  Being President's Day weekend, not only was the gorgeous weather an allure, but there were tons of baseball and soccer tournaments happening so there were families packed in every place we went.  Trying to drive down St. George Boulevard was nearly impossible.  It was just a parking lot all day long.  But Sheri knows her way around that place and took us on this wonderful little hike to a place called The Vortex.  I have no idea quite where we were - we just got in the car and followed Sheri.  Most of the hike was a nice stroll through desert and rocky hills.  We were surrounded by that wonderful burnished rock and cerulean blue sky.  What a treat.  The very end of the hike is at the top of a big rock hill - we later found out that there's a pretty easy trail that winds its way up to the top, but we didn't know about it and so we just scaled this rock face.  It kind of freaked me out, not only because I'm not great with heights and exposed climbs but because I was with my little five year old who I just kept imagining tumbling off the side.  Ooh, that still freaks me out just thinking about it.  I tried to not let her know that I was nervous and protective of her - I didn't want her to feel like she couldn't do it.  And guess what, she totally could.  She was so awesome.  She got this boost of confidence and just kept saying things like, "Mom, today I learned that I can do really hard things.  I got scraped, I was tired, but I just ignored it and kept going and I could do it!"  She was so proud of herself and I was glowing too.  

Here's a picture Sheri took of us scaling this very scary mountain - once you got started up that was it.  You just had to keep going no matter how badly you (meaning ME) were freaking out

One of my favorite selfies ever.  What a great picture.

Cap on top of the mountain

"Mom!  I can do hard things!" What a rewarding day for my kids.

We had just the weekend we needed - getting away with family, enjoying the sun, playing outside.  Loved it.