UEA Weekend Away

For Utah's UEA weekend we decided to hit the road just for two quick nights in St. George and I'm so glad we did. The night before we headed out, my vacation got started a little early with a gal's night out to see one of my favorite singers - Ingrid Michelson. I love you Ingrid. Thanks for singing to me all night long even though there were thousands of other people there too.  We ate delicious salad and tacos at Taqueria 27 downtown before braving the boring standing-up-and-waiting part of concerts. Once the music got started though, it was so fun! Never yield very good pictures, these concert outings, but whatever. I'm posting them.

The next morning the five Preslars hopped into Jarvis for four fun-filled hours of listening to Harry Potter V, the longest and most trying of all the Harry Potters.  It took us the trip down and most of the trip back to finish what we thought was the end of the book. Great book, but so glad that one's over. It's amazing to me that my kids were totally entertained for the entire ride just by Harry! Well, Skippidy checked out for a bit with an iPad and some headphones, but you can hardly blame her. I mean, you know Dolores Umbridge! She's intolerable!

This cute sight between Cap and his cousin happened within minutes of us arriving.  So cute. Cap loves his little cuz. And little Sam tolerated us fairly well!

There is a brand-new park in St. George, the name of which I can not currently remember. Toque....something? Anyway, it's a dinosaur themed park with a splash pad and a huge volcano mountain and it was just flat-out amazing. The kids had so much fun playing, but I was super glad we went for another reason.

As Sheri and I were watching the kids cruise around the park, riding the zip line and scaling the many climbable towers around, I looked across the park and saw a man I was sure I recognized but couldn't quite place. I looked at the people around him and before I could stop myself I realized I was kind of screaming and running across the park as I recognized my dear friend Kathryn - the daughter of the man I recognized.  Kathryn was my dearest friend from my mission. How do I even convey the love I have for this woman? She and I lived in the same house for just one month early on in my mission, and we really bonded. We did splits for one day and she and I just talked and talked and talked as we traveled through Seoul. Some of the stories she told me sounded familiar and I realized that she and I were actually cousins - maybe 2nd or 3rd, I'm not sure. But we're both members of the Cannon family. So not only were we absolutely kindred spirits, but were actual kin as well!

After our missions we spent quite a bit of time together - she saw me through my worst heartbreak, I was staying with her when her darling boyfriend proposed, I went to her wedding in Manti and sang at her wedding breakfast. Like really, I love this woman.  But she is not a big fan of social media and once you're married with kids it gets a little tough to keep up with each other. I hadn't even seen her in about 9 years. What a blessing to be given the chance to find each other and hug and start talking and talking and talking....so much has happened in her life, like losing her brother a few years ago to a car accident, and her mom passing away just two weeks before this. I wished we had the whole weekend to really talk, and I need to make sure to keep her in my life. I'm very grateful for that meeting.

Here are her teen boys and nephews hanging out with my teen boy

This park was truly amazing

That evening Sheri and I ditched the kids with our very nice husbands and headed to the witch's night out celebration at a local farm in St. George. We had tasty treats, a raffle in which I won my very own copy of Hocus Pocus, prizes for decorated brooms plus a dance and contest. Fun evening.

Peter and Sheri were leaving on a trip Friday night so we had a quiet evening alone on Friday and left early Saturday - but I'm never sorry to get to spend time with my brother and his family.