Our Vacation of the Year...St. George!

For some reason we didn't go on vacations this summer...probably for a few reasons. First of all, we sold our trailer at the beginning of summer to help pay for our yard so our desire to go camping went way down because we needed to buy a tent first. Second, with the cost of gas it was too expensive to go anywhere! Third, our yard...it was pretty much all we did. Rob did go on his scouting trip and he went on an overnighter fishing trip with his brothers, but besides that - nothing. Fortunately we were able to make time and save enough that we could go on a trip to St. George with the Stevenson family in September. We'd gone last year and had so much fun, so we were looking forward to this trip.

We left on September 7 at around 10 am. We loaded up with lots of movies, books and snacks for our long ride. We stopped to eat lunch and then we had to stop again in Cedar City for a potty break. I kept trying to get Aivree to take a nap but it wasn't happening. Much to my surprise, Anisten actually fell asleep the last half hour of the drive. Figures.

Aivree reading a book and Anisten dozing
I am so mad at myself because I didn't take hardly any pictures of this trip. I have no idea why. We stayed at the Wingate which ended up being an awesome deal since my mom bought us all Dixie Direct cards so we got 50% off each night we stayed there. We were lucky to get a King Suite which actually had two separate rooms, so after we put the girls to bed at night we weren't forced to go to sleep too. We were very pleased with the hotel and will most likely stay there again.

The first night Rob and I were able to go to the St. George temple. We'd been trying to get to the temple forever so we decided that would probably be a good time to go since we knew the girls would have plenty to do with all the family around. It was beautiful and its so neat to go in a new temple every once in awhile. I'm glad we went. We all went to eat dinner at the Mongolian BBQ after that and then we went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for "dessert."

On day two Rob and my brothers got up early to go golfing and unfortunately Aivree decided she'd get up early too (6:30 am). And of course she woke up Ani. We went to the breakfast provided by the hotel and after we all got ready we went to Jumpin Jacks with some of the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. For some reason, this is what I took the most pictures of.
I decided to pay the price to play too...it looked like too much fun :)

Waiting at the top of a slide with my girls

Aivree jumping around

Ani liked jumping in the big strawberry/cherry fruit thing

Ani in Spongebob Squarepants mouth!

Here's a lot of the crew that came. Such a fun place

Ani always has to strike a dance pose (and her sister always copies her)

Hey there!

We were going super fast

Some of these slides were soo big, I was really impressed that the girls went on them. Climbing up the BIG slide with Aivree

There she goes!

This picture kind of shows just how big some of these blow up toys were. The girls absolutely loved this place. In fact, Aivree still talks about going to the "bouncy place"

After Jumpin Jacks we met the guys at Arby's for lunch. Then we went back to the hotel for "naptime." I tried to get Aivree to take a nap, but once again, she just wasn't having it. So we decided to just go and join everyone else in the pool.

I bought some new floaties for the girls for the trip and they loved them! We finally got Anisten a life jacket and she was so happy to just swim around all by herself.

We got Aivree this cute little tube suit and she looked so cute in it. She was happy to swim around on her own too. It was so nice. They were little fish on this trip wanting to be in the pool all the time.

That night we ate at Texas Roadhouse and then went and played miniature golf. We learned the girls were maybe too young for miniature golf because they both lost interest about halfway through (it was only 13 holes).

On Friday we woke up (luckily the girls slept in) and went to breakfast altogether. Then Rob and I went for a run because he was nice enough to stay with us instead of going golfing again. Rob has turned into quite the runner lately and that is his form of exercise by choice. Mine on the other hand is my Biggest Loser/Jillian workout videos which totally kick my butt, but are somehow easier to me than running. Anyway, we went on this run and it practically killed me. Literally (I almost got ran over; part my fault, part the driver's) and figuratively because I am not a runner and running in the heat of St. George for that long was so hard for me it was embarrassing. ;) It was nice that Rob and I got to go on a run together though because we don't get to do that very often...if ever anymore. After our run we got in the pool and swam for awhile until lunch. We went and ate at Subway and today I didn't even try to get Aivree down for a nap.

Later we went and saw the Winnie the Pooh movie that was in the discount theater and then we met up with everyone at Anasazi for dinner. It's this cool restaraunt where they serve you your food on a really hot rock and you cook it yourself. (sounds weird, but we loved it) We are planning on making Anasazi a tradition every time we go to St. George now.

The next day was sad because we had to pack up to leave. We headed home around 11 am and this time Aivree did FINALLY take a nap. :) And Anisten didn't. We came home to find that our fish had died while we were gone. :( That's okay though, we actually had that same fish for ocver a year. We had a fun trip and the girls can't wait to go back next year. So sorry for lack of pictures (I'm more upset about it than anyone, why didn't I take more pictures?).

I love this picture. They were listening to the movie with their headphones but as you can see they're a little big for Aivree. She still liked trying to wear them thoughSo glad we were finally able to go on a family trip. It was a blast!