Sunday, May 30, 2010
Last week, Bethany and I went to "Utah's Dixie" (a.k.a. St. George or as Bethany says, "Saintch George") for a much-needed vacation and some serious girl bonding time. My sweet and wonderful Grandma Johnson had a time share in a condo, and we were thrilled to tag along as her companions! The party included always-a-blast Aunt Teri (who taught me to break the law on more than one occasion, but it wasn't really breaking the law because no one caught us--her words), my sweet sister, Julie, and my little niece Lizzy. We had a blast!
But I'm getting ahead of myself here. "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start," as Maria Von Trapp would say. (Or, actually, she wasn't a Von Trapp yet when she sang that--good grief, what was her maiden name? Anybody know?) ANYWAY, Bethany and I kissed James goodbye (it was a very tender and somewhat dramatic moment, no pictures), picked up Grandma, and headed south. On the way down, after a couple of illegal manuevers in trying to correct our course after missing an exit (no details, we don't want trouble), we were finally on our way. When we got to Cedar City, Bethie and I took a detour to meet our new little nephew/cousin, Hoyt:
As you can see, he is completely adorable. Such a cutie. (BTW, mock our travel hair and die.) After visiting with Bryan, Angie, Lexie and Hoyt for awhile, we jumped back in the car and made our way to the condo in St. George. I didn't take TOO many wrong turns on the way, and I'm glad to say we made it before dark!
The next day, we headed out for some serious shopping. I love this picture of Grandma-Great and Bethany, heading to the store, so I have to share:
They're pretty close pals, Grandma-Great and Bethany! We had a great time shopping, and Aunt Teri bought some fantastic shoes. But when Bethany hit her limit, we headed for home and for the pool. She was very excited about the swimming-every-day thing:
You know, there's just something about swimming outdoors with palm trees swaying in the breeze and the sunshine above that just makes you feel like you're SO glad you're in Saintch George playing, and it's just too darn unfortunate that your parents are moving that week and your husband is filling HIS days with lifting lots of boxes and working really hard in your place. (Really, I felt just terrible . . .)
(In my defense, I did help a lot during the packing part of the move.) That night, Julie and Lizzy joined us in the condo and we were so excited to see them! Both girls had really missed each other, so there was lots of squealing and giggling when they arrived. Cousins are pretty special people!
On Sunday, after going to sacrament meeting (which involved my sister making a pretty impressive skirt for herself out of my aunt's lava-lava, as she had forgotten a dress) and after wrestling with a tired-of-sitting-still Lizzy during the meeting which, incidentally, was at a branch comprised entirely of old people (you could hear a pin drop, meaning you could also very clearly hear our girls) AND we were reduced to feeding the girls chocolate-covered sunflower seeds to get them to hold still--a last resort--and then they ground the chocolate into the bench afterwards for good measure(ARE YOU TIRED OF THIS RUN-ON SENTENCE YET?) we headed to the temple grounds. I really don't think I should read this last paragraph. I'm a writer and I know better and man, this paragraph is bad. Bad, bad, bad. But I digress again.
Anyway, it was just a Sunday-ish thing to do. Visiting the St. George temple grounds, that is. So lovely. 
And then we hit the visitor's center:
Bethany loved the Christus statue. Then we walked through an exhibit of pioneer art which was amazing. There was this one picture called "No regrets" that moved me so much. I just stood there and cried as I looked at it:
Do you see that? It's one of the ten virgins, her lamp is filled with oil and she's greeting the Savior. Look at her expression, the joy and the tears that just radiate from her:
This picture really, really moved me. I don't usually cry in art exhibits. But I just really, really wanted to be that girl and have "no regrets." What an amazing artist to capture that!
Anyway, we went back home and horsed around a bit:
And the next day headed to Snow Canyon and the sand dunes. SO much fun! Bethany is still talking about the sand dunes. And we explored nearly every inch of them!
We also stopped for a minute at Tuacahn, and couldn't see any of the plays because they don't open until next week (phooey!). But we couldn't resist being "cats" for a second.
I know that after seeing this, Broadway is going to come knocking on my door. But unfortunately, I do not have the vocal range for "Memory" so I'll have to decline. Sorry, Broadway. I am determined, however, to go back down to Tuacahn to take Bethany to Tarzan this season! She'll love it! (Me too! I'd much rather see apes than cats--especially when it's all to Phill Collins music!)
Another highlight of the trip was our jaunt to Zion National Park, where we hiked to the Lower Emerald Pool. 
The scenery was breathtaking and it filled up that place in my heart that only red-rock cliffs can fill. (I spent so many summers at Lake Powell that I have to get my red rock "fix" from time to time or I cannot be held responsible for my actions.) It was such a peaceful day, beautiful day. The girls had a ball and hiked and hiked and hiked, stopping for frequent water breaks of course:
Here's my cute, cute grandma and cute, cute Aunt Teri:
And cute, cute daughter with her "walking stick." She liked pretending she was a little old lady and walked around with this thing--love her expression!
We really loved our time in Zion, and wish we would have had time to hike and hike and hike some more. But you're somewhat limited with two little girls, who both zonked on the shuttle ride home. (I think we wore them out.) In fact, all of our days followed a certain pattern: wear out the girls all morning, take them for a swim in the early afternoon, put them down for a three-to-four hour nap, then read a book (an entire book) while they slept. After they wake, have dinner, pop popcorn, and watch a movie. Then bedtime for all.
Gee, I could get used to that. And we were doing all of this while James was working at his job, then helping my parents move boxes and large pieces of furniture until 10 p.m., then finally eating dinner before crashing into bed, all day, every day. I really, really felt bad that I wasn't there to help . . .
:0)
James, you're a wonderful man and I love you.
Anyway, all good things come to an end, so they did. And after we got home and pulled into our garage, Bethany burst into tears. "I don't WANT to come home. I want to go back to Saintch George!" It's a cruel, cruel lesson when you realize that vacations do end. But I was ready to sleep in my comfy bed after being in a hide-a-bed all week, and I was more than ready to see James again! (And not in that order. I wanted to see James first.) So it's good to be home!
And after all of that, when looking back, my very favorite moment of the whole trip was when Bethany and I were going to sleep in the hide-a-bed and I thought her elbow was a sippy cup of water and we laughed and laughed and laughed about it, then we held hands and I said, "I love you, Bethany," and she said, "I love you too." Then we fell asleep holding hands.
When all is said and done, it's not WHERE you go, it's WHO you're with. I sure love my family! Thank you, Grandma, Aunt Teri, Julie, Lizzy and Bethany for some pretty amazing memories!
