St George Part 2!!

We had a fun time in the rain at Zion National Park.  It was beautiful and a great place to drive around even with the weather not great.  We did get out for a little hike even though it was raining.  Of course we couldn't predict that it would begin pouring and hailing, with thunder and lightning echoing through the canyons.  It was fun until we were soaked and cold and had to walk back to the van.  Good thing we had our winter coats with us still.

On our fun, wet hike!

Of course the kids wanted to splash in every puddle too, instead of walking back.  We were already soaked, I guess it didn't really matter.

These were beautiful sights!  We really enjoyed the long drive all around the canyons.  The coolest part was this tunnel that was 1.1 miles long.  It was so neat to be driving this long ways through the middle of a mountain.  There were these window holes looking out that were really neat to see from.  The views were great, and for us to see how high up we were.  We had so much fun on this adventure.

This is one of the peep holes out of the tunnel.  We had wondered what they were, as we drove the windy road up the mountain.  So cool to look out of it after!

We really enjoyed our trip.  We loved the warm weather and the time we got to enjoy together.  One of the very best parts was the 24 hours we spent with family in Ogden on our way home.  It worked out so perfectly as the Sunday we were coming through was the day that Paul's cousin was blessing her baby.  We had a great time being there for that special day and spending time with some of our favorite people.  It is always time that we enjoy!  Of course we were too busy visiting and playing to take any pictures but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

St George 2014!!!

We had a great trip to St. George at the end of Feb.  It was inspired by my wonderful husband and this is how it came about.  We had been discussing about any sort of family vacation for the year, as the summer is pretty well occupied with having a baby in the middle of it, we debated when else we could do that.  We have to debate before or after tax season, as that is what occupies Mar and Apr.  We had also been discussing our school stuff, which was pretty well put on hold through Nov and Dec due to Christmas stuff and nausea.  

So Paul woke up on Jan 2 and told Kyndal that if she completed her whole year of Math by the middle of Feb we would go on a trip to St. George.  It was so highly motivating, not just for the kids but for me as well, that we got straight to work.  

We had done her math in concentrated form in the past and it went so much better then us trying to fight about it a little bit all the time.  So we made up a chart of how much she had to do and we got right to work.  She did so amazing and gained so much confidence in her math.  She had smaller rewards along the way, such as getting a rainbow loom for completing 1/4 of her stuff (the beginning review stuff) in only 5 days.  She even finished early, in only 5 weeks.  She did so amazing and we are so happy with the confidence that she has gained in her Math.

Elliette also had some work to do.  We felt that this would be the perfect thing for Elliette to gain some confidence in her reading and challenged her to read 10 chapter books in those 5 weeks.  We took out a big stack of early chapter books and she picked out a list of ones that she wanted to read.  A few of those changed as she went along as she discovered some that she liked better and some that were a bit harder that she switched out.  It was a great time for building confidence for her and now she is reading some of those chapter books on her own just for fun.  That is so great to see her gaining confidence and enjoyment from her reading.  So awesome!

Well, we worked hard and earned the amazing reward or our family trip.  

Here we are at the vacation rental that we found.  It was a pretty amazing place, with 3 bedrooms, one with two double bunk beds, a full kitchen, BBQ, and more.  There was a heated outdoor and indoor pool, tennis and basketball courts and all of the red rocks that we could climb.  We had a few days of amazing weather, 20 degrees and sunny, with a few rainy and mid-teens.  But they all beat the minus 30-40 that we were missing out on at home.

Our amazing little crew!  I sure love to see them all lined up here together.  My very favorite people, all playing together.  It just makes me so happy!

We did a bit of hiking on the red rocks.  Just the prefect easy days, with the sun shining and us having no time schedule.  We found lizards, collected cool rocks, looked for the croaking frogs, examined tumbleweed.

Just so beautiful on this reservoir!  Marshall saw a fishing boat and shouted and pointed at it the whole time.  That was one of his highlights, such a boy!

There is something so satisfying about throwing rocks in water.  It is an activity that never seems to get old, for both the kids and us!  It is relaxing and so much fun.  Paul is an amazing rock skipper and worked to teach the girls how to do it.  Marshall was just happy to throw rocks and watch his splashing.  I just loved to sit and watch, taking in the beauty all around!

We had a great picnic in the sand dunes.  Kids and sand is a great combination.

We sure are eating well!

We have been having some fun with food lately.  Paul got his Big Green Egg for Christmas and we have been enjoying the benefit of his service as he cooks for us on it.  There is really no downfall to Paul enjoying cooking as a hobby.  I sure love to not have to cook and get to enjoy the deliciousness that he creates and then he often will want to have someone over, so he serves them as well.  It is so great!  He would love to have been out practicing some more but he has not wanted to brave the weather, and now that it is warm, finally, he is stuck in the middle of tax season.  Anyways, here are a few of our culinary adventures.

These are bacon wrapped chicken thighs, stuffed with cheese and Jalapenos.  He was going to do half a jalapeno in each but was trying to make it not hot for the kids, so they all got chopped jalapenos.  Next time they will be great like a jalapeno popper, with more kick.  He did also make some jalapeno poppers, they are so amazing, they may become standard fare!

The kids did love these, they kept calling them little hamsters.  This is probably as Dawsyn gets very confused as to what kind of meat she is eating and we try to explain what animal it came from.  So these looked a lot like little hamsters.

I was really wanting some cinnamon buns, what is even better is this monkey bread, it is more fun to make and eat.

These recipes were found here and here.  This was something fun for valentines day dinner.  We have tried to do a special supper but the kids had a really rough day that went all crazy.  So it looked nice but that is about it.  Our crazy life!  But we are definitely eating well!