St. George in the Spring

Mid March, Nate's side of the family had a big birthday bash for his grandparents. We were eager to make use of any excuse to go see our people and to soak up some sun! We had a wonderful trip. Quality time with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and of course, Nate's amazing grandparents that we love so much. The weather was absolute heaven and the lawns were greening up and trees were in full bloom! We had to dig shorts out of the shed for the trip!

It was so, so wonderful to be with our extended family. I think Covid has made me forget how wonderful it is to gather together and just be. It's a delight and a big boost to be with people that love us for no reason other than that we're theirs.

Look at this tree!

One of our favorite St. George destinations is the "shell park." We love to go hunt for shells in the water there. We love it so much that we went once, and then a couple days later had to go again so the cousins could come too!

Emmie didn't want to get her pants wet . . .

The girls bought matching flip flops for the trip, and also found a billion shells.

Oops. Addison got a little carried away with his rock throwing.

The boys went exploring with Dad and found a pothole.

A snuggle with the babycakes.

The next day we went with Abbey and her two oldest and Grandpa to snow canyon to explore the lava tubes. Abbey and I stayed with the little girls while the bigger kids went in the caves and explored.

After the lava tubes, we had just a minute to spend at the sand dunes. We were all wishing there was more time to play there!

The next day was the main event: Great Grandma and Grandpa's party. Family came in from all over the place. Grandpa somehow managed to squeeze in a trip to The French Bakery with us, though. He served a mission in France and Belgium, and we were getting ready to study France in school, so we figured it would be a nice introduction. He's a regular and introduced us to his friend Mitch, who owns the bakery and bakes amazing goodness starting at 1:00 every morning with his wife.

We felt that it was necessary to our education to try a little bit of everything.

Mixed in was plenty of downtime to just hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Homemade lemon-orange ice cream, a proud and tasty family tradition.

Aaron's group with the grandfolks

Our turn! So much love for these sweet, strong people.

We took a trip to Judd's with Elaina to load up on penny candy.

And then played in the red rocks by Pioneer Park. We skipped the skinnies because of Covid and crowds, but we sure had a good time exploring and scrambling.

I got to hang out with these cuties and make sand castles.

Abbey and I accidentally wore matching outfits one day. Couldn't have planned it better if we tried! I realize this first picture is blurry, but I just love it so much!

Shell park take 2.