We're back from an amazing four days and I find myself sad it's over and wishing it were longer. The vacation rentals my parents got for this family reunion were amazing! They truly found the best place to house all of us. Everyone had such a great time and I loved seeing the kids spend such quality time with their cousins. I think I soaked every moment in knowing that this could be the last we see everyone all together for awhile since we're moving this summer. The twins didn't like the almost four hour drive down to St. George so our drive to Texas is going to be very rough but once there they did so well exploring our new surroundings.
Day 1: We left in the early afternoon after dropping off Margo at our neighbor's house and headed down to St. George. The older three kids did pretty well in the car since they spent most of the drive watching movies in the car DVD player. The babies barely napped at all which wasn't great because they were pretty fussy. We made one stop for lunch in Fillmore and then got back on the road. It was weird driving the same road that took the lives of the Sawyer family just under a year ago. I couldn't stop thinking about them. We made it safely around 4pm which was perfect because the rentals weren't available until 4pm. Before heading to the house we made a stop at Harmon's Grocery store to buy some milk for the babies and breakfast foods for the next day. Addie really wanted to get in the water the first second of seeing the backyard pool but we told her we'd do it the next day. If I could go back a few days I would change my mind and say go jump in the pool because it was truly so much fun. The kids spent the evening playing with cousins and exploring the houses (my parents rented two of them). Since we decided to take the room with the bunk beds it meant we all had to go to bed when the babies went to bed but it all worked out great because the kids were exhausted by the end of each day and no one had a problem with falling asleep (except Danny but he only sleeps great in his own bed).
Day 2: We spent all morning in the backyard pool. Rylee almost fell asleep in the swim floatie because she was so relaxed. Hudson spent the whole time in the shallow area where he felt most safe and Addie and Grant were little fishies in the water. Quinn and Rylee both spent the whole time in the water either being held, floating in the floatie or playing in the shallow area. They already seem like little daredevils when it comes to the water and were enjoying every bit of it.
After lunch Danny took the twins back to the smaller house and I took the three to the waterpark. We stayed there until dinnertime. Even Hudson didn't want to leave that area. They had this huge water play area and Hudson was going down the slides nonstop. Addie and Grant spent most of their time in the lazy river and I spent my time going back and forth between both areas. The great thing about going on vacation with family is that we were surrounded by cousins, uncles and aunts which was really helpful for me since I was covering all three kids.
After swimming we all got cleaned up and left the resort to explore a little bit of St. George. We were trying to see if we could catch some lizards and found one but didn't catch any. It was super hot so we didn't stay on the trail very long before heading back to reunite with the group. My parents wanted a big group picture of everyone wearing our reunion shirts. My dad found someone on the street to come and take a picture of all 57 of us.
Day 3: We headed to the children's museum in St. George and had a nice morning with all the cousins playing and exploring all the rooms they had. Rylee and Quinn especially loved the grocery store room and that they got to push their own little carts around. Grant had a lot of fun in the dinosaur room and Addie and Hudson enjoyed some rock climbing the best. The kids really connected with their Pennsylvania cousins - mostly with Edward. They were by his side the entire side and it was really cool to see an almost 11 yr old preteen be so patient and fun with our 3, 5 and 7 year olds. It's a shame we don't get to see each other more because of distance.
After the museum we picked up some lunch and shakes. We were going to take it back to the house and have lunch there but Rylee and Quinn had both fallen asleep in the car so we decided to attempt some more trails and hiking. We found the perfect place called Pioneer Park. We let the babies sleep as we drove there and then woke them up and had a picnic at the pavilion that was there. It wasn't the longest nap for the girls but it was enough to energize them as they were nonstop exploring all the red rocks. They loved this area. One of the reasons I specifically wish our vacation was two days longer is because we could've spent all day just at these red rocks. Usually I'm a little uptight about keeping our kids clean but I was so carefree here and the kids all loved just getting dirty. Even Danny was a little surprised I wasn't freaking out about the babies' white shoes turning red. I was having the best time alongside them.
Once we finally made it back to the resort it was right back into the water for all of us. Even Danny and the babies were able to see the waterpark for the first time since they had missed it the day before due to naps. This day wasn't as hot as the day before and it was overcast making the water a little colder but that wasn't a problem for anyone. Since this was our last full day before heading home I stayed out with the kids swimming until we were called back for dinner. Danny had left a little earlier than I did so the babies could get in a real nap and they knocked right out from being on the go all day long.
We enjoyed our last dinner all together and then most of us went down a trail near the resort looking for wild bunnies. They had 30-50 (depends on who you ask) bunnies running freely and it was a nice quiet walk to end the day.
Day 4: Most of the morning was spent with breakfast and then cleaning up and it was bittersweet because we were saying goodbye to an amazing time all together. The kids were so sad to say goodbye to Edward so I decided that instead of today being their last goodbye for a couple years we'd be joining their family at Thanksgiving Point for a last cousin hoorah before they head back to Pennsylvania and we move to Texas.
On our way home we decided that we would stop halfway for lunch but didn't have any plans for where that would be. We saw the Beaver Creamery from the freeway and decided that place looked good and went inside. We were shocked to see my sister Beckie and her family getting ready to leave. As Beckie was in the parking lot she then sees Jacob, Katelyn and my parents arriving so she tells them that we are inside getting food. We were shocked to see them when Jacob informs me that Pollyanna's family is on their way as well. It was funny that we just happened to randomly stop there thinking it would just be us and instead we got to enjoy extra time with my parents, brother, niece, sister and her family.
We're all home now and everyone has exchanged their vacation pictures with one another while hinting at places that we could go to for our next family reunion. These last four days has really been great and I'm so grateful that my kids were able to experience this vacation with people I very much love.
Take the trip. Create the memories.
Even better if you can take the trip and create the memories with those you love.
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