St. George

Earlier this month the kids, Caddie and I joined Peter, Brittney, Hannah, James and Bethany on a trip to the magical place called St. George. Brittney's parents Rob and Jana McQuay live down there and so of course Hannah and James spend quite a bit of time there. Barrett was so excited to finally have the chance to visit the place that he had heard James talk so much about. We had hoped that Justin would be able to join us, but as things turn out he had to stay home and work. He ended up working a ton of hours while we were gone. We went over UEA weekend, which was especially early this year. However, that didn't stop it from being super cold and snowy in Park City almost the whole time we were away. That made us extra glad to be down in the 70 and 80 degree weather.

Rob and Jana were so kind to allow all of us to invade their beautiful home in Entrada. For any readers who are not as well versed in the High School Musical movies as we are, Entrada is where most of HS Musical 2 was filmed. My girls were so excited to go swim in the pool where Sharpay, Troy and Gabriella swam. We had a really great time. The kids went swimming twice, Rob was brave and let each of the girls take turns driving his golf cart, we learned how to play Texas Hold'em, we had a late night sing along with Rob on guitar, Rob and Jana treated us to lunch at the gorgeous country club, I took Caddie for a walk up beautiful Snow Canyon every day joined by Bethany and either Brittney, Rob or Peter and we even fit in a little sightseeing, shopping and relaxing. One of the highlights for the girls was playing dress up with all of Jana's clothes. Jana is much nicer than I am because I would never let three little girls raid my closet, but pretty much anytime we were home the girls were in her closet. She even let Blythe and Brynne wear two of her dresses to lunch at the country club. They had so much fun dressing up. I even supplied clip on earrings for the girls to wear that I inherited from my Grandma Chudleigh.

Hannah (in Brynne's clothes) and Brynne and Blythe

(in Jana's clothes) at the country club.

James and Barrett (his hair was out of control that day).

Jana reserved a private room for us.

Blythe

Brynne

Brittney took this one of Barrett and me.

Brittney, me and the girls in front of one of Jacob Hamblin's wagons. He was one of the earliest settlers of the St. George area and was especially noted for his ability to make peace with the native americans. We toured his home which was one of the largest in the area at the time he lived there. Somehow neither Britt or I thought to get a photo of the actual house.

The girls swimming in "THE POOL."

These girls are best friends.

The kids behind the waterfall.

The day before I left I posted a status update on facebook about leaving for St. George. I got a comment back from my cousin Kirsten who lives in Gilbert, AZ telling me that she was also going to be in St. George that Saturday. St. George is about a 5 hour drive for us and an 8 hour drive for her. They left Arizona with their four kids at the crack of dawn on Saturday so that they could attend the birthday party for the son of some of their best friends who just moved to St. George to in order to open their own restaurant called, The Bent Fork. Are they the nicest friends or what? They also were dying to eat at The Bent Fork, which is a Southwest/Italian fusion restaurant. Kirsten invited us to have dinner with them on Saturday at their friend's restaurant. I'm always a bit leery of taking Barrett to a new restaurant, but Kirsten assured me that it would be fine since she had an in with the chef. So we went and the food was delicious. If anyone finds themselves in St. George I highly recommend having lunch or dinner there. I had the turkey enchiladas and Blythe had a Chicken Parmesan sandwich, which she loved. Their signature dish is green chili lasagna, which sounds a bit strange, but Kirsten's husband John ordered that and said it was delicious. I think the little kids all had pizza and I know they had a great time visiting with each other. Brittney's parents joined us and it seemed like they knew half of the people dining there.

Here is most of us outside The Bent Fork after dinner.

We hit In 'n Out Burger on our way out of town the next day and had an uneventful trip home. We were sad to leave the warm weather to return to freezing temperatures at home, but everyone was happy to see Daddy and Ruby again.