Girl's Trip

Last weekend a few of my sisters and I took our awesome mom to St. George to celebrate her graduation (we missed you Rae and Diane)! It was great to see mom let her hair down and relax a little after spending so much time studying and worrying about homework! She still studied a bit for her upcoming licensing exam, but not as much as I thought she would. She had a migraine and sinus infection on the day we left and was a trooper while we drug her around town!

We started the weekend by going to Good Things Utah for the Friday show. A couple of the hosts were gone, but it was fun to see Angie, Karen, and Reagan in person and to see how the show is put together each day. It was weird to see that they're really frazzled before the show, but pull it together and act like everything is completely scripted. We picked a great day since a couple of 'toga boys' showed up and brought the Greek treat Baklava. They were promoting the show "My Life in Ruins" with the girl from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (we ended up seeing that movie in SG--it was cute). We were able to get a group photo with the hosts afterward and they were all really nice to take time to chat for a minute. I also had them show Tristyn's photo for her 1st birthday.

On the way to SG, we stopped at Cove Fort for a quick tour. My sisters and I stopped there several years ago but mom hadn't been there since before it had been restored. It was a great reminder of the sacrifices that the pioneers and early Saints made and how simple their lives were (I don't mean easy or that they didn't have to work their brains out . . . just that they didn't have the technological distractions that we have). I can't imagine living in such small quarters and having to recycle even the water I bathe in! They were amazing! As you can see, it was very windy there! I don't know how the other girls kept their hair under control!

After arriving in St George, we went for bottomless fries at Red Robin--yum, yum! Melissa's birthday was on Saturday, so the wait staff sang and gave her ice cream and a balloon. It was a fun dinner and a great way to star celebrating her birthday! I didn't get a photo, but on her actual birthday we bought an ice cream cake from Cold Stone and ate the whole thing in our hotel room. Needless to say, all of our diets were on hold for the weekend!

On Saturday we walked around for a while and did some shopping. Suzy and I were, of course, drawn into the kids clothing stores, so poor Melissa and Karen were bored out of their minds! I guess we need to plan a separate kid shopping trip! Melissa is so photogenic and always poses in cute ways. Don't you love the glasses? Watch out Paris Hilton! I would have bought the glasses for my mom if I thought she'd ever wear them!

We visited a few historic buildings in SG, including Brigham Young's home, the Tabernacle, and the Temple. We had a cute missionary from Germany take us through the BY house and she recommended us to the yummy taco place next door, so that's where we had lunch. While at the Tabernacle, I found a couple of fun settings on my camera, which is where the color-filtered photos came from.

The weather wasn't super warm so we were only able to spend a few minutes by the pool and Suzy is the only one that even got in! So much for getting some sun while we were there! We had originally planned on going to Zions, but we decided to take it easy on the way home instead! We had a fun picnic lunch at the park, then stopped by mom's brother, LaVon's, house in Aurora. We also talked with a few other cousins that live there (Monica, Marilee, Chavis) and took photos of mom in front of her elementary school and her parent's old home (where she grew up) and also of the barn that her dad built and the hospital where she had her appendix out. Her high school had been torn down. Unfortunately, we missed her sister Ann in Salina.

All good things have to come to an end, but there's no better way to end it than at the Cheesecake Factory (as mentioned before--all diets were out). None of us were super hungry, but who can pass up their food and yummy cheesecake!

I had a great weekend and am so glad that we were able to go. I have the best sisters and mom ever! Hopefully DanaRae and Diane can make it next time--although we'd for sure have to take two cars because there's no way we'd fit in one with all of our bags and shopping!

Dan was way nice to stay home with the kids. They went to the park at least twice and he managed to dress them in matching clothes for church (I hardly ever do it). What a great husband!