Thanksgiving - Snow Canyon

We made two trips to Snow Canyon because it's close by, beautiful and so fun to explore. For a state park there really is a ton of variety all within a small area.We walked through a slot canyon, climbed petrified dunes, hiked to a lava tube and played in the rolling hills of sand. The first visit was with cousins and grandparents, the second was just our family after Dave joined up with us from Texas. 

Exploring Jenny's Slot Canyon - a quick little hike off the main road that has a good payout for such small effort

Sophie in the wings on the Butterfly Trail

The reality of hiking with kids - there will be lots of crying, often by multiple kids

Sophie in the "killer bunny" lava tube

Playing with cousins in the dunes

With my mom and sister <3

On our second visit with Dave we spent a lot more time at the petrified dunes now that I had help supervising those who wanted to scramble around and carrying those who didn't

Made it to the top!

One of the dunes had tons of little pebbles all over the top where the sandstone had eroded away, leaving what looked like black marbles behind. You can see them all over in these photos

Three brothers enjoying a break on top of the world

Such spectacular views

Dave and I looking down over a dune called Turtle Rock

After it warmed up some, and the kids had their fill of climbing, we went over the real sand to soak up some sun and a little more play time before it was time to go back home

Thanksgiving - St. George

 There are so many fun things to do around St. George! This was a different season than our previous visits, which meant more jackets and less swimsuits, but there were still plenty to do and see. New adventures this time included the Cactus Gardens, the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center, a ninja warrior course at a park in Washington, and the massive hot tub at Entrada's fitness center. Not pictured here was a movie day to see Encanto and trips to Snow Canyon and Zions (coming in later posts)

We had a nice walk through the gardens. admiring all the different varieties of cacti and were able to see my cousin and his daughters who were also visiting for the holidays

We had a nice day to ride the train and play at Thunder Junction

We were surprised to see the water still running to the splash features. The sun was out, but it was not warm. My kids can't resist water though and went in anyways. 

Swimming with cousins! Everyone had a great time except Griffin who slipped about one minute into the activity and busted open his lip. It bled all over, so he and I spent the beginning half at the first aid station recovering. Poor buddy :(

A puzzle that I will likely not do again because the blue sky was massive and too hard

Making turkey desserts with cousins

Sophie really enjoyed the ninja course and kept breaking her own records, while the younger kids climbed rocks and played in the sand

Dinner at Texas Roadhouse! The kids all wanted to sit with Grandmari and Paco and Amy and I didn't say no to the idea. Doesn't Paco look thrilled??

Thanksgiving Dinner! Jeremy made delicious fried chicken, Dave made macaroni, and Texas Roadhouse provided the rolls. 

While some adults cleaned up, Dave and I took some of the kids back to the cactus gardens to see them all decorated with lights for Christmas

At one point we lost Davey. He decided he was done and went to the car without telling anyone, which led to lots of frantic searching in the dark only to come up empty. I was starting to think he'd wandered off into the desert. Luckily he was safe in the van, but sure gave us a good scare!

Uncle Brent came for Thanksgiving and we had fun swimming with him in the giant hot tub

Video: Thanksgiving in St. George

Thanksgiving - The Roadtrip

I spent my birthday weekend driving through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah to reach St. George where to meet up with family for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The deserts of the southwest are so vast and beautiful!! My mom also gave me the best present ever in coming along as my co-pilot to help with the kids and the drive since Dave wouldn't be able to join us until the following week. We love Grandmari!! 

We made our drive from Amarillo to St. George over two days, stopping in Albuquerque for the night. This was our first time driving this route and we found some fun stops along the way to break up the trip. Highlights included a 66 diner, the Explora science museum, the Navajo Nation Zoo, a field of dinosaur tracks and the bridge over Marble Canyon. The kids were troopers!!

A few notable memories:

- We checked the kids out of school early to begin our drive. In class, Sophie made a huge I Spy list for us to play along the way with random items like necklaces and rabbits and we surprisingly found both! 

- Grandmari brought a giant box of jellybeans to meter out along the way for morale and we had to guess the flavor

- Coming out of the Kaibab forest was an experience. We were behind two old trucks towing a carts of logs down a windy, single lane highway. They were going incredibly slow, but it was so tricky finding a safe place to pass both the trucks and the other cars that were stuck and it felt so amazing when we finally broke free of the backup. 

- At one point Davey needed to use the bathroom and gave me about a 10 second warning, while we were on a cliff, before it was too late. 

- Speaking of bathrooms, they were almost impossible to find in Navajo Nation! At one stop it took us trying 4 gas stations to find one with working restrooms

- The really hero of the trip, besides Grandmari, was Bubble Guppies. I think Griffin watched it for the last 4 hours on repeat. We had the episodes almost memorized by the time we got there. 

Grandmari visited for lunch at school the day before we left

A few fun activities at Explora Science Museum. They had so many hands on stations. Mask mandates were still in effect, but we cheated a little. 

Dinner at a cute diner - they had a huge Pez dispenser collection all around the ceiling, hopscotch on the floor, and great milkshakes

Grandmari and Charlie had matching blue camo shirts

The kids and Grandmari toilet papered the hotel room for my birthday - happy 36 to me!

We had a great pit stop at the Navajo zoo - free entry! They had a nice collection of local wildlife like cougars, bears, and eagles as well as a fun playground and picnic tables for lunch.

Somewhere in Arizona we stopped to see possibly real, possibly fake dino tracks

If you look closely, you can see a bee in these photos by Griffin's head. He had a ham sandwich from Subway and that bee followed him all over while we were looking for the tracks.

Found some!!

Bridge over Marble Canyon - almost there, only 2.5 hours to go. Unfortunately the last chunk was done in the dark as the sun sets so early this time of year.

Thanks for making the trip easier for me!!