Southwick: Our Forever Family: St. George

This weekend Jeff, Jonas, Daniel and I headed to St. George to meet up with Jeff's sister, Julie, and her family who were in town for Julie's mother-in-law's wedding. (Dallin stayed behind because he made the basketball team!!! Woohoo!! But that means he has never-ending practices. Boo!) We had so much fun! I have been to St. George a couple of times but never really explored much. This time we got to explore a little more of what this city has to offer and now we want to go back to see more! There just didn't seem to be enough time to see what we wanted to see. Plus, we were really there to just spend time with Julie, Jon and the girls, which we thoroughly enjoyed! Jeff, the boys, and I arrived earlier than Julie did so we went to the temple to walk around the grounds. Each temple is breathtaking, but I love how white the St. George temple is. It almost seems to glow in the sun. I loved being able to walk around with Daniel and Jonas and share stories with them of the history of this temple. I am so grateful for the bravery and fortitude of the pioneers. I can't imagine the hardships they endured to come to Utah and settle these less-than-ideal places. I'm especially grateful for their faith that inspired them to build these beautiful temples.

After we walked around, we decided to walk the few blocks to the tabernacle. Unfortunately, they were renovating the tabernacle so we were unable to go inside; however, there was a fun splash park and carousel in the historic downtown square that the boys enjoyed while we waited to meet up with everyone for lunch. Gma Penny and Grumpy met up with us there and enjoyed the carousel too.

That evening, we were invited to join Jon, Julie and the girls at Thunder Junction park where they were meeting up with Jon's mom, Dana, and her fiancee, Mark. This was quite the park! It is an "all-abilities" park so there were several pieces of equipment that were designed for those children who may not be ambulatory. There were swings, a zipline, slides, a splash park, a train and so much more. Both of the boys had a blast running around! Jonas really enjoyed the water. Daniel ran around with Megan and Heidi. I was happy to see how comfortable they were interacting. It is hard when family lives so far away. Unfortunately, we see them so infrequently. Still, they made quickly made up for lost time. After the park, we headed to our hotel for the night.

Heidi, Daniel and Megan

Daniel pushing Megan on the swing.

L to R: Alice, Megan, Sarah, Heidi, Jonas and Danny

The next day (Saturday 11/12) we leisurely got up and enjoyed lounging around the hotel for a couple hours before we took our boys to the Children's Museum. I am seriously in love with St. George! It was such a fun, inexpensive museum. Jonas LOVED being able to touch and explore everything without me telling him no. Danny even found exhibits that intrigued him. The museum is right downtown and is housed in the old Dixie Academy. It is beautifully done and creatively designed.

Once we finished up there, we again met up with everyone for lunch. Obviously, we had to share our time with Jon and Julie with Jon's family so we maximized what time we did have with them. After lunch, they had to run back to the wedding venue to get ready for the event. We again lounged around the hotel (Danny went swimming and Jonas took a nap) before going to the wedding.

Clockwise from bottom: Heidi, Jon, Julie, Grumpy, Jonas, Jeff, Penny, Megan, Sarah, Alice

It was a beautiful evening! Dana has always been so sweet to our family. She is a remarkable woman and we are so happy for her! Julie's girls were beautiful flower girls. After the ceremony, we were all able to hang out for another couple hours before Jeff, the boys and I needed to drive home. It was a great weekend! We really enjoyed our time with Jon, Julie and the girls. We wished they lived closer! Hopefully, we'll be able to visit them back east next year.