Trip to St. George

A few weeks ago our little family went on a trip to St. George.  We stopped for lunch at a little park.  A nice man let the kids each pick a rock from his collection.  The girls loved their rocks.  But Luke was fascinated by a cat and followed it around forever.

We drove down to our condo and got there around 4:00 pm.  The condo was alright, but not the nicest place we have ever stayed.  But I will say that condos are the only way to go with young kids.  It's so nice to have a kitchen, table, and a separate room to sleep in so we don't have to sit in the dark at 7 pm.  The kids were already exhausted because they didn't nap well in the car.  The weather was starting to get a little stormy, but we still got our swimming stuff on and went swimming in the indoor pool.  The water was fairly cold, so Luke wanted nothing to do with it.  So I stayed out of the pool with him most of the time.  There was a hot tub there, but kids younger than 14 weren't allowed in it.  Sophie and Aspen were really bummed about that.

The next day we went Glitter Mountain to collect and dig out some gypsum.  We got a little lost trying to find it, but eventually made it.  I think "mountain" is a bit misleading.  They should have called it "Glitter Pit" or "Glitter Mine" because it was more like a small mound with a hole.  Sophie and Isaac had a lot of fun digging out the gypsum.  Aspen was being whiny, and Luke wanted to walk around but kept tripping and getting hurt.  It was also really hot in the pit, so we didn't stay more than about an hour.

Then we drove to Pioneer park to look around and have a picnic lunch.  There's a cool little slot canyon that the kids had fun going through a few times.  It is really, really narrow, so you have to squeeze a lot to make it all the way through.  It was really awkward for the adults to lift their legs in such a tight space, but the kids didn't seem to have much trouble.

The next day was raining, so we decided to check out the St. George Children's Museum.  It was actually really fun and reminded me a lot of the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  It had lots of cool themed rooms, like an auto-mechanic shop, a dinosaur room with a volcano and little roller coaster, a farm, house, etc.  The kids had a lot of fun exploring and playing here.

We also went to a cool park one evening.  During the day there is a train you can pay $1 to ride on, but it was closed by the time we got there.  But there is a really cool volcano that erupts once an hour or so.  A lot of the swings and slides were dinosaur themed and the girls had fun on those.  It also had a fun little splash park that Luke was enjoying soaking his shoes in.  And on the other side of the parking lot was a small botanical garden with "water-wise" vegetation and a short walking path.

One afternoon the weather was nicer and so we went swimming in one of the outdoor pools.  It was a really cool pool with a little waterfall.  We were the only people there which was nice.  But once again Luke didn't like the water, so I stayed out with him a lot.  The hot tub here allowed kids 5 and older, so Sophie could go in it and Aspen just sat on the side and wished she could get in.  Since then she has been talking a lot about turning 5.  I explained she had to turn 4 first, but she was still fixated on turning 5.  She finally said, "when I turn 5 I can go in the hot tubs".  Haha.

My favorite part of the trip was biking along the Virgin River Parkway.  At first the trail wasn't that amazing and we were riding through commercial areas, but then we crossed a bridge to the other side of the river and it was a lot more remote.  The girls, especially Sophie, had a blast looking for bunnies and jack rabbits.  I think we saw around 30 of them.

We also went to Snow Canyon for a hike and bike ride, and the kids played in the sand.  They had fun in the sand, but hiking/biking was too exhausting for them.  So after a picnic lunch we loaded up and headed home.

Overall it was a really fun trip.  The weather was unseasonably cold, so swimming wasn't a great option.  But it was a great temperature for other outdoor activities.  It's always fun to see the kids out exploring new places and seeing their excitement.  This trip was really low key and we were a lot more spontaneous than usual thanks to a great list of things to do from Lacey.  We didn't hit many of the things on her list, so we will have to go back again some time.