I think this may be my longest blogging delay, but I am finding that the holiday season is packed with activities. I did want to take a few minutes to describe our great Thanksgiving weekend to Springdale with Pete's family.
Unfortunately, our trip was delayed a day due to a bout of stomach flu on my part, but Thursday morning, we hopped in the car and drove the 4 1/2 hour drive to Springdale, a quaint little town at the mouth of Zions Canyon. We arrived just in time to enjoy a fabulous traditional turkey dinner with Pete's parents, sister Janae's family, a teenage girl visiting from Brazil and our brood. In Pete's family, it's a tradition to go around the table and express words of thanksgiving. I have to say, though I think it's a good exercise, it always makes me a little nervous and uncomfortable since I'm horrible at verbally expressing myself. Anyhow, my favorite part of the trip, aside from just hanging out and enjoying family, was a bike ride down Zion Canyon, back to Pete's parents home. We were driven to the top of the canyon, where we discovered that one of the bike's Pete had worked on all morning, had a flat tire, so he drove back down the canyon, while I rode with Jake and my nephew Spencer. We stopped at a small, roadside waterfall and admired the beauty of that amazing national park. Sheer rock cliffs with old growth Cottonwood trees, still shedding their foliage. It was a gorgeous blue sky, cool morning with golden leaves falling slowly on the road and surrounding landscape. Pete caught up with us just as we left the road for a trail. I loved the trail best of all because my stress level with two ten-year old boys was alleviated and we could just enjoy the ride.
Saturday, we spent the day in St. George. Pete golfed with his dad, uncle and brother-in-law, while I took 6 kids to Fiesta Fun, a mini amusement park of sorts. The kids played video games and drove the go-carts. I thought I was going to lose my lunch when Spence had Mitchell on his go-cart and decided to try and spin it. They crashed into a side wall, luckily with no one behind them, and were okay. Tyler rode with Jake, the first lap clinging tightly to Jake's forceps, but as the ride continued, was prodding Jake on to go even faster. Thankfully, my niece Anne was very cautious with my Madeline.
After Fiesta Fun, I took the big kids to a movie. Jake saw Twilight, and was disappointed it was a romance instead of an action packed vampire movie. I took my 3 youngest to lunch at The Pizza Factory, one of my favorite places to eat in St. George, where I ordered my favorite pizza--fresh tomato and black olive. I had to order a mini size since there was no way my kids would even try it. Then we hit the TJMaxx mega store, where I loaded up on Christmas gifts and decor. Later that evening, we met up with Pete and our good friends, the Harmsen's. We ate at Cafe Rio and got Nelsen's frozen custard before heading back to Springdale. It was a fun, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. We had such a good time, we're thinking about doing that every year and making the day after Thanksgiving bike ride a family tradition. I'm not so sure my mom would like that though, so maybe every other year!
1 comment:
Thanks for letting us borrow your parents for Thanksgiving this year, they are so much fun! Your mom was quite conniving at the game, "Chicken Foot!" For example, she distracted Noell with song requests, which Noell proceeded to sing, thereby preventing Noell from calling out "one" when she had one tile left, so she had to draw two -- strategic brilliance. ha ha!
Post a Comment