Warmth and Sunshine

Last weekend we decided to take advantage of our days off for UEA and head down to the warm weather in St. George.  It was perfect!  We woke up to weather in the 50s and spent most of the day enjoying weather in the 80s while playing at the pool.  I drove down with the kids on Thursday morning and Mike came down later that night.  Our trip down started out with a bit of a delay.  We were all loaded up and ready to go, but when I went to start the car it wouldn't start.  The battery was dead!  Ay Caramba!  I called my neighbor and she came over with her car and some jumper cables.  My jumper cables were under piles of stuff in the back of the car and there was no way I was digging through there to find them.  I called Mike for some help, but Natalie and I weren't even sure what was the battery at first.  Luckily the general contractor on her new home was over there so he came to help us lost little girls.  From now on I will remember what goes where and in what order.  After we got the car started we went to get gas.  We all said a little prayer that the car would start after we filled up.  Luckily it did and we got down to St. George without any other problems.

On Friday Mike wanted to go check out a ghost town he had read about on the internet.  It was called Silver Reef and it was about 20 miles north of St. George.  Well, it wasn't much of a ghost town.  There were probably 3 buildings, parts of the old silver mine and parts of some rock walls from an old house.  

The little museum there was pretty cool though.  They had an art gallery on one side and a little museum with some original old artifacts from the people who had lived in the town back in it's hay day in the 1800s.  The building used to be the old Wells Fargo office and  the original old safe was still there.

I loved the name of this old pot belly stove.  "Frost Killer", that gave me a good laugh.  

 

There was also this beautiful old lamp.  

I loved these funny wooden chickens.  Maybe Peggy or Lynette would like to put these in their kitchens.  There were old tools, handmade nails, old clothes, saddles, pictures, ... you name it!  The kids' favorite thing was a bin of polished stones that they could buy.  They spent most of the time we were there combing through the piles of rocks finding the most "special" ones to take home.

We also checked out the ruins of the old house.  It is amazing that people used to build homes and buildings all by hand without any kind of power tools, machines or Home Depot.  :)

We had a fun time, except for the fact that all of the kids got colds.  Yuck!  Michela and I went on a nice little bike ride.  Mike took Hunter and Michela golfing.  Chase and I played lots of games.  Mike even played a round of twister with Michela.  

Hunter, the spin master.

Poor little Aria pulled a chair down on her on Sunday.  She ended up with a swollen eye and a bruised and scratched up head.  I felt so sorry for her.  She sat on the couch with Daddy for a while with an ice pack on her head.  She didn't let it keep her down for too long though.  She was running around again in no time.

 

The kids and I had a pretty fun drive home.  It took us a while, but we stopped for dinner, laughed a lot and made some good memories.  I love family vacations, but it's also so nice to get home and sleep in your own bed!