driving to st. george

friday - 5.9.14

i left my house at 7:45 and got to sara's by 8:40.  but we weren't all ready to leave for a long time and so we didn't hit the road til 10:15.  but it was tons of fun from the very beginning.  

we passed the cutest little mountain towns.  everything looked just like the gigantic replicas in the basement of the building where we saw day out with thomas.

we all couldn't stop talking about how gorgeous the mountains were.  truly stunning.

and it snowed.  so that added to the beauty of it all even more.

lots of snow on the ground but not affecting the roads at all.  that's perfection for you.

and then we got lower in elevation and back to the gorgeous red rocks.

jon was driving, daniel was in the front seat, i was sitting behind him, and sara was in the middle of the back row.  daniel and sara are both extremely prone to motion sickness so they had to keep their eyes on the road at all times.  seriously.  so i was looking at my phone or something (which no one else in the car could do), and i hear daniel say, "so, i know we've been driving for a while, but are we are we really on mars already?!"  and it's true.  it looked like we were on another planet.  and then had extensive conversations about planets and which planets have moons/rings, when pulto got it's planet license revoked, which planet they'd found water on, etc.  the drive to st. george was 10 hours and we were never lacking for conversation or entertainment.

we kept passing signs for scenic vistas but opting to skip them (because of time), and then driving past and catching a glimpse of amazingness.  so finally in the last bit of our drive, we decided we'd stop at ONE scenic overlook and we chose the "salt wash" because it sounded intriguing.  well, the bathroom had a sign that literally said "salt wash" and that's it.  we weren't really sure what we were supposed to be looking at.  but on the other side of the parking lot of the bathroom, we found this sign.

congratulation to us!  the scenic vista we chose was literally "the place nobody wanted."  it talks about how the mormons settled here to choose a place no body would bother them but let's get literal... even the mormons didn't want this.  they kept going.  also, a quote from the woman pictured included swear words and wasn't too complimentary.  awesome.  spoiler alert: we didn't stop at anymore "vistas" on our way home.

meanwhile in parker... honey and the kids found a tiny snake in our garage.

and abigail almost fell on it when she was trying to get closer.

 they went to the playground.  christopher reported that brady figured out he could climb up the stairs, sit down, and slide down the slide, 100% on his own.  and that brady was doing it non stop.  ha.

 we made it to aunt suzan's house.  a number of the streets in st. george and their neighborhood were lined with dozens of flags and signs for uncle gary.  of course i didn't get a picture of them in the daylight, but this is the display in front of their house.

and who cares that we drove through snow?  it was a balmy 72* while we all hung out.

it was awesome seeing so much family that i don't often get to see.  especially sean and kendra and their kids and my cousin christian.  but it was also cool meeting uncle gary's side of the family.  he so much adopted our side that it never really registered to me that we were just the in laws and he had his whole side of relatives.  he was the oldest of 7, but i'm pretty positive he looked the youngest.  even at 75, he had a baby face and was physically in phenomenal shape.  aunt suzan specifically said that it lifted her spirits and helped her feel better seeing everyone smiling and visiting and meeting new people.

that night before i went to sleep, i texted christopher how glad i was to be there... "even if i had to turn around and drive home right now, it would all have been worth it ten times over."