Monday, April 06, 2009

SPRING BREAK - ST. GEORGE, UT

This last week the boys had a few days off for spring break, so we decided to get away and enjoy ourselves in some warmer weather. We headed down south to St. George and had some good R & R.

Our first stop in our trip was to In-N-Out Burger. We had never eaten there before so had to go and indulge in this famous resturant. We enjoyed yummy burgers fries and milkshakes. Yum Yum.


We checked into our hotel and headed to the pool. The air was a little cool but the water was heated and it was so refreshing to feel the sun on our backs and water in our faces.


Next we dried off, ate dinner and headed to the mini-golf and arcade family fun center. The boys had fun hitting balls, earning tickets and trying out their abilities on the cycles.


The next morning, Sunday, we drove around a bit and took in the beautiful scenery of the red rock formations.





Here is the Brigham Young winter home that we toured. It was a beautiful home and we learned alot about the early Saints and how St.George got started. We learned about growing cotton, tree nuts, grape vines and raising silk worms


Here is the Jacob Hamblin home that we toured next. It was neat to see how the early saints sacrificed and had such great faith to develop the desolate desert of southern Utah. I'm so glad for the many modern conviences that we enjoy these days.


Right next to the parking lot of the Jacob Hamblin home was a teepee sitting in the yard of the neighbors. The boys really thought that was cool and it reminded them of our trip to Wallowa Lake where they got to play in and around some teepees out behind the the main cabin.


We went over to the temple and walked around the beautiful grounds. It is such a peaceful place to be in and to remember what great promises the temple represents and how wonderfully valiant and true the saints were to sacrifice and obey the will of the Lord to build such magnificant structures where we can be so greatly blessed.


On Monday we drove north of St. George to visit the Snow Canyon State Park. On our way we found some cactus that Andrew was really impressed with.


Here is a ward building that I thought looked so cool. If just blends into the environment and one that you don't see in northern Utah.


Snow Canyon is so beautiful with all of the red rock. Here is neat shot with the sun just coming out over the top.


We took a little hike and the boys climbed up the rock and were "King of the Hill".


We found this really neat small cave that we explored and I posed inside.


Here are the sand dunes that we hiked around and played in. The very fine red rock sand felt so good between our toes. We didn't get to stay and play as long as we would have liked due to the wind blowing. Getting sand in your eyes is not fun at all. So we stayed just a few minutes and had to move on.


The boys swam again and then we went to the new movie Monsters vs. Aliens. Nicholas and Andrew loved it and I thought it was pretty good.



The last morning the boys swam again and then we went over and had one more round of miniature golf. Here the boys are trying their luck at a hole in one. Nicholas actually got two and Andrew got one.



We had such a fun time in St. George. It was really good to get away and have fun together as a family.

PINE WOOD DERBY

This was the first experience of this project for the boys and I. I thought for sure when I opened the box of the pine wood derby kit there would be some semblance of a car inside, but no just a block of wood. So I went to the place of all knowledge, the Internet. I found a few templates that looked like they would be good designs and had Grandpa Foutz cut out the shapes. All of us took turns sanding and sanding and sanding and sanding and sanding... The boys helped grandpa paint and I had one of my employers help out with the wheels. The cars looked good and the day came to see how they would do under pressure.

These are the boys cars. Nicholas' is #31 and Andrew's is #0.


These are all of the participants. All of the boys did really good on their cars and it was a good race. Nicholas and Andrew didn't win, the car sitting in front won every single race. Nicholas came in 4th a couple times and 3rd a couple of times. Andrew came in 4th once, 3rd once and 2nd two times. They had lots of fun and were glad to have participated.


Nicholas showing his car and his certificate for "The Gone In 60 Seconds Car".


Andrew received the certificate for "The Lean Mean Green Machine".