St. George!

     Words cannot express how much fun we had with the Southwick clan down in St. George last week!  But I'll at least attempt to share some of my favorite moments :)  Before driving down, John and I kept Deja awake all Sunday morning so that she would sleep longer in the car.  We were pretty successful at our endeavor because she slept from the moment we got onto the freeway till the moment we got off!!!  (about 4 hours)  She did wake up for about 10 minutes somewhere in the middle, but went right back to sleep without making a peep.  It was great.  John and I talked about life goals, where we saw ourselves in 5 years, and just the future in general.  It was a lot of fun to day dream together.  

     The first night was pretty chill, we mostly waited for the rest of John's family to get there and got settled into our rooms.  The following morning John got up early to play basketball with some of the boys and nieces/nephews.    He was really looking forward to getting a good game in with his brothers/in-laws sometime during the trip which ended up happening the next morning :)  But back to Monday, the main event was definitely our trip to Sand Hallow in Hurricane.  I tell you what, I've been to St. George many a time, but this was a first for everyone on the trip (that I know of anyway).  Basically it's a lake with a red sandy beach-typical of Southern Utah.  John and I had our doubts, but it ended up being one of our favorite activities!!

All the kids loved playing in the water.  We also rented a paddle board and had a picnic lunch.  

It was a lot of fun!

The biggest con to the area was probably the fact that there isn't any shade.  So some of the men took it upon themselves to set up a tarp to help everyone stay cool.  

Later that night we played a big Jeopardy game that John and I organized with all sorts of trivia. Some of the categories were: Family trips, Family random facts, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Psych, Name that tune, TV shows, etc.  Afterwards we brought out our Yonana's Machine and had fro-yo style sundaes.

The next morning was devoted to more basketball and swimming.  John was trying to get as much fun in with his little brother, before he left early to go on a Senior trip to Hawaii.  How dare he ;)

That evening we went to a park and played some good ol' fashion kickball and had a pizza party.  They split us up into 3 different teams which actually worked out pretty well!

The next morning, some of us wanted to get some hiking in before it got too hot, so we went and checked out "The Big Red Crack."  It's basically a huge rock that is split in half and for those who aren't claustrophobic can try to squeeze through to the other side.  Clearly we didm't think it through that this wasn't the most baby friendly activity...So I watched Deja while John went through :)

When we got back we ate lunch, played games, and hit up the pool one last time! 

Over all it was an awesome family trip!  We had amazing food, lots of laughs, and good times all around.  Deja did really well crawling around new territory and playing with all the kids.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of her with her cousins!!!  Next time :)