St. George Part 2

 On Sunday morning we woke up really early and got breakfast ready. The kids requested pancakes and bacon! After breakfast we headed out to Snow Canyon. We went there last year with my parents and my kids have loved it so I was anxious to take everyone there.

It did not disappoint (well maybe for McKay). We hiked the same trails we had last year because I knew they were short and where they were. The first one was up a huge red rock. Once you got to the top you could see most of the canyon, beautiful!

 The adventurer Kyle wanted to climb up into all the holes he could reach, and some he couldn't. Carson of course thought it was awesome and climbed up in as many as he could too.

 The only pic of us, I hate that we have hardly any pictures of the two of us. I think this one actually turned out pretty good. We attempted a family picture but it was a bit of nightmare. I of course had high hopes of a beautiful family picture in the red rocks, one we could use in a Christmas card or something. No dice, so horrible didn't even make the blog.

 The kids had a lot of fun showing Grandma and Grandpa all around the canyon and all the fun stuff they remembered from last year.

 We brought our backpack to put McKay in and he hated it from the second he was in it. The first hike we did he cried the whole time. We started with someone else carrying him and he kept reaching for me. He did okay when he was on me, but still not great. ( He did not feel great on my sunburned shoulders either) He did okay when we broke out Kyle's phone and put the Bubble Guppies on. By the third hike he had calmed down a little more. We gave him a snack and he was pretty content in there. I was just a little bummed because he had loved the canyon last year.

The kids were so excited to look for lizards, luckily we came with an expert lizard hunter and Kyle helped them find a bunch. They even got one cornered in a hole so they got a good look. The bottom right picture on the above collage is Brynnley with the "Sparkly" sand. Last year we went on the hike "Jenny's canyon" very last and it is the longest and it was the hottest one. We were trying to keep Brynnley going and moving. My mom pointed out to her that the sand on this hike was sparkling. She of course gasped and couldn't get over the sparkly sand. So as soon as we headed into the canyon she couldn't stop asking where the sparkling Grandma Randall sand was. We found it halfway through our last hike and she was so excited. She said "Oh Mommy it is soooo beautiful." We decided the fairies must have brought the sparkles in on the sand, but they had left because humans aren't suppose to see them.
We headed home and had some lunch and we got the men all packed up and ready to go. They left Sunday afternoon to get home for work the next day. The rest of us just rested and took some naps for a little bit. Afterward we headed to go to the St. George temple. We got there and it was very hot so the kids didn't really want to walk around the grounds. So we went in the visitor's center and walked around. The kids had fun looking at all of the displays and watching the video's. McKay didn't last long so I took him outside and we sat in a shady tree on the temple grounds and enjoyed the beauty of the temple.

 On Sunday night we went to go for a walk, we decided to walk over to the nearby pond because we hadn't walked over there. Carson brought a piece of paper and wrote down all the animals and insects he saw. We were also surprised to see a large family of ducks. A mom and dad and about 12 baby ducks. So I ran back up to the condo and grabbed some bread. The kids loved feeding all the ducks, especially the baby ducks. McKay loved throwing the bread in for them too. We went and fed them all of our leftover bread before we left Monday too.

 We went on one last swim Monday morning before we left. I know the kids would have lived at the pool if they could. We went a lot, but according to them not enough. The were such fish in the water and had so much fun swimming. I LOVE this picture of them, it's rare to get a cute one of them together.

We had such a wonderful time. It really was one of our best family vacations. The kids had so much fun and there was very little fighting. McKay did better than I expected and only had a rough time a few times. I had so much fun just having fun with the kids and Kyle. We get stuck in our routine here and sometimes I feel like our lives get a little "funless". We had fun with Kyle's parent and I am so glad they came. The kids were so happy they were there and so were we.
It was wonderful family trip and an excellent way to start the summer!