St. George and the swimming vacation
This year our goal is to get a certain 2 year old that driving long distances can be fun. This trip we decided on St. George. She made it down without total scream fest, but not without a lot of effort from everyone else in the car.
As soon as we made it into our hotel room, we all changed for a couple hours of swimming. Supper that night was especially of note because of how excited Henry was. We had a Cracker Barrel right next to our hotel!!! Henry's favorite! So night #1 was Cracker Barrel! With full bellies, we went to the St. George temple, where the kids had fun exploring the visitors center and temple grounds.
Hiking Snow Canyon
The stopped at the very first hike we could find as soon as we entered the park. We had no real idea of how long this hike would be, only that it went to lava tubes and we are fans of a good lava tube. We made good pace to the scenic overlook. We thought we had a ways to go, but when we got up the scenic overlook we discovered we were practically to the lava tube when we split off to go to the overlook. Henry and Nate scurried up the overlook while I kept Clara safely on the ground. Henry was awesome and grown up at the top of the mountain, while Clara helped me watch a bunny hop around and look for "rar" (dinosaurs). In hopes to make her day, I pointed out the first lizard I could find and convinced her it was a teeny tiny "rar". She was pretty excited.
(The outlook the boys climbed)
After the outlook we made our way to the lava tube. It was a bit steep to get down into the tube, so we decided not to climb down and the do a lava baby toss to get Clara down and then back out, so we headed to the car. This was not the best marked trail ever, so the way out was a little interesting. There was one intersection with particularly confusing signage. Nate and I were standing there trying to remember which way we came from. I vaguely remembered wondering where one trail went, so I was pretty sure which one we wanted, but not certain. In the mean time, Henry was standing there looking at his shoe, then the ground, shoe, ground, shoe ground. The says, very confidently, "Guys. These are my shoes. We came this way." We were pretty proud of our brilliant, never been trained to track, just knew it on his own tracker guy!
Seeing the Sights and looking for "Rar"
After the hike, a dead battery, a jump, and lunch in the car, we headed to find "rar" like we promised. We found our way to Johnson Farm, where they found all kinds of dinosaur tracks and bones on what used to be the edge of Lake Dixie. Clara was in heaven, discovering all of the dinosaur tracks and fossils. It was pretty need to see the remnants of the edge of the lake and all of the life that once was there.
(borrowed from dinosite.org because we took zero pictures)
We also visited Brigham Young's winter home and the home of Jacob Hamblin, who worked to build a relationship with the Native Americans of the area. More swimming concluded the evening. The kids were pretty worn out and happy to climb in bed for a show and sleep.
Driving Home & Cove Fort
Our trip home was almost melt down free and included a stop at Cove Fort. I was again happily surprised by how much there was to see and do there and how hands on it is for kids. The kids had fun seeing how the Hinckley family lived in the fort and what life was like for them. It made for a fun ending to our St. George adventure.
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