Spring Break

We had a GREAT spring break this year!  The kids were out of school the 19th-22nd.  Our nephew, Chase Wankier, was having his mission "farewell" in Cedar City on the 18th.  He will be serving in the Mexico Leon Mission.  We decided to make a get-a-way out of it!  Saturday on the way down, we fought a strong headwind the entire way, and woke up to snow on Sunday!  IT FOLLOWED US!  We had a great day with the Wankier family though, and the kids loved the swimming pool at the hotel.  Poor Ryan pushed off the bottom of the pool and scraped the skin off his nose on the side of the pool on his way up.  I teased him that his scab looked like war paint.  Besides the pool, another high point was that they handed out free samples of the Breath Right nose strips.  The kids wore them every night for a few days after that.  I must admit, it was a quite night in the hotel!

Varying stages of energy that night at bedtime, but everyone was breathing free and clear.

Leon and Geneil were heading south in their trailer over that next week, so we all headed to St. George together!  We had such a great time with them, and are so glad we were all together.  We went through Zion National Park on Monday.  Leon and Geneil took us to the IMax theater.  There was only one other family besides us there, so we felt like we had a special showing.  We went on only one hike because it got cool and started to snow a bit, but we all enjoyed the beauty around us.  Ryan summed it up when he said, "It makes me feel so insignificant."  This is a beautiful, diverse world Heavenly Father has blessed us with.

Megan took some great pictures.  This was one of my favorites.

We spent Monday and Tuesday night in Washington at Uncle Berl and Aunt Sharlene's (Leon's sister).  Leon and Geneil parked their trailer there as well.  We had told them not to worry about us, but Aunt Sharlene spoiled us rotten with all her cooking, and Uncle Berl loved to tease the kids.  We now love them, and we are so happy we got to spend the time with them.

 Leon grew up in a home just down the street from there.  He gave us a tour around Washington and what used to be his family farm. We even got to see the elementary school.

Next, it was off to the "Sugar Loaf".  This is the rock with "Dixie" painted on it.  We had so much fun hiking around on all the rocks.  The kids did not want to leave.  I got some great pics on Leon's camera, but haven't gotten them from his yet.  Megan took some great ones too.

On Wednesday morning, Callen and Megan got to do baptisms for the dead in the St. George Temple.  Geneil mentioned that they had come all the way from Idaho and could they do more than 5 names each, especially since she and I were going through a session.  They were more than generous...Megan did 20 names and felt done, but Callen cleaned them out and did 48 names!

We said our good-byes to Leon and Geneil, and headed north to Salt Lake to stay the night with Paula.  On the way, we stopped by Levan where Geneil grew up and saw her home and the cemetery where her parents and some other relatives are buried.  This is the headstone of her parents, Christian and Grace Christensen:

Thursday morning we started heading for home.  We stopped by the Hill Air Force Aerospace Museum on our way.

This will be a trip we all will remember!  Time together, family, and the great out doors...It doesn't get any better than that!