On March 13th we headed down to St. George for the Aldrich/Sloan weekend getaway. This was the third year that this has happened (only our second time going though). This year was very relaxed. Shawn's Aunt Rose and Uncle Jon just finished building their vacation home in St. George so everyone but us and the Knights stayed there. We stayed at the condo but spent almost all of our time at the house. It was nice to stay at the condo because we were able to have our own room with an adjoining room for Leili to be in.
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| Lunch at Sam Hawk on the way down. |
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| A container is always great entertainment. |
We drove down there after I got off work and made it down to St. George about 7 o'clock. We stopped off at the new house first to check it out and man is it gorgeous. They had just barely finished getting everything done the day before and I do mean everything. All their furniture arrived the day before because the house was just barely finished on time. We stayed there for an hour or two and then headed to the condo to put Leili to bed. It was just us that night since the Knights weren't coming down till the next day.
The next day just happened to be my birthday. We didn't do anything too special for my birthday since we were down in St. George with family so before going to the house we went to McDonald's for breakfast. It was pretty tasty, I hadn't had McDonald's in awhile. After that we pretty much just hung out at the house all day. Everyone was helping put together the patio furniture. I pretty much just played with Leili and took in all the sun.
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| Morning walk for my birthday. |
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| Gorgeous vacation home. |
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| The pirate ship that was being built |
When Shawn's mom and sisters arrived that afternoon Kate and Muti took me to the Swig. It is pretty much a bar for Mormons. I only say that because it is a drink place where you go and get soda with mixings in it. I don't really care for soda so I got a strawberry smoothy that Kate so kindly bought me and we also got one of their sugar cookies. We sat outside and chit chatted for a little and then headed back to the house. When I walked in Aunt Rose whisper yelled "surprise". At first I thought she was saying surprise that Shawn was able to get Leili to fall asleep on him (vacations aren't vary good for napping schedules) but then I notice the house was "decorated". It was my surprise party! I thought this was Mel's doing because she told me why it was all silver decor (something along the lines of it being my platinum birthday? It made sense but now I can't remember her exact wording), however Shawn told me later that night that he asked Mel to do it for him since he really couldn't. I loved that he thought of it but laughed and said you know surprise parties are supposed to happen when you don't know that people are going to be there. (Kinda defeats the purpose when you are vacationing with them.) I thought it was sweet though. We also had cake and ice cream for me.
Later that night after we went back to the condo, a group of us went hot tubing. Mar was kind enough to listen for Leili so that both Shawn and I could go. I bought a new swimsuit (my old one was from High School) so I really wanted to use it. The hot tub was super hot and crowded but we had some funny conversations with Shawn's cousins.
The next day we were able to do more. We went on a morning hike, I should probably call it a nature walk. It was super easy and we didn't go very far before all of the kids started whining and crying. It was still enjoyable though. We were pretty far down in a canyon and were able to see pictographs (am I calling them by the right name?) and walk along the river. It was nice to get out and do something. After the hike we went back to the house for brunch and then headed to the condo to go swimming. It was pretty breezy so I didn't even bother trying to swim. I freeze when its 80 degree weather. Shawn was a trooper though and braved the coolness so that Leili could go swimming. She really enjoyed the kiddy pool that was only a foot and half deep. She was trying to walk around by herself and didn't care that she kept face planting in the water (don't worry Shawn was there to save her).
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photo credit: Jesse Knight. We didn't know he was taking
a picture. He told us he was actually making the rest of
the group stop so that he could get one of us three. |
Once we were done swimming we went back to the condo and Leili went down for a really long nap while Shawn and I showered and got ready to go to dinner. We went to this Mexican restaurant that we had gone to the year before called Don Pedros. It was so good and Shawn's uncle was kind enough to pay for all of us. A few of us headed over to Fiesta Fun to go go karting after dinner. I let Shawn go with his family while I watched Leili and took pictures.
Craziest random thing happened that night though, I woke up at three in the morning feeling completely nauseous. I got up and spent over an hour in the bathroom just waiting to throw up, so I eventually got it over with and made myself through up. So needless to say I wasn't feeling too hot that day which luckily was the day we were going home anyways. We went to church in the morning and then had a good hardy lunch with everyone and then we headed home. It was sad to be heading home but man was I excited. I hate living out of a suit case. I seriously could never travel for a living.
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| Photo credit: Kate Sloan |
Leili and Addie were so cute with each other during this trip. The above picture was taking because as soon as sacrament meeting was over Leili grabbed Addie's arm (while Addie was backwards) and walked with her all the way to the car. She wouldn't let go of her and as soon as she had to, Leili cried. But as soon as we got back to the condo she grabbed her hand again to walk inside. Then while we were packing up the cars to go they were playing on the stairs and Leili was sharing her sippies. Leili might not always get along with other little kids but she sure does love older girl cousins.
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| Saturday night....what a cutie |
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| All passed out and ready to go home. |
Can't wait till next year, however I wouldn't complain if it was before or after my birthday so I could be home with my family (not that I don't love Shawn's) and friends.
