This last weekend, we took a trip to St. George with a bunch of our friends. Back in November, I think, Daniel's coworker, who owns a vacation rental just north of St. George in Washington, offered to give Daniel 40% off if he booked sometime in January. We (and I actually mean Daniel) sent out a text to 8 different families, in our ward and in the Pilgrims Landing 3rd ward, just to see if anyone would be interested in going to St. George for a weekend with us. We were surprised when 3 of them answered that night, only a few hours after we sent out the text, to say that they were in for a weekend trip. I was thinking, "Wow, that was kind of a fast response, maybe some of them will end up backing out after they give it some more thought." Haha! The Rubens and the Davises both had new babies, so they were a "no" right away. But in the end we got the Smiths (Gina and Preston), the Winfields, the Freis, the Tanners and the Christensens to come with us! 6 families, 11 adults (because Russ Winfield ended up being sick that weekend and couldn't come), and 23 kids! We had to rent 2 houses; the one that Daniel's coworker owns and the one right next to it that shares a wall. But, man, was it a fun weekend!
We drove down on Thursday afternoon. Most families drove down at some point on Thursday. But we were last to get there, I believe. So that night was basically getting settled, putting kids to bed, and then staying up too late chatting with the other adults. We were set up in a house with the Tanners and the Freis, and the other house had the other families. There was this bunk room with 3 triple bunk beds, so 9 total beds, with different sized beds on different bunks. We put all of the little girls in this room: Zoe Tanner, Brooke, Claire, Camille, Becca and Addie Tanner. Every couple had a room, some of us sharing with little people, and the Tanner boys had a room to themselves.
Friday morning we kind of slept in, had breakfast together and took it easy. I went to Costco to get food for lunches and snacks for everyone, and I'm sure everyone just hung out and played games while I was gone. After lunch, when I got back, we decided to go tour the Brigham Young house in St. George. The whole group went, minus Daniel and Sawyer, who stayed back. It was fun to see the house and learn about Brigham Young and the history of the church in those early days. Afterwards, we went to a little historic candy shop to get oldtimey candy and fun drinks.
I left the group with Jack at that point, because it was my night to make dinner. The rest of the group toured the tabernacle that was just down the street and went to a park, I believe. I made a pesto tortellini bake, and the others added sides and drinks. It was a hit, that dinner! Even all the so-called picky eaters gobbled it up, and there were no leftovers afterwards. After dinner, we just played games and put kids to bed and talked. The big kids, including the teenagers and bigger kids, like Brooke and Harvey, went outside to explore the little wilderness in the back and to play night games. She had a blast doing that almost every night we were there.
Saturday, we decided to go to this little local fun farm, kind of like a rundown and not as good Cornbelly's. There were games and animals and playground areas and food trucks and vendor booths. The main reason we went was that they were having a classic car show that day. We wanted to take the boys to see the cars, and we invited anyone who wanted to go with us. There was a group of us that went, although we didn't really see the other families there much. Sawyer was not having it. It was a little chilly and he was quite grumpy. He perked up a little when we went to look at the cars. But he was also miffed after a while that he wasn't able to get inside of them. The other kids had a good time looking at the animals and playing on the slides with their friends.
We went back to the houses for lunch, and then decided to try the community pool. It was an outdoor pool, and a little to chilly in January for it to be comfortable. But the older kids really wanted to try it, and although we had made plans to go to an indoor rec center pool, we decided it'd be easier to just go to the community pool down the street. It had a really cool slide and a lazy river that the kids wanted to do. So we all went (Daniel stayed back at first to take a nap), and the girls had some fun in the pool and lazy river and going down the slides. But the boys and I mainly spent time in the hot tub. We tried the pool. It had a really awesome super-shallow area for little kids, and Jack wanted to try the lazy river. But every time we tried, one or both of us decided it was too cold. And we got back in the hot tub. Daniel eventually made his way to the pool about the same time the boys and Brooke and I were done. He stayed back with Camille for a bit while I took the other kids back for baths and to relax a little.
That night, after getting kids to bed, we split men and women for a girls and guys night. Ladies in one house, guys in another. The men were a little irritated at first, some of them. I think they felt like we were exiling them or something? I don't know. But we did it anyway. It was really fun. We just played golf and ate a bunch of good snacks and talked.
Every single night we went to bed way too late. Haha!
The next morning, we got up and all went to a local Sacrament Meeting. The rest of that day was just spent relaxing. The kids played outside for a bit, exploring the little wilderness behind the house. We ate lunch. Most of the men took a bunch of the big kids to the lava tubes, while the women stayed behind with the littles. We just sat on the couch and chatted and snacked mostly. Daniel asked if I wanted to do the lava tubes and have him stay back with the boys. But I'd been feeling so tired and rundown the past few weeks, with mom and dad visiting and the holidays and Sawyer in the hospital and being sick for several days and school frustrations and planning for the St George trip and food... plus the fact that I'd not been eating very healthy or exercising. I was just ... tired. I didn't want to do anything that required anything of me. It was nice to just sit on the couch with my friends (although I probably would have felt better with a little nap).
We women were all in the kitchen helping Jessica get dinner ready when the guys and kids came back from their adventure. We kept joking about being "sister wives". I can't remember how it started... I think Gina had told us about a polygamist family that had lost one of their kids at Cornbelly's overnight. And then when we were taking a picture at the Brigham Young house, Jessica said, "Say sister wives!" instead of "Say cheese!", which was hilarious and probably made the missionaries there pause. Anyway, we definitely felt the sister wives thing, all being in the kitchen helping with dinner. And afterwards, we all helped each other clean up and serve up dessert. It was quite the picture, really. All the women in the kitchen, making dinner, serving the children, cleaning up, while all the men were lounging on the couch with each other, chatting it up. It still irritates me to think of it.
That night, like all the others, we played games together after kids were in bed. We let Brooke and Camille stay up a little later playing night games outside with their friends. And the adults played golf and other things. I was so tired that night. It had been a fun weekend, we'd eaten a lot of good food and stayed up way too late every night.
The next morning, we got up and packed and tidied. We had to divvy up the rest of the food, which wasn't easy. And we had to leave a few things in the fridge that we just couldn't take. But we got out of the houses in time. Then the Tanners and the Freis and us went to the red rock park that we've been to before to hike the Sugarloaf. Daniel stayed in the car with Sawyer, because he just wasn't having the hiking that day. And when we were done, we drove home.
It was such a fun weekend! Daniel and I were surprised that it went as smoothly as it did, with how many people were there. I mean, with that many people, there are many differing opinions and desires. I was worried about being in charge of food, because people have different tastes, and the Christensens have a bunch of allergies. But I think everyone was just glad to be there, glad to be invited and thought of. There was one little hitch where the Christensens got a little annoyed (they wanted to go to the rec center for swimming, but everyone else voted to stay at the community pool). But that was really it! The houses we stayed in were super nice and had some fun things in them, like video games and foosball and basketball arcade games and things like that. I'm glad we got to have that weekend with our friends.
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