St. George Trip - part 1

At the beginning of May, I took a trip with the kids to St. George so I could attend the graduation of my younger sister, Ruthanne, and her husband, Austin. The following weekend was the baby blessing for my nephew, Preston, who is Nick and Summer's baby boy. To save on gas money and so I could play with friends, I decided to spend the week in St. George sandwiched in between the two weekends. It was a blast, as always, and I wanted to share some of our adventures!

This is my darling sister, Ruthanne, the one who recently invaded my blog and left a post ;) She and Austin both received their bachelor's degrees from Dixie State College. They even walked through the "D" together! It was so sweet. This is the WELCOME sign my older sister, Margaret, and I gave her for her classroom. She was in the Elementary Education program just like I was, and I kept thinking back to three years ago when I graduated. It's an exciting accomplishment! I was so proud of her that night.

I met up with my sweet friends, Jodi Atkinson and Jaime Monk, at the new Hidden Valley Park in Bloomington Hills. It's the coolest park with these enormous umbrella-like coverings that shade all of the playground equipment and benches. In the hot summer days of St. George, you need shade like that. It has a great splash pad, too. Even the playground equipment is more unique than at other parks, however, somehow it was the drinking fountain that provided the most fun for these three rambuncious kids! :)

Here is Jaime's little Emalee, my Emily, and Jodi's little man Tate. They were so silly together! It was fun to watch them play.

Jonathan was having a blast, climbing and crawling everywhere. I swear he is way more fearless than Emily ever was. He really keeps me on my toes!

Jodi, Jaime, and I were having such a great time catching up with each other and talking that we decided we should have lunch together as well. Where else? Cafe' Rio of course! On the way there, Emily and Jonathan were adorable in the back seat playing peek-a-boo with each other, blowing rasberries, and making other silly noises with their mouths. At a red light, I turned around a snapped a quick picture. They can be so crazy sometimes. I love it!

Later that day, I drove out to Washington to spend time with two of my best friends, Kristal and Brandi. We met at Brandi's so she could give us a tour of her cute new house;) Then we walked down the street to play at her neighborhood park. It also had a splash pad, so I stripped the kids down and let them go at it. We were having so much fun that I was distracted and didn't take many pictures, but here's one of Jon crawling like a wild animal :) Funny, huh? And the other is of Jon and Sophie spalshin' away. Too cute!

Later in the week, I went to say hello to Jocey Anderson Hobson, who lived next door to me all my life. She was my best friend as a kid, making forts in the lava rocks, playing "kick the can", dressing up and putting on shows, and of course swimming and running through the sprinklers all summer long. When I was Emily's age, I had long hair and lots of it, just like she does. So you can see why my mom freaked out when Jocey cut one whole side of my hair off. (You know what that's like, right Rach?) A little while later, sporting my new short hairdoo, I was playing in a box, and Jocey was pushing me around in it. It would have been funny to get a picture of Jocey's little girl, Andee, pushing Emily around in a box. I didn't do it, but I did get some fun shots of them playing together and hugging each other to say good-bye.

My sweet Grandma Lang just makes me smile. She spoils my kids with hugs and kisses whenever she gets a chance! :)

The Sonju's are such an amazing family. I feel very blessed that I had the opportunity to nanny for them. Although Macey and Madi have Down Sydrome, it doesn't stop them from developing their talents and abilities. And they have more friends than anyone I know! Here I am with Madi, my little buddy, who's not really little anymore. Can you believe she's already a teenager, Caralee and Janese?



Emily really enjoyed playing in the playhouse with Madi, while Jon was inside just being silly with Macey. He's learning how to make scary faces, can you tell? :)

How can you not smile when you see these happy faces?!