St. George - Girl's Weekend

This weekend I got a rare opportunity to say good bye to the husby and the white monkey and head south to St. George, Utah with two of my friends. We left on Friday evening and checked into our hotel around 10:30 pm and then headed to Denny's for a bite to eat. It had been a long time since any of us moms had been to Denny's for a late night meal.

Kristina and Kerri.
After Denny's we went back to the hotel and talked until 3:45 am. I haven't done that in a long time either.
In the morning we headed to the outlet mall and shopped around. I got some new earrings. They are so cute. I only had three pairs of earrings, so now I have four. Have I mentioned that the weather was beautiful?


After our shopping spree we headed for Coyote Gulch Village in Ivins, Utah. It's a little community in the desert that you would totally miss if you weren't looking for it because all of their buildings blend in with the landscape. They are low to the ground and have flat roofs. They have an adobe looking quality to them and they are all earth tones. In this little village there is an artist community. They were having their fall expo so we browsed the art. I loved it.

I also loved this cactus. It had red prickly pears growing on it.

There were all different art styles and mediums represented, but I have to say the moving wind sculptures were my favorites.

On our way back to St. George we decided to stop at the Jacob Hamblin house in Santa Clara. We took a guided tour and heard many stories about Jacob and his wives and found that he was a pioneer, missionary, and a peace maker between the native Americans and the Mormons.

After dinner at Texas Road House we headed for the main event. Aida at the Tuacahn Amphitheatre.

For those of you who have never heard of this it is a very large outdoor theatre right up against the towering red sandstone cliffs familiar to the area. The show was spectacular with this amazing natural background, live animals, fireworks, and a river with waterfalls and they even flooded the stage, twice. It was a powerful scene.

This picture can't do justice to the amazing set.

After the show we walked down to the stage to get a closer look at things and a photo op.
The show was fabulous! And yes, my friends are bundled up, but if you ask me it was not cold. They are just way too skinny. (Can you see my new earrings?)

And the actors were amazing. I have been to many shows on Broadway in New York as well as in San Francisco. This was that kind of caliber production. Fabulous! It was a total thrill to get to shake hands with them and tell them how much we enjoyed the show. And they were nice enough to pose with us.

The trip wound down on Sunday morning with a stop at the St. George LDS Temple. The first temple built in Utah was a beautiful sight.

Thank you to my friends, who I love and had so much fun with.

And of course, it's always nice to come home to my boys.

Green Tomatoes

Do you think these will ripen up?

It started getting cold here in Utah. It is Fall, you know. It even snowed one day, but not enough to stick. It melted as it hit the ground. But it's been freezing at night. So we had a large tarp over our tomatoes. Then I decided to cut them all off keeping them on their vines. We're hoping to have some more red tomatoes.
Then last Saturday we cleaned out the garden. It looks so clean but so sad at the same time. I'm sad to see it go this year because we had such good success. I'm already itching to plant and thinking about next year.

October Fun

I can't figure out how to embed it so click here for some hilarity.

General Conference Sunday (thanks Emily!)

My friend Emily is so smart and she is one of the best moms I know, so I like to mimic her genius. She blogged yesterday about how she kept her three boys quietly busy during Saturday conference. I'm so glad she did because our packet worked great for four whole speakers. Sam was four squares away from bingo blackout when he lost all control and ate all of his m&m bingo markers and called it quits. So out came the Lego's.

Sam's Lego Temple. Complete with windows lights and a door.

I'll bet you didn't know these two had a temple recommend!

The Lego's helped to keep me quiet too. This is my temple. Yes, my Angel Moroni has a bit of a pirate-y face. That is in honor of my brother-in-law, Nathan, who happens to be a pirate captain on the Black Pearl.

And though Matt was so quiet you could have "mistaken" that he was asleep, he managed to build this cute little thing.

When building was complete we had a silent photo shoot. Don't be fooled, none of these photos are candid. He posed for every single one.

We love this boy!

We know we heard from modern day prophets of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He lives and is the head of this great church. We are grateful for all we learned and for all the counsel given to us this weekend, teaching us how to keep our family eternal and safe from the evils of our day . If you missed it and would like to learn more about what was taught or about the LDS church in general please visit www.lds.org, www.mormon.org, or contact me.

Backyard Concert

Our friend and neighbor is in a band. They played for us last Saturday. It was so fun. Their band is called Monroe. They play some fun music. To visit their website, go here.

They put the dancing bug into the whole neighborhood! As well as feeding us hot dogs and chips.

This guy ate and danced and danced.

A local girl band who call themselves the BLUE ACES also played for us. I was so impressed. They did cover songs as well as some original music they wrote themselves. Their voices were awesome. They are a major talent! Check out their facebook page by clicking here.