Impromptu Vacation

Matt had a meeting in St. George.

The boys had school, with tests and everything else that's normal.

So we were planning on sending Matt to sunny St. George while the boys and I stayed home.....Like we always do.

Then my friend, Jennifer, called and said she'd take my kids so I could go with Matt.

This was the day before Matt was leaving.

Matt and I talked, and talked, and talked.

In the end, the next day, we had Jennifer take the chickens, lambs, & dog and we took our kids :)

It was so perfect!

 Jason had the time of his life jumping and running across all the rock formations.

 Kevin loved every minute of it also, although we did try to keep him a little closer to the ground :)

 The boys and I (feeling pretty darn proud that I could "hike" a little bit)

 This was the only part that was a "hike" for me, the rest was just slow walking over the red stone hills.

 All the boys went through this.....Matt tried, but then he and I decided to go around it :)

 It's a slot canyon that even Ryan & David had to suck their tummy's in to make it through.

 Jason wanted to stay all day!

It was so much fun!

The boys swam for over 8 hours during the time we were there.

Matt and I both jumped in for a while also, but didn't log much more than an hour in the pool.

And here's a pic from a few weeks ago when we took the boys to Snow Dragon.....our favorite restaurant.

Kevin actually did pretty good with the chop sticks :)

I've been having tons and tons of run with my boys these past few weeks.

I always have fun with them.....well almost always, we won't mention this morning when Ryan hurt his toe so bad it looks like it's growing the wrong way because he was racing to be the first out of the room.

Anyway, I've been working harder at taking joy in the moment.

I LOVE to see their faces light up when they are so happy about the ideas we come up with.

Right now they are BEGGING to make caramel chocolate pretzels......BEGGING.

My kitchen is a MESS!!!

So I guess it won't really make a difference if there's caramel and chocolate added to the mix.

It will just make for a more entertaining Monday morning trying to get on top of it all.

But I will have the memories of my boys smiles, laughs, and stories of how much they love it all......

A BIG THANK YOU TO JENNIFER!!!!

You know you have a real good friend when she's willing to bottle feed lambs so you can have a vacation is the sun.....while it's snowing here in Manti!

So glad I have the Gilletts as neighbors!!!