St. George

Jon had a business trip earlier this month that was taking him to St. George.  Knowing that Lydia will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall we figured that we ought to take advantage of the opportunity to go with him before school starts for her (and then Sophie and then Mia) and especially while the girls are so young.  These business trips are the best treat ever for our little ladies.  All they need is to swim in a hotel pool and they're crazy happy. 

Jon needed to be at his first meeting by 1:00 Monday afternoon on the 7th, so we left early that morning.  And by early I mean early.  We were actually up at 5:00 am. And even more impressive to me was that we were out the door at 6:15, and on the road by 6:21. We love tagging along on Jon's business trips.  Having woken up so early I was sure that the girls would fall asleep fairly quickly once we got going.  They had their "buddies" (Sophie brought her baby doll and her puppy Copper.  Lydia brought Blu and her puppy Queen Amadala, formerly known as Taffy who was formerly known as Max, and Microwave, and Daisy, and so on. And Mia brought her little brown hamster and pink and white puppy) and they seemed super comfortable while watching Lady and the Tramp, but they didn't sleep a wink. Soph eventually did fall asleep for half a second, but Lyds was determined to make it to our destination with her eyes wide open.  Mia was much much more of a sleeping champ, and happy girl in general. We stopped to feed her once and realized she had a major blowout, but our drive down was incredibly quiet.

When we stopped for lunch we had a very hysterical Lydia screaming at the top of her lungs.  Fortunately we were able to work things out and she's doing much better now. Some kid commented that we had a cute baby boy. Baby boy?? In purple pants? And a shirt that says "Daddy's girl Forever"?? Not to mention her feminine features??? Come on now. But that's okay. I agree. She is a cute baby.  Soph's feet didn't agree with her flip-flops and she got some blisters, not that she was complaining. The balmy 70° we stepped into felt like heaven. Clear skies, warmth and no inversion. Perfection. 

That first afternoon of meetings left Jon a little worried that the information he'd be getting during the week wouldn't be helpful, but day two was much better and the fact that his days ended at 4:00 was even better since it meant more family time!! We didn't wake up early enough to eat breakfast with him but it was awesome eating lunch and dinner together and walking around St. George a bit. We brought a twin size air mattress that we put on the floor in between the two hotel beds. Lydia slept on it for the first two nights, but ended up in bed with me and Mia the last two nights. I was sleeping at a strange 90 degree angle with the three of us in there, and Jon was doing his best to defend himself from little Sophie dear who leads a double life. Princess by day, karate star by night. Jon's pretty sure he got a foot to the forehead one night, and it's a wonder to both of us that that little lady is ever fully rested.

After Jon was finished that first day and we'd come home from dinner and were getting ready to go for a swim he was blowing up the girls' floaties when Leafy, Lydia's dinosaur, exploded.  Jon wanted to make sure there was plenty of air in him, but apparently it was too much. Too much for everyone. Tears galore.  Lydia calmed down quickly enough and we still had a fun time at the pool with the reassurance that we'd see if we could find a new floaty the following day.  Leafy had been Brynlie and Brandon's before he was ours, so he'd had a good long life. 

The next day we visited Target and the girls were quick to point out all the Star Wars stuff they saw.  We found a great 5 minute Star Wars storybook full of quick stories that began with young Anakin Skywalker and continued all the way to The Force Awakens and added it to our library so that we could alternate between Star Wars and Princess stories after scriptures at bed time. A win for all of us.

 While there Lydia and I made the mistake of visiting the men's restroom. We were in a hurry and once we stepped in it didn't even occur to me that we were in the wrong place. Lyds knew what was up. Urinals should have given it away. Woops!  And before we left we found a suitable replacement for Leafy.  And one for Bubbles, Sophie's floaty, too.  He'd been leaking air for a long time now. I was so glad that we were in St. George and that they actually had an aisle stocked with swim supplies.  Lydia found herself a zebra and promptly named him Zebie, and Sophie found a giraffe that she named Juicy before changing her mind and settling on Hiney.

Swimming all week was awesome. Mia was happy as long as she was in her mom or dad's arms.  We tried out a baby lady bug floater that a kind neighbor had given us, but she was not a fan.  Cutest Mia. All smiles with her big bright eyes. Taking it all in. Jon got to swim some laps in the pool. Lydia raced him over and over again. Sophie didn't always want to get in the water, but I sure loved one evening when she let me hold her. We went spinning around and around and raced Lydia a bit when she wasn't playing with Jon and Mia. One night Lydia and I went to the pool by ourselves while Jon rested with Soph and Mia. They joined us before we were done, but Lydia was struggling to enjoy the water like she normally does. She was suddenly overcome with a fear of sharks and was terrified/convinced that one was lurking in the hotel pool. Jon and I had a few discussions with her about sharks and things were much better the rest of the week. Lydia was so proud of herself because her feet reached the bottom of the pool. I loved seeing Soph clinging to Jon when she wasn't with me or refusing to get in the water. Watching Mia's look of surprise when her feet touched the water was so sweet.  Great times in the pool.  And according to Lyds, "best. Day. Ever!"

 

I should probably mention how much the girls enjoyed the complimentary breakfast the hotel provided.  We learned the first day that messing around with hard boiled eggs and yogurt was a waste of time. Waffles. That was all we needed. Waffles. Sophie held strong to her determination to eat nothing but waffles each morning and only made an exception once when she saw sausages, but Lydia didn't budge. Waffles. No need for anything else.

Besides the Home Show that was going on in St. George, there were several soccer and softball tournaments taking place that weekend, so the hotel kept getting busier and busier as the week progressed. One evening after swimming, Sophie, Mia and I were heading upstairs when we met some softball players. They were talking about how cute the girls were and after we passed them Sophie decided she wanted to know their names so we went back and introduced ourselves, found out their names and talked to them for a few minutes. They were really friendly girls, and so nice to Sophie.

The hotel also did cookies and milk from 3:00-5:00 in the afternoon. Once we were aware of that we made sure not to miss it. We discovered a beautiful park close to Jon's meetings. We picnicked there one day and ran around the field, danced in the gazebo and played on the playground. In fact Friday, our last day in St. George, we decided to let the girls get some running and playing in before the long car ride home. While there Lydia became best friends with Chloe. They ran around together, climbed on rock walls and played hide and seek. She really wanted Chloe to come home with us. While they were playing Soph and I were running around from tree to tree. We ran to the gazebo and twirled in it until we were dizzy, and then ran around some more. Mia loved watching her sisters, especially when they ran up to her while she was in the bjorn with Jon. He kept an eye on Lydia and Chloe. Chloe told Lyds that her whole family liked BYU, not Utah (Lyds was wearing a Utah shirt that day) but that she liked Utah too. I overheard and told her that we liked both BYU and Utah at our house.

Sophie "liked when we goed swimming.  And I liked when I swam in Juicy before she was named Hiney.  And I liked sleeping there.  And I liked taking the bath there.  And that's all I liked. Oh! And the waffles and the sausages and the cookies and milk.  And I liked the show with the boys and the girl that was called PJ Masks."

Lydia "liked when we gone swimming.  I didn't like when Leafy broke.  I loved when I was watching Nature Cat. And I liked cookies and milk. I liked when I played hide and seek underneath the stairs. I liked when we pushed the elevator buttons.  Sophie would open the doors and I would push the button for our floor."