Act 6; Scene 14: Easter Weekend

We had such a lovely break last weekend. It is always so fun to go visit Grandma and Grandpa Center at the mission home in St. George. With their mission rapidly coming to a close, we are trying to visit as much as we can, and cross a few St. George to-do's off of our list. 

We started out on Thursday morning, and of course had to visit the swimming pool the first afternoon we arrived. We decided to give our kids an extra treat by planning to visit at the same time that my parents were going down for an art show. So they got BOTH GRANDMAS AND GRANDPAS for two whole days! They were in heaven. Thursday night was a "family dinner" with all of us. 

We also all enjoyed playing with George, Grandma's new puppy. He particularly likes Scarlet--maybe because they are the same size. He's a bit more rambunctious than she is, though! They made good friends in the end.

On Friday we went to hike up the Veyo Volcano. You can't tell from the pictures, but it's actually quite steep, and high up. Tommy was excited to go on a volcano. He kept asking if dragons live in it.

From the side of the volcano. We are holding on to each other because the ground was so loose and unsure we kept losing our footing!

 

We ended up not being able to make it to the top, simply because the lava rock was so fine and loose, we could barely scramble through it up the steep hill. It was a bit of a disappointment.

So we decided to stop in to get some of Veyo's world-famous pies. :-) Delicious! And who's ever heard of Veyo, anyway??? Apparently they make hundreds of pies a day and visitors from all over the world (coming for the national parks, I assume) visit this tiny pie place. Crazy!

The rest of Friday was spent touring the Plein Aire art show my Dad was in, and the St. George Arts Festival happening in the center of town. When we were all "arted out", we spent some time at the park and had a hot dog cook-out for dinner. 

Saturday was the big day for me and Robert. The Centers watched the kids ALL DAY, and we headed to Zion to do an 8 mile hike up to the highest look-out in the park. It was incredible. Here is a picture tour of our hike:

A view from where we were climbing up on the cliff.

There were a few rock canyons like this along the way

I kind of look photo-shopped in, huh?

The backside of the cliff

Almost there! What a view of Zion!

Can you see that zig-zag trail carved into the rock???

From Observation point. That is Angel's Landing we are looking DOWN on. Yep, that's right.

Obligatory selfie.

Robert was hugging the side of the mountain a few times.

Ok, see the tiny bit of red at the very tip top of that gigantic cliff? That's where we hiked to! Wowza!

After hiking Observation Point, we decided to walk back to the Lodge, so we ended up hiking almost 9 miles that day! Awesome! My calves were so sore for three days after! All that straight up and then straight down. Killer!

That night we had an Easter egg hunt with the kids. Tommy ran around finding eggs, then hiding them and finding them again. Scarlet found one egg, opened it, and proceeded to eat its entire contents while Tommy ran around finding and hiding.

Sunday, of course, was Easter! And the day did not disappoint.

After church and naps, we took a visit to the St. George temple and Visitor's Center.

 

my cuties

Scarlet is obsessed with going up and down stairs. Tommy decided to join her at it.

The next morning we checked off another "to-do" and went to the Bear Paw Cafe. The waitress recommended my meal, and when it came out it was on three different plates!

We managed to eat all of it but a few eggs. 

What a trip! We hope we can get down one more time before the Centers head back to Ohio. I know I will cry my eyes out that day. It has been so, so wonderful to have them so close.

Hope you all had a lovely Easter!