We went home to St. George twice in one month in 2019 – for Thanksgiving and again for Christmas. While we love that we can go home so easily (that 7-hour drive from SoCal to SoUtah was one reason San Diego became our target market for Ryan’s job), making that trip basically back-to-back ended up being wild. Especially since that 7-hour drive took us TWELVE HOURS when we went back again after Christmas Day. Yes I’m serious and yes I feel scarred from it all. We left SD at 2:30 PM on December 26 and arrived in STG at 3:30 AM on December 27. A snow storm whooped Southern California and Nevada that day (we had no idea it was coming), and we drove right into the storm by leaving when we did. That very special snow storm caused a ton of car accidents, too (I was SO sad for those people), enough for a big portion of I-15 to be totally shut down. So we were diverted into the wild, barren desert of California just west of Baker, through more snow (yes I’m serious) and more and more cars pulled off the road due to more accidents (yes it was starting to feel like Armageddon), and how we made it out alive, you ask, I honestly do not know. By “alive” I mean we made it to St. George, but we were emotionally okay during that drive, too. The girls were angels. A steady steam of Disney+ movies was helpful there (we just keep playing them when we realized that we were not going to make it to St. George that day), but movies aside, our girls were unbelievably calm and content for that entire, entirely unexpected 12-hour drive. We were blessed. Heaven really did help, I know it. I mean, on the way home to San Diego, we still passed the ball to Disney+ but the girls were not calm and content on that drive. Especially Chloe. She was an average baby that go-round, crying and frustrated that she’d been driving for forever, and the other girls needed bathroom stops (sooo many bathroom stops!) — NONE of that happened on the night of the snow-apocalypse drive home. And it should have. SO. I’m grateful. Really grateful that we were okay getting there. But, I can’t lie, I’m still feeling the repercussions of making that CA-UT trip four times in four weeks. Topping off that drive with juggling mine and Ryan’s families so much, plus all of the holiday expectations, plus trying to take care of my little family, too, and Jeni = drained. I have to figure out how to approach the 2020 holiday season with our families better because, yes, Thanksgiving-Christmas 2019 was tough for me. Hence my slow January on the inter webs. It’s also just been a “January,” if you know what I mean. Ah well. C’est la vie! 🙂
The shots below are from one of our favorite Snow Canyon hikes – “Marble Mountain!” – which is actually the hike around the Petrified Sand Dunes. “Marble Mountain” hails from the tiny, circular, marble-looking rocks that cover some of the dunes once you summit them. The kids are obsessed. It is a wild little playground, and if you ever go to STG, it’s a must-do. Mmm Snow Canyon is the best!
Chloe!!
Emmy!! You’ll see this in a second, but a solid chunk of this post is “Emmy on Fire.” You see, you get heated up when you’re a 2.5-year-old hiker, and sometimes you can’t hang, so your Mom hangs back with you, and well, sometimes Mom just has to take a hundred pictures of you while you simmer down (scroll on, you’ll see 🙂 ).
Falling off the mountain! A classic pose. I have a picture of me doing this same thing in Snow Canyon when I was their age!
These two below are titled: Chloe!!! Round 2 (good thing, because that baby has my WHOLE heart)
This one’s titled: a game of hike-and-seek (where are the hikers?? ;))
This one’s titled: toddler gives up and sits down and waits until someone notices her.
Someone noticed her. 🙂
As promised, these string of photos are titled: Emmy on Fire, the hiking toddler that turned dramatic, much to her photographer mother’s delight…:)
I used “Fire” up there for a good reason, right?? Hahah, that girl. 🙂 And look below! Marble Mountain!
Emmy and I finally caught up with the crew! I asked for smiles for a picture and got these (offf course)…
And when I asked Olivia and Claire to stop and smile for me (I basically didn’t see them during this whole hike since they were fast and Emmy and I were slow!), Olivia wanted to die…
But she survived, haha! Love my Olivia and my Claire.
Last but not least, this one is titled: TADA! A Happy Family High on a Mountain Top (we made it)!
That “summiting” feeling is basically how I’m feeling about life in general right now, now that it’s been a month since our trip and the laundry is (finally!) all done, the routines are back on track, and the red dirt has been vacuumed up in my car. And yet – I look at these pictures of my home sweet home, I think about my girls with their cousins, I think about Ryan and me with our siblings and parents and I’m like – when are we going back, team?? (haha, I’m such a rollercoaster! 😉 )
Long live our sweet hometown and our families that love us so and we love them!
All is well.
