St. George

One of the greatest things about living back in the West is that we are so much closer to family. Seriously, it's awesome. I've really missed being able to interact in person. Seeing family once or twice a year is hard, and even though we're still 9 hours from my parents, that's way closer than 30 hours. Sure, we're further from the Valentines, but because we were flying rather than driving and Louisville never has direct flights anywhere, it's, for all intents and purposes, the same as it was before.

My mom's parents have a home in St. George that they spend about half of there time in. Over the weekend of October 18th, my brother Danny, our cousins Jon and Amy, and Amy's roommate decided to go to a play at Tuacahn, a really neat outdoor theater in St. George. My aunt Becky and her youngest daughter, Jayne, were staying with Grandma and Grandpa, too, so they all got tickets to the show, too. Since they were headed that direction, we looked up how much of a drive it'd be to go visit. The answer: just under 2 hours. That was a no-brainer for us, so we hopped in the car and drove up to see everyone.

The drive takes you through Nevada, Arizona, and then up into Utah. And it is a beautiful drive. There's not a lot in the way of civilization between here and there, but the canyons are gorgeous. That red rock that southern Utah is famous for makes for some beautiful scenic drives - we had to pull over a time or two to look at the beauty around us. And, lucky for us, DJ slept the whole car ride (huzzah!).

We arrived and everyone was gone except Grandma and Grandpa, so we got to hang out with them for a bit. Grandma loves her great grandbabies, so she was just tickled to get to spend some one-on-one time with DJ. Since he's the cutest kid in the history of ever, he was being a doll baby the whole time. Soon, Dan and his gang got back from a lunch date with some of Amy's mission buddies, so it was way fun to see all of them. Uncle Danny's gonna be the favorite, I'm pretty sure. So we hung out and chatted for awhile. They were trying to decide if they wanted to go to the outlets and go shopping, but everyone nixed that idea. I wasn't too bummed because I wasn't feeling 100% (that'll be another post - get ready for some tales of Jessica-epic proportions), plus I really just wanted to spend time with everyone. Jon and Dan hauled Deg outside to mess with a car stereo, so DJ and I chilled with Grandma and Grandpa some more.

Soon, Becky and Jayne came back from some shopping. The last time I really interacted with Jayne was probably when she was 4 or so - she's 9 now (that's crazy, by the way - I remember going to stay with Becky when Jayne was born so she'd have an extra pair of hands). It was so good to see them, and when DJ saw Jayne's brightly colored shirt, he gabbed at it for probably a good 7 strait minutes. She was really excited that she was the only one who could get him to talk, and that opened the door for her and I to have an awesome chat while her mom ran an errand and everyone else got ready to go to the show.

Grandpa took us all to dinner at Cafe Rio. Feeding 10 people isn't cheap, so props for being awesomely giving and generous go to him. While waiting in line, I saw my supervisor from when I worked at NPA in West Jordan, UT. It was so weird to see her in St. George, but it was really neat, too. It was pretty funny to be able to be seeing all of these great people, and DJ was loving all the attention. We ate, Grandma rocked DJ to sleep, and then we headed back to Vegas while they all headed to the play. It was so awesome to be able to take a day trip and to get to spend several hours with family. I was so excited about going and it really made me feel at home. I'm so blessed to live so close again. We're planning another St. George trip, soon, and I'm so excited to get to see my grandparents again and to get to have them be a part of DJ's life.

Jayne and DJ; Grandma and Grandpa Bowen, Dan, and DJ; and Dan and DJ. I love my family.