A Stop In St. George

At the conclusion of our Lake Powell trip, our family had to divide for a couple of days.

Clint, Carew, and his girlfriend Kara all headed back home to go to work, while the rest of us took a drive to St. George where we rented a place to stay and visit with my mom for a few days.

It was a pretty drive and only took us about an hour and a half from where we were. It was the perfect opportunity to see one of our very favorite people!

My sweet mom came to our place and stayed with us for 3 blissful days and we all loved it. She even brought games to play and lots of puzzles for Kesslyn to put together. She absolutely LOVES doing puzzles and she is so good at them too! :)

On Sunday we had church together with Clint and Carew who joined via technology. We also went for a drive to see the St. George temple that they are currently remodeling...

We also saw the Christus statue through the window of the Visitors Center too. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the visitors center there was still closed, but we still enjoyed being there and enjoying the spirit of the temple grounds.

We also spent all day Monday swimming in the pool and enjoying the care free time in the warm sunshine.

My beautiful momma sat in the shade and enjoyed watching all the kids splash around and have a fun time...

She's so pretty. :)

Kierra and Riley were also having a family reunion with Riley's family back in Kanab, only a little over an hour away from where we were, and that was another reason why we stayed to see my mom. Then we could drop them off when it was time without them having to go all the way  back to Colorado!

Everyone loved having extra time with their favorite big sister and their favorite nephew. :)

We definitely don't get enough of them, and so we are grateful and happy for any opportunity we get to be with them. I LOVE my family!!!

After a fun day of swimming we took the family and went to dinner at the Cracker Barrel, but we had to sit as two separate parties because they won't let more than 6 people sit together because of the pandemic. ;(

But we made it work and we were grateful for the opportunity to just be able to get out together!

We took lots of pictures together before we had to go...

This visit was the first time that my mom got to see Easton too, so we had to be sure to get some of those 4 generation pictures! 

Priceless!

Everyone loves Easton!

And it looks like Easton loves everyone too...

...especially Aunt Kesslyn!

We all loaded up the car and drove to Kanab to drop Kierra and Easton off...

...but not without one last stop for fun!

We had some lunch and then went into the Moqui Cave.

It was a fun little stop and a fun little trip.

I look forward to more fun family adventures this summer!

I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

Doing Hard Things

At Lake Powell, one of the things that I enjoyed and admired about my family was everyone's enthusiasm for trying something new.

Surfing was definitely something new to all of us, but not only was it new, it was hard!

But then there were people like Carew and Kara who made it look easy!!!

But I still don't think it was "easy," they just didn't give up.

I love how when we encourage one another and try to do our best, even if we fall, that we gain a sense of confidence in ourselves, AND in knowing that there are people behind us cheering us on.

(And since we didn't get pictures of everyone, I took a screen shot of a video my kids took of me surfing too!)

That's right! Even mom can do hard things! ;)

And still yet, we try these things and other hard things in life and hope to be good examples for the little ones to lean on and follow...

Captain Easton, just follow Pops and you can't go wrong! ;)

Lake Powell was a great family vacation full of many good memories with lots of good people. But one of the things that still stands out to me most, was how at night, all 29 of us would gather for scripture study and prayer together. 

We had some great discussions and felt the Spirit teach and testify of truth, and hopefully, some of these kinds of memories will stick in my children's heads as much as the surfing did! But we'll see. :)

And honestly, one of the greatest blessings of these kinds of trips for me, is seeing the hand of God in everything beautiful around me. The water, the sunsets, the bajillion stars in the dark night sky...and I specifically remember riding on the back of the jet ski with Clint and hearing the words from a familiar hymn, "The winds and the waves shall obey Thy will...peace be still." 

May all of our summer adventures bring us such happy memories and peace in Christ.

Lake Powell Part 2 ~ The Perfect "Peace" of Heaven

During our week at Lake Powell we had many fun and also relaxing adventures!

One of them was a hike where we went exploring and also found lots of seashells!

We relayed in some fun but competitive obstacle course races, and played king of the lily pad...;)

The kids all had a ball on the little piece of the cove we stayed at that they lovingly called "Mermaid Island."

It was so cute to me how they all had such a fun time with things such as buckets, water, rocks, and their imaginations!

No technology needed!

Now THAT's MY kind of vacation!

We shampooed our hair in the lake..

Carew and Kara had fun on this week long "date" riding the wave runners, cliff jumping, and all kinds of activities.

Dallin and Clint rode on the wave runners too...

So much fun!!

We played with little chunky monkey Easton!

(That was one of my very favorite parts.of the trip! ;)

And Easton even got a bath in the lake!

He wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but he was a brave baby boy. ;)

Carew and Dallin sported their "beach hair-don't care" attitudes...

We played with chubba bubba Easton some more...

He LOVES his Lolli by the way...:)

We sometimes chilled in the family room on the house boat to get a break from the sun, and we had LOTS of quality time together!

Times like these are precious indeed and I feel so grateful that the Browns were so generous to invite our entire family to enjoy this experience with them!

It was the perfect piece of heaven we all needed to begin a summer of  continuous change and uncertainty with the world pandemic still going on.

It was the PERFECT "peace" of heaven because we were all together. :)