For Memorial day we needed to get out and do something as a family. We decided to take a trip to St. George and Zion's National Park. We decided late enough that many of the hotels were booked and wanted to save as much money as we could so we reserved a cheap hotel and were on our way.
Preston was so excited for a road trip. He was bouncing around all day helping me pack. Half an hour before we had planned to leave Preston decided he was ready to go and got in the car. There was no convincing him to get out and play until Daddy got home from work.
Somewhere around Cedar City we had a crazy idea to just keep going and surprise the family in Dallas with a visit. Jared had a Job interview down there that coming Thursday so we could just extend our vacation a few more days. Unfortunately, when we looked it up Dallas isn't any closer to St. George than it is to Lehi. Instead of having already driven three hours of the trip we would have been adding three hours so we decided to go on to St. George.
We stopped for dinner and a little outlet shopping then headed to our hotel. When we got there we again started to wonder if we should just go to Dallas since the hotel was much worse than we expected and there were no other options in town. The toilet was leaking, the floor we had planned on Preston sleeping on was all tile, the neighbors were doing drugs next door, and Sierra refused to go to sleep in the pack n' play (I eventually took her in the car to fall asleep). We stayed one night instead of three.
We were really hoping to escape the cold we were experiencing in Lehi but unfortunately it was just as rainy. At least it was mildly warmer.
We had heard by many people that The Bear Claw is the best place to have breakfast in town. So we had to check it out. Of all the waffles and pancakes Preston could have he insisted he wanted a bowl of oatmeal with a special request for chocolate chips in it.
After breakfast we spent some time at the children's museum.
After the children's museum we headed up to Zion's so we could hike the Narrows. What we didn't realize is that Memorial day weekend is the busiest time of year. The line just to take the shuttle to the trail head for the Narrows was over an hour long. Waiting in a line with two young kids for that long is not worth it so we found a few other short trails to hike and a river to play in. From there we headed home. Somehow all the pictures I took on my camera from the trip are no where to be found. At least I have a few from my phone but Zion's was beautiful I wish we had the pictures.
We got home Saturday night. By Sunday afternoon we were still wishing we had just gone to Dallas. Then it occurred to us that by going to Dallas from home was still the same travel time as if we had gone from when we first had the idea. At least this way we could repack our clothes for what we would need there.
A few hours later the car was repacked and we were braving the 20 hour drive for the first time with the kids.
Preston has always been an incredible traveler Sierra is a little harder to convince but over all they did very well. At one point Sierra was fussing about the sun in her eyes so Jared and I worked together to block it with our hands. eventually I realized I could drape a blanket across the seats to block the sun. A few miles later we finally realized the source of the sun was the open sun roof. Close the sun roof and problem solved.
We pulled in around 5pm Monday evening to some very surprised family. I love a good surprise.
Jared still had to work so most days he just did his work from the home office. Sierra loves her Daddy and went to find him as often as she could.
Splash pad fun with the cousins
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Meeting the newest cousin Asher. The girls were in heaven with the baby.
This is about how we all felt when we arrived home after a week long spontaneous trip and a 20 hour car ride.
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