St. George Trip + Weekend

This weekend, Dan's work had a retreat in St. George. 

They have one every year just over a couple of days, and this was the first one for us!

We have been looking forward to it for a couple months now, anxiously awaiting the arrival of June.

It also happened to coincide with the weekend that Dan's cousin, Aiko and her husband Todd were baptizing their little baby girl.

It was a little too perfect, as we would come to find out, to be able to do all of it in one weekend.

But we thought it was great timing and why not do it all!

It was also the same weekend as the ward party, and I was a little bummed to be missing that.

Awesome barbecue and homemade ice cream?

Who wouldn't want to miss that!

I had it all planned out.

Work half day on Thursday and take Friday off; we'd be back by Sunday night so I could work on Monday. 

But as all well-laid plans go, you know exactly where it went.

Also, I got this crazy idea bouncing around in my head to chop my hair off.

So I had to find time to squeeze that in before we left.

More on that in a bit. 

Oh, and I got invited to play Bunco with some friends on Wednesday night!

The weekend was approaching and I was getting everything ready to go.

I made a packing list on Tuesday, started laundry on Wednesday afternoon, and got all packed up Wednesday night. 

I tried really really REALLY hard not to over-pack.

But of course I still did, packing almost double the amount of clothes I actually needed.

What's a girl to do.

Also I found these super cute shorts at Kohl's after work on Wednesday, and grabbed a couple of pairs.

Hopefully, enough to last me through the summer. 

I was debating the entire way home from Kohl's about not going to Bunco.

I just didn't feel like I had time to do all of it.

Thankfully, Dan told me to go!

I had such a blast with Char Larsen, Amy Smith, and Liz Palmer.

I also found out that Bunco was not as exclusive of a club as I thought!

It felt like half our ward was there playing, but of course only fun ladies.

It was so nice to get out of the house for a few hours and enjoy good company and way too many laughs.

At the end of the night, we all got a prize.

Amber (Char's daughter) made a holder for the hanging flower baskets.

It is so cute and I can't wait to hang something in it. 

I even branched out and got a light purple color (it's chalk paint called Bastille).

We sat outside Amber's house and ended up laughing hysterically for a good 30 minutes about random things.

Bottom line: Liz is hilarious when she gets hyper.

Love that girl to death.

So back to the hair chopping incident.

Monday-ish, I started itching to chop my hair.

I had honestly been thinking about it since I last got my hair done, about a month ago, but starting Monday I couldn't get the thought out of my head.

I talked to Dan, got gutsy, and called the girl who does my hair.

She's amazing, let me tell you!

Not only is she just straight awesome and hilarious, but she also squeezed me in to chop my hair before we left for St. George!

I went over right before we left, and off the hair went!

And this was the final product.

It's still a little crazy that I actually cut it.

I still have minor anxiety when I wash it or style it because it's gone!

But so far, I love it.

It's liberating.

I highly recommend it. 

So off we went to St. George, short hair, car packed, and ready for a relaxing weekend!

About 30 minutes south of Nephi, there are quite a few hills that are a little difficult to climb going 80mph on a 4 cylinder engine. 

Climbing one of these hills, the A/C went out.

Mind you, it's about 100 degrees outside.

We drove another hour to Beaver, with the windows down, and pulled off the freeway, hoping to get the Freon topped off and be back on our way.

Getting off the freeway, we started to hear this horrible rattling noise.

We got to a mechanic, and found out the pulley on the air compressor had broken and the compressor was hanging.

Sucky.

After about 15 minutes trying to decide what to do, we figured we better just drive home.

I suddenly got a horrible, horrible feeling and heavy weight on my chest.

I started tearing up and told Dan there is no way we can drive home.

We wouldn't make it.

The soonest they could get the part to fix it would be Friday.

We had no way to get to St. George, and no way to get home.

Thankfully, and by no small miracle, the mechanic who owned the shop said he had a van that we could borrow for the weekend.

It seriously was so incredibly generous of him, and probably saved our weekend.

It was an old 92 Dodge Conversion van, the kind that has curtains on the windows, and the back bench folds down into a bed.

Yeah.

But it ran, and had A/C, and got us to St. George and back home safely!

This was driving home.

I was not nearly as excited about driving it down to St. George as I was to be going home.

We finally made it to St. George and made it to the restaurant, surprisingly only 30 minutes late!

The food at the restaurant was pretty delicious.

We went to the Cliffside Inn for dinner.

It has a gorgeous view overlooking St. George.

And I forgot to take a picture.

I was a little too distracted with my own crap on Thursday to really relax and enjoy the time with Dan's co-workers.

Something that I didn't really appreciate until we were leaving to come back home, Dan's co-workers were all genuinely concerned about us.

Dan's boss, James, is an all around stand up guy.

He was trying to find us a ride from Beaver to St. George, sent out a mass text seeing if anyone could pick us up, and even offered to pay for a rental so we could still come this weekend.

Stand up guy.

I'm feeling so incredibly blessed for the company Dan works for and the people he is privileged to associate with and work beside.

James said something to me within 5 minutes of being at the restaurant that initially bothered me, but then I came to appreciate it.

He told me to not worry about the car, and to just relax and enjoy the weekend.

At first, I was a little bugged.

Of course I'm going to worry about my car!

It's going to put me out quite a few bones, but okay I'll try to enjoy my weekend.

After dinner, we ran back to the hotel, checked in and dropped off our bags.

We hopped in the car with Bryce and Megan Cranney, and off we went to Tuacahn for Beauty and the Beast.

Tuacahn is gorgeous, and so perfectly tucked into the rocks.

It was so hot in St. George that it was actually quite nice to get a little breeze blowing through the canyon, even if it did feel like a blow dryer on your face!

The show was awesome, and then I realized I had seen it before when Rylee was in high school.

I didn't realize it till the very end when Chip runs out as a little boy, and then I remembered Ethan played that little boy!

At intermission, we had to get some water, and Dan indulged in some frozen lemonade.

Anything to stay awake--it really stinks getting old and you want to go to bed early!

The show ended around 11:30, and we headed straight to bed.

The next morning, I slept in till probably 8:45.

Dan was kind enough to bring me breakfast, and even had an old fashioned cake donut!

My absolute favorite!!

We hurried to get dressed and head out to Sand Hollow for a day of fun playing on the lake and riding quads.

My entire goal for the trip was not to get sunburned.

I bought SPF 50 sunscreen just for that purpose.

I applied generously a couple times throughout the day, and laid out to enjoy the warm sunshine.

The boys played ultimate frisbee with a football, and the girls laid out by the shore.

I talked with Thea, James' wife for a little while.

She is such a hilarious and genuine person, and I instantly felt comfortable around her, and all the other wives too.

Now, I generously applied the sunscreen to my shoulders/back/face.

I neglected my legs.

They never burn, so I figured a little SPF 4 would suffice.

WRONG.

This wasn't even that bad.

It turned almost purple in some spots, but thankfully is getting better.

We went over to the cliffs to go cliff jumping.

Dan was super bummed he couldn't do it, since he'd strained his groin earlier that week playing softball.

He tried swimming earlier, and said one kick and it was painful.

But I jumped.

It was probably 20-25 ft high.

It was so intense and scary at first!

I don't know how I used to jump off the cliffs at Fry Mesa, but I did it!

It was so thrilling, and the water was so refreshing. 

Even Clint (who apparently is super afraid of heights) ended up jumping off the cliff.

We headed back home, and Dan and I ran to grab some food at Smashburger.

We weren't going to dinner till 7, and I needed some lunch pronto or else I would be so sick from being in the sun all day.

We saw Megan and Bryce there, and Megan asked if I wanted to go get a pedicure with her before dinner.

I'm always down for a good pedicure!

We got back to the hotel and I hurried to shower and get ready.

A bunch of us girls met in the lobby and even Berlin (one of Dan's coworker's daughter) came with us.

She was darling and so fun to have come with all the girls!

Off we went in the "shaggin wagon" to get our toes painted.

We met all the boys at dinner at Anasazi steakhouse.

Their big claim to fame is that you can cook your own food right in front of you on a hot stone.

They put these stones in the kiln and heat them for 10 hours till their 700 degrees and then they bring your meat out to you seared and you cook it to your liking.

It was an interesting and entertaining dinner.

We sat with James/Thea, Ryan/Amanda, and Grant/Tara.

It was a super fun table to be at.

James asked how we met, and I made Dan tell the WHOLE story, including the bumps.

It was super funny and everyone was laughing.

We finished up with dessert at Nielson's Frozen Custard.

Super yummy!!
I got chocolate chip cookie dough, but couldn't finish it was so rich and delicious.

We ended the evening by going back to the hotel and playing a game.
It was supposed to be a newlywed game, but one of the other "new" couples had to leave right after dinner to head back home.
So instead, we played a different game that Ryan and Amanda had.
We had to go into a dimly lit room individually.
I had a disclaimer when I walked in that I may or may not say bad words.
Ryan walked right up to you and said "Welcome to Brandmakers. If you want to be part of the team, you must perform until we applaud."
What. The. Hell.
Then Ammon started playing the music to Pharrell's "Happy."
I was so ticked, and tired, and seriously did not want to dance in front of all these people.
Everyone started copying me, whenever I would move or say something.
It honestly got irritating.
I finally just walked right out.
Amanda chased after me, and explained that since they were copying me, I just had to clap!
I felt a little silly for being so dramatic and walking out, but I really was so tired from being outside all day long.
Heat takes a toll on your patience...or at least mine.
Everyone eventually came into the room.
Some people had some sweet dance moves (James did double cartwheels, Thea stood on her head, and Megan busted out moves so awesome that we all just started clapping because we couldn't copy her!).
And let's not forget the full moon provided so kindly by Clint.
Yikes.
We all had a good laugh, and then headed off to bed.

Saturday morning, we slept in again.
There's something rejuvenating about not waking up at the butt crack of dawn every day.
We had breakfast, and got packed up.
James dropped by and handed Dan an envelope with some cash in it to help with the car repair.
I cried.
I have felt so incredibly blessed through this whole experience, despite the fact that we couldn't be in Arizona for Father's day and missed Aiko's daughter's baptism.
We have little miracles like this and I feel so blessed that Dan works with the company and the people he does.
They genuinely care about him and want him to stay with them for the long haul.
It's amazing.

We headed out in the shaggin wagon and made it home safely, and with an uneventful journey.
I couldn't wait to pick up our Ruby girl!
I miss her sweet face.
We dropped off all our stuff at home and picked up Ruby girl, and promptly gave her a bath.
Outside dogs STINK!
We went to the Ward Summer BBQ Party, which is always fun and full of delicious food!
I got to hold Liz's sweet little guy, and he fell right to sleep on my shoulder.
Ugh, those moments are my favorite and I can't wait to have one of our own to snuggle to sleep.

We topped off the evening watching Jurassic World.
So. Good.
It was epic.
And then of course I had to watch Jurassic Park on Sunday just to recap.
It was the perfect end to what started out horrible, and ended up being a fantastic weekend.