St. George With The Ladies

Back in September, some of the greatest girls got together and headed to St. George. We had an absolute blast! I cannot tell you how fabulous it was to have a weekend away from it all. Don't get me wrong, it was terribly hard to leave my kids and husband...I may have bowed out had it not been for the fact that we were staying at my parent's condo. I was so nervous but fortunately Tucker talked me into coming. So glad he did! We had so much fun packing in as much as we possibly could and all without having to worry about naps, tantrums, whining, cooking, bedtime routines...not a care in the world!

We arrived Thursday night and got settled in. It was late but we managed to chat it up til 2 in the morning. That may have been a mistake since the following morning was an early one. I had my first triathlon scheduled for the following week so I planned to complete my own tri while down there. Since these girls are that amazing, some even joined in on the bike and run. It was so nice to have such awesome company!

First up, the swim in the pool right in our backyard!

Got out of the pool and jumped on my bike with these lovely ladies. Our condo has the perfect biking/running trails nearby so we found a great ride.

Me, Cheri, Sariah and Jenn

To finish it up, I ran with Kate and Ashley and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we ran along the river. With all that hard work, we decided we earned a hearty breakfast from the Egg and I. Best breakfast ever. Seriously. Here we all are:

The one thing that I could not wait to do sans the kiddos was to go to the pool. As a mother, we all know how stressful a day at the pool can be. So worried about keeping an eye on three children at all times, making sure everyone is having a good time, potty breaks, swim diapers-it can be rough! Here was our chance to relax and we did just that...

Katie, Annelise and I

The Bathing Beauties:

Heidi, Kate, Cheri, Alyse, Ashley, Annelise, Katie, Eliza, Jenn and I

After reading plenty of smut magazines and talking some more, some of us decided to get creative. Enter Synchronized Swimming. Let's just say we put together a sweet routine with this even sweeter hair:

That night we headed to the Pizza Factory for dinner, always a good choice with their delicious salad bar and insanely good bread sticks.

With a few minutes to spare, we opted to participate in a photo shoot. Here are some of my favorites:

Annelise and Cheri-it doesn't get much better than that!

Next up on the itinerary, Tuacahn's The Little Mermaid. I have always loved the music so it was a natural choice. The setup was incredible with water covering the stage and streaming from above. The acting? Not so great. I wanted to laugh every time King Triton opened his mouth. All in all, we had a great night out under the stars in the most gorgeous amphitheater singing along to some of our favorite childhood songs.

After another late night, we woke up to make the trek to Zion's. While waiting for everyone to arrive at the entrance to the park, we felt like jumping. We took some sweet jumping pictures...

Annelise and her sweet toe-touch!

Herkie!
Cheri is still quite the ballerina!
We were gearing up for our hike up Angel's Landing. The last time I hiked Angel's Landing was with my family years ago. David hiked it with us only he cruised up and back. When he passed away, we read his journal entry about that very hike. I was thinking about what he said about reaching the top, that "they called it Angel's Landing because there really were angels." Unfortunately I didn't know what it was like at the top because as soon as I started climbing with the chains I freaked myself out waited for everyone as they continued on.

So there I was, happy to hike with my girls but convinced that there was no way I would attempt those chains ever again...and that was ok.

Here we are starting the Squiggly Wigglies:

As I started to hike, however, I changed my mind. I was literally racing to the top and decided I would give it another go. Thank you Eliza for giving me that needed push!

As we started to climb, I was really nervous and there was never a time where my hands left those chains. But then I realized David was there and smiling. I was fighting back the tears as I hiked and then I was there. At the top. Just as I thought I had my emotions under control and we were all enjoying the insanely beautiful views, Cheri told me she had felt David with her. With that I started to cry.

Here we are full of accomplishment:

So happy to have made it! I am so glad I made it with such good company:

After an extremely successful day in Zion's, we headed home to get ready for the game. Not just any game, the U of U/BYU game. We had some serious fans bleeding blue and some serious fans bleeding red. We didn't have the right channel at the condo so we had to go to a sports bar. It was going to be interesting to watch together! A few of the girls were being extra good and went to the temple before. This brought our favorite quote of the night when Heidi said, "Ok, we will meet you at the bar after the temple!" It just didn't seem right. ;)

These girls were pretty happy when the Y was ahead...

...but that didn't last long! Here we are showing our U pride! Well except for Sariah who didn't care and Jenn, the one in blue. She was such a good sport though and we still had a great time!
A REALLY good time!
We were so loud and obnoxious, everyone would turn to see our reaction with each touchdown made. It was getting a bit ridiculous but we couldn't tone down our excitement for the the most important win of the season!
Yeah, we like to jump.
We also like to dance. After the game we headed back and although we were completely exhausted from two days of going nonstop, we started to dance. All those years of Dance Co. were flooding our minds and we could not refrain from the split rolls, fan kicks, and body rolls.
These pictures show us acting completely ridiculous that night...
...you should see the video. ;)

Waking up early the next day, we realized we had slept for a total of 15 hours for the past three nights. With that, we loaded up on caffeine and headed home. The trip was absolutely perfect. I love these girls and I can't wait for our next trip!