Spring Break-St. George style

For Scotty's Spring Break we headed down to the sunshine in St. George.  Personally, the ride to St.George was one of my most favorite parts!  We just talked and laughed.  I almost had to pull over once because I couldn't see through my tears.  I really like driving through little tiny Utah towns.  I told Scott I could picture us living in a little tiny town with lots of land for kids to run on.  It seems like the perfect thing for a kid- freedom to run and play and explore.  Anyhow, it was a fun drive.  St. George was beautiful.  The weather was perfect- 74-79 degrees while we were there.  

We ate at Olive Garden the first day there and this is where I noticed the "St. George phenomenon".  That being-- there are a lot of older people in St.George.  It felt similar to spending some time on the rehab floor of the hospital, except these people were spry.  It was fun to watch them exit by our table hand in hand, white hair gleaming, usually one or the other a little bent.  After noticing this first phenomenon I realized the second one- old people love babies.  They're like a bit of magic to them.  Their eyes light up and you can tell they remember that feeling, but don't necessarily want to relive it.  

 

Our second day there (after we had the van's lock & tumbler fixed) we headed to Zion's National Park.  It is breathtaking.  I dislike being the driver when we're going through places like this.  I become very accident prone because I'm gawking at those awesome sheer rocks.  I was determined that we would go on a few hikes.  You see we brought the kids to St. George  6 years ago in February and we went hiking and had a fantastic time.  I found some  hikes listed as "accessible", so with that in mind off we went. 

I was excited that one of the hikes we had taken the kids on was listed as "accessible"- the Emerald Pools Hike.  It would be sort of  a re-conquering for us. We were off to a roaring start as we tried to find a way across the street and Scott became mired down in this soft dirt covered with bugs/red ants.  Of course we were laughing our pants off again and people were looking at us strangely. Then I was dancing my pants off trying to fling the red ants from my shoes and pant legs.  This one nice guy stopped and helped push Scott through the muck to safety.  (Yes, I took his picture.)

The Emerald Pools hike ended up being a labor of love and trust for Scott.  It has several deep dips in the pavement to help direct runoff.  Nothing that would have even registered before, however, these dips were so deep that Scott's footrests would drag on every single one.  There was also a large buckle in the pavement and combined with the fine dirt/sand it threatened to throw him and his chair right over the edge.  He was sweating a bit.  

I gave him a friendly reminder that if the chair was heading over to not hold on, but to bail out.  
Grace enjoyed the hike as you can see.  It put her right to sleep laying against that big soft pillow called Mom.  This is us as far as the wheelchair could go. It is the first waterfall.  I was so glad we made it.  

The second hike was more of a leisurely walk down by a river.  It was much more wheelchair safe.  There was no risk of death and so it was somewhat boring :), but we enjoyed ourselves.  Grace was awake for this one and we loved watching her big eyes look like they were trying to take in those cliffs. We were quite popular carrying her around, people would stop and comment and hold her little hand.  

It was a great trip and I'm so glad we got to go.  We're so lucky to have my Mom and Dad to come down and watch our other kids so we could enjoy some time alone.  Scott's really excited to go again, but with the kids this time and take them to some of the spots we went and just enjoy the outdoors together.  It is one of the things we love to do as a family and we have been missing it.