Our Weekend Trip

Visiting Grandparents in Saint George
This past weekend we took a trip down to Saint George, we left on Wednesday night after Sean got off work. Sean's grandparents live there and since his grandma has been having some health problems the past few months we wanted to go for a visit. Sean's parents were also going to be going down there so we got to see them at the same time. Sean's aunt and uncle from California and one of his cousins also ended up making the trip, so it was a full house. We had a really good time visiting with everyone. Kate had a lot of fun once she warmed up to everyone. Sean's grandpa bought a couple of chairs for the living room so there would be more seating with so many people being there all at once. Apparently the chairs came with two little child chairs so they gave one to Kate. She really liked the chair, about as much as they enjoyed giving it to her. It was so cute, great grandpa took her over to the chair and sat her in it and told her that they were giving her the chair and that she could take it home. It was really sweet. I think they really enjoyed having one of their great grandchildren running around the house. It was fun for Kate to spend some time alone with grandma and grandpa and great grandma and great grandpa. It's less intimidating for her that way.

There is a pond on their backyard that has some ducks and fountains in it that Kate really liked watching. They also have a humming bird feeder hanging right outside the window so she was always watching for the birds to come. I just love watching her, she is such a funny girl.








We took Kate to see the Saint George temple and visitor's center on Friday. Sean's grandpa works at the temple so his parents and aunt and uncle did a session that he officiated while we looked around and waited for them to take some pictures. She really loved it. She loves temples, she gets really excited every time we see one and she loves to point out Moroni. We found out the Saint George temple does not have a Moroni, so we tried to explain that to her. This is the first vistor's center she has been to so she got to see the Christus statue and look at all the different pictures. This temple is so beautiful. I love when you look at it from a distance and see how this bright white building stands out against the red rock mountains in the background. Amazing!





Visiting Friends in Las Vegas
Since we were already in Saint George, we wanted to head to Vegas on Saturday to spend the day with our friends Bill and Rachel and their two kids, Livi (4) and Aaron (2). We met them while we were living in Sacramento. We have been wanting to go down and visit for a couple of months. Their little girl, Livi, was diagnosed with Leukemia a couple of months ago and spent quite a while in the hospital in critical condition. She is out of the hospital now and doing so great - it is hard to imagine that she was ever in such critical condition. She is still fighting the disease, but she is doing so well right now - she is able to run around and play, which is something she couldn't do a month ago.

We had a really good visit with them. We went to this go kart place and rode the go karts, a first for Kate. She was very scared to get into the car at first, but once I got her in there with me she had a good time and was waving to the others as we passed them. Then we went down the Fun Slide. Kate loved it! We went down eight times and every time she got to the bottom she wanted to go again. That was the only other thing she could go on since she is so small, but it worked out great because she had so much fun. We went to lunch at Jason's Deli. We had never eaten there before, but it was really good. I would go there again. We went back to their house and hung out while Kate and Aaron took naps. Kate got to sleep in Livi's princess house, which she was very excited about. Thank you Livi!

In the afternoon we went to this cool water park. One side of the park is your typical park, slides, climbing stuff, etc., and on the other side of the park is this water play area that has fountains and stuff for kids to play in. It was really cool. Aaron loved it and started running through it immediately, but it took Kate a bit to warm up to the water spraying at her, but eventually she was running around having a great time too. Livi preferred the play area over the water area, but after a while she did run through it a few times. It was an awesome park, I really wish they had something like that around here. Thanks for taking us to it! We went back to their house and ate dinner which was great and then it was about time to go. Kate took a bath with Livi and Aaron and we read a couple books with them and then we said our goodbyes. We wish we could have spent more time there, we hope to visit again soon. We miss being able to hang out like we used to in Sacramento.

Watching Livi was amazing, she is such a miracle. I am amazed at the progress she has made in such a short time. She truly is a brave little girl. We love you all! Thank you for a great day!