"St Fun"

When we lived in Indiana, Steve's family flew to Florida, and we drove and met them in Destin. It was a great time. We talked last year about going back, or as a more realistic alternative, going to Disney this fall and renting a house. Well the year passed, and there were not enough funds for Destin, Disney or a beach house. But, we still wanted to get together. In fact, Steve considered having a reunion shirt made that said, "We couldn't afford Destin, so we came here" or something that that effect. We did get together, and with Christian's connections, rented a sweet house that was way underpriced and had a great time in Sunny Southern Utah.
The house had a grill, a pool, a basketball court, enough comfortable beds for all, big tvs, and lots of fun extras, like a park across the street, castle and princess beds to play on and sleep in, and a fusbol table to boot. It was very nice.  We were there Sunday night thru Thursday morning. We had 3 full days, and we were all assigned a day or some portion of the day to plan.
 Sunday: Jenna and Zac rode with Lissa and Christian. Kevin, Anna and Hayk rode with the rest of us in the van. We caravaned down with Lissa and Christian and Jeff. The vehicles were loaded, and we left Orem around 3pm. We arrived about 7pm. We ordered pizza when we got there and cranked up the cooler because it was hot in St George.
Monday: We played catch, some kick ball and had Carne asade meat that Christian made for lunch- that happens to be one of my favorite things ever to eat. We also swam. I even was able to lay out for a time and read! Amazing, I know!

Uncle Kevin. Who, btw, has a wicked can opener!

BFF

Daddy + kids= throwing!

That night, we had an Iron Chef. That was really a fun activity. Liss and Christian, Kevin and Anna, and Steve and I were the teams. We had 2 chicken breasts and 10 dollars to buy ingredients to prepare two meals for our 3 judges. We had 1.5 hours to shop and 1.5 hours to prepare. The $10 was a challenge and although it was initially annoying, it ended up making it more fun. We had to be creative and frugal. The meals were all unique from one another and very good. Christian and Lissa won and rightfully some. Mamita gave them the recipe to a soup and an other pasta dish t hat I loved. I still need to get the recipe. Anna and Kevin's food looked good too. Steve and I had fun and presented food that really was food that we like and eat. Tex/Mex and Italian. The judges (Scot, Julene, and Jeff) were fun and generous. The kids were somewhere during all of this. Occasionally crying, but safe and fending for themselves. Somehow those 6  chicken breast seemed to feed us all. 

Tuesday, we went to the park across the street and played. The kids had fun. The big guys played some kickball. We also played with some waterballons.We had delicious sandwiches for lunch on french bread and the kids swam a lot. Liss also had a fun painting craft for the kids.
Lissa and Anna and I went to Target that night and had some respite from the chaos and spent a little fun money. Book #3 of the Hunger Games. 

Kick ball

Bubbles!

"here kitty kitty!"

Lissa's sponge painting fun!

Wednesday, we went to a public park with a splash pad. We have been here years ago. It is an awesome park! It was nearly the last day that the water would be on. It was hot enough that the kids played in it and had a great time. There was also a sand volleyball court the kids played in. There was the awesome playground equipment too. Somehow Gage slept. We threw the Frisbee and played a little 3 man kickball. It was fun. We could have stayed there a while, but hunger got the best of us.

Brandon and Steve throwing football

We headed home, ate and swam. That night we went to the Cracker Barrel. The food was sooo good. The kids as a whole did awesome. It was a good time! That night I stayed up late, reading.

 Thursday morning it was time to clean and pack. We loaded up and headed home. Jeff still beat us to Orem, despite a flat tire as he was pulling away. The kids were over tired, and it was sure a long drive home. But we made it. The kids had a great time with the cousins! Jenna said, "It's not St George. It's Saint Fun!" So funny.

2 peas in a pod. Love them. Trev and Kaiden

Dry cereal and Tangled- aren't they cute? 9 of them 8 and under!

 Left to Right: Zac, Gage, Reagan, Trevor, Jenna, Roman, Hyak, Kaiden and Christian.

 Thanks to Liss for the pictures. I was careful to pack my camera, but did not bring the battery. Ugg.