Southern Utah

The day after Christmas we headed down to Southern Utah for a few days with both Del's parents, and mine. It was such a nice trip!

On the first date Del and I ever went on when I was sixteen, and he was eighteen, I told him that I wanted to go to Dixie in St. George. My sister was headed there for school the next year, and I just liked the idea of it. Del told me that he had applied there, and was offered a scholarship. While he was serving his mission for our church, I had hesitations about following through with my plans to go to Dixie, because I wasn't sure if it would make me look like I was desperately following him around if that is where he ended up landing when he got home. Never worry about what people will think as much as I did.

As fate would have it, I got a scholarship there too. And so did some of my best friends! So we all ended up in Southern Utah, at Dixie! I roomed with my friends, and what a fun year it was! Del was only a few blocks away, and we ended up spending all our time together.

Del and I got engaged while in St. George, and we lived there for the first year of our marriage while we attended Dixie for another year, and Del was the Student Vice President.
After that year, Del transferred to Weber State in Northern Utah. We hadn't been back in over seven years.

Things are very different in St. George these days! I swear there is more commerce there than in the entire county we live in now, with a far bigger population! Restaurants like mad! People must eat out a lot there! Ha!
One thing that doesn't change, is that St. George is still a charming, unique town in the middle of the beautiful desert scenery of Southern Utah.
I still love it. The air has a specific smell in Southern Utah.
We headed straight into Zion National Park the morning after we arrived. So get ready for a lot of low quality pictures of red rock!

Don't worry, what I lack in quality, I make up for in quantity!

We walked the path that leads to the trail head of the Narrows. It was so cold, and so icy, we had to turn around before we got to the Narrows entrance. Google the Narrows if you have never seen pictures! It is mind blowing! I want to go back and hike through when the kids are older, and the weather is a lot warmer.

That would be Angels' Landing. Next time we are in Zion, I want to try hiking that with the kids. It would be too much now, but in a few years it will be a great challenge! So glad we were able to show our kids the beauty of Zion, and the red rock of Utah.

We did the Emerald Pools hike. We went around the entire bowl, and I am so glad we didn't stop when it got icy. The other side was in the sun, and it felt amazing, and it was the perfect hike to do with kids!

We all brought home some of the red rock dirt on our shoes as a souvenir.

We sat down after our hike while Del and my dad ran back to the parking lot to get his parents who had waited for us to do the hike.
Georgia suddenly jumped up and declared that she now wanted to do some planking. (This was right after my planking quest, so it was on the brain.) Walker wanted to join her. Planking in Zion. Awesome!

I have a few friends that live in St. George. I talked to two of them about getting together, but it didn't work out because life is crazy. My friend Kathryn was in Salt Lake while I was in St. George. We must have passed on the freeway. So Del and I decided to start a game of "house tag."
We took this picture at her front door and texted it to Kathryn.

Kathryn, tag, you're it!!

We drove around campus and pointed out our old stomping grounds to the kids, who were not overly interested. Ha!
We stopped in front of my apartment complex and took a picture in the same spot we took one the night Del proposed. Pretty glam, as you can see! I lived in the apartment on the third floor here! E6!

Here is a picture of me with my roommates in our apartment kitchen back in 1999. I still value the friendship with these girls. Really, really good women!
Don't we all look tan and excited about life?

Del's parents headed home the morning after we did Zion, and we went to do a tour of the Brigham Young home with my parents.  We also made sure to hit our old favorite restaurants and ice cream spots! Yum! I am ready to go back to St. George, considering it is pretty warm there year round. This was the coldest I have ever seen it. They also have a fun parade of homes there every February that I love to see.

It was a good trip. We had a nice time out West. Hopefully we see it all again before another seven and half years pass!