Manti Temple Open House!

We were able to bring our family to the Manti Temple Open House! We are SO happy that the Manti Temple is open again!! We were even more excited to bring our kids inside a temple that has been such a big part of our lives! It was a full-circle moment for me to be in the sealing room where Scott and I were married with all of my kids. It was a moment I think I'll carry with me for forever!

We only waited in line for 30-40 minutes! The open house only lasted for 2 weeks, so the temple seemed to always be packed with people. We heard of lines lasting up to 4 hours! We were grateful for our short wait!

Our post-temple tradition was to stop by Miller's for doughnuts, so we had to stop and treat every one on the way home!

Spring Break in St. George!

School got out on Friday...and we hit the road! Our Spring Break included Jemma's dance competition. We decided we would get a really cheap rental house and make a little trip out of the experience! Look at all of those excited kids!

We made it about 20 minutes down the road, and 2 our of the 3 littles passed out!

...and then they woke up and Charlie fell asleep! (Isn't that how it always goes?!)

We got there as close to check-in as we could, and as soon as we got there, we changed into swimsuits and went to the pool!

There was also a playground at the resort, and the kids had so much fun playing on that too!

We had a late, quick dinner that night!

Dance competition started the next morning, so we had a quick cinnamon toast crunch breakfast, did some hair and make-up and headed out the door!

The dance competition was INSANE! There were SO many people there and a lot of parent/dancer turnover. Jemma danced in the morning, and then her second dance wasn't until the afternoon! So we all went and watched her dance, took her to a bathroom to change and then went and did something fun while we waited for the next dance!

We headed to Thunder Junction All-abilities park! This is one of the most fun places for kids in St. George! We headed to the train first!

We decided to do something fun for dinner that night, so we got Red Robin to-go! In case you are wondering, this is what feeding a family of 10 looks like at a restaurant--here you go! (I'll spare you the Bill! Haha!)

Sunday was our chill day. We wanted to do something that was low-key and filling, so we headed to the St. George Temple Visitor's Center. Cooper found walnuts on the ground, and we realized that there are giant walnut trees on one side of the temple!

Owen was a bit disappointed that the fountains didn't have water in it. I said, "say cheese!" and he said, "cheeeeeeessse-the-water's-gone!"

We were able to go in the visitor's center and go through the experience about families. We watched a video about a family that ends up losing their grandpa unexpectedly, and then watching their grandma celebrate all of their family events without their grandpa (including their oldest daughter's wedding). Well, we were all sobbing by the end, and the poor sister missionary bringing us through the exhibit wasn't prepared for all our emotion! It was really sweet to have that experience together as a family, though!

We went and got cheap "happy hour" drinks from Sonic (1/2 price drinks on all drinks and slushies sold between 2-4 PM everyday!). And then we headed back to the resort to watch a movie and swim in the heated pools!

We left on Monday after some quick shopping and Chick-fil-a! It was such a good trip for our little family!