Sunny St. George

We had to get out of the snow and the winter dreariness.  Well at least I did!  So the first chance we got we headed to Sunny St. George.  Emily had a four-day weekend off from school on February 12th- 15th for a teacher prep day and President's Day.  As soon as she got out of school on Thursday we headed out of town.  It was so nice to see the sun and be warm for a change.  I really think I was getting so depressed but this trip helped my mood a ton.

So another reason we made the trip south was for Tyler.  Tyler recently got his mission call to Wichita, Kansas (Spanish speaking).  He leaves on March 9th!  This weekend he was able to go through the temple for his endowments so we were able to go to the temple with him.  This was a great experience and it was so nice to have all of Russell's family in the temple together.  It is times like this in the Celestial Room that really makes me realize what Heaven will be like with all of our family together.

Along with the Spiritual stuff, we also had a lot of fun.  On Friday, Russell went shooting with Keith and Tyler and they had a little too much excitement for my taste.  While cleaning up the guns and things, Russell's gun accidentally went off and fired a round into the tailgate of Keith's truck.  It left a nice little hole in the truck and a story that Russell will never live down.  Luckily it was the truck that got shot and not one of them.  Before we left home, I noticed that Russell was bringing his guns.  I told him I didn't like the idea of shooting and I thought something was going to happen.  Russell told me they were going shooting whether I liked it or not.  Well, I guess he should have listened to me because then we wouldn't be fixing a tailgate of a truck!!!  (Remember rule #1 Russell, "Yes, Dear!")  So when Russell told me what had happened, I was pretty mad and it was one of those "I told you so" moments.  We were all just glad no one got hurt.

Saturday, after the temple, we spent the day enjoying the sun and the red rocks of Dixie rock.

The kids had a blast climbing all over the rocks pretending they were rock climbers scaling large mountains.  Colby even got tricky balancing in the air in a crevasse.  It was exciting to not have to wear a coat!  We soaked up as much Vitamin D as we could.  It is always fun when we get together with the Farnsworth, Stewart, Gardner, and Maxwell cousins.  

Here are all of the cousins with Uncle Tyler as we explored the new Desert Garden on the Red Hill.  

Sunday we spent with the Morwood cousins hanging out.  Then on Monday we visited Grandma Morwood before starting the long trip back to the cold north.  This was a great trip and one I needed pretty badly.  When we got home, the snow and cold didn't seem as bad as when we left.  It was still there, but it was easier to deal with somehow because we were able to get out of it for awhile.  Before we went down, Russell and I met with the Stake President to get our temple recommends renewed.  When I told him where we were from, he just looked and me and said "I'm Sorry!"  I had to laugh.  Then he said "Now is a great time to go visit down there."  He was right.