Spring Break 2010

I am officially tired of winter. Jeff never gets tired of the cold. I was done on March 15th. Once daylight savings kicks in, it just feels like a slap in the face to have the sun shining through the window at the crack of dawn only to discover that it is a balmy 15 degrees outside and you have another eight inches of snow on the ground.

I also suffer from a strange combination of disorders. First, there is the winter depression. It really sets in around the middle part of December. Ugh. It is all I can do to function without falling apart when I haven't had any sunlight for a couple of days. Then, just as the fog of depression is leaving you have this huge influx of Seritonin that contributes to what I call "springtime anxiety"--fabulous. Now I'm trapped inside of my house for another two months while I try to control my jangled nerves. I make a gazillion lists of things that I haven't had the energy to do for six months. I can't seem to sew two complete thoughts together because my mind is thinking ALL the TIME. I know that it is officially spring when I begin to suffer from insomnia--or what I affectionately call "crazy night brain." Does anyone else lay in bed and make lists of things that need to get done, but are really not important enough to be thought about in the middle of the night??!

Okay, enough about my psychosis. To sum up, I told Jeff that if I didn't get to sit in the sun and soak the heat all the way into my bones that I was going to end up in a facility.

St. George is actually a pretty place. It is a sneaky location because this time of year you really start to think about how you could live there forever. You forget that for four months in the summer it is like living on the surface of the sun. Nevertheless, it is a great place for Spring Break.

We spent Saturday visiting the Narrows on the Southwest side of town. We climbed up to the "Big D" (they put up a lot of letters on the mountains in this town--apparently, people tend to forget where they are??). We spent five minutes on the temple grounds. We visited every port-a-potty/public restroom in Washington County because Jack had to go the bathroom every time he got tired, bored, hungry, impatient, mad, mean, ornery.

Looking through the hole in the rock.

I never did climb up this because Jack got to the top and remembered he needed to use the restroom. (He wasn't that polite in his announcement and I was so relieved that nobody else was around.)
Jeff got stuck in this crag once and his fear of getting "re-stuck" was obvious. But kind of funny.
First day of vacation. Note to self: take lots of pictures on this day before everyone starts to hate each other.

This is a beautiful picture of my children. Right after this, Jack tried to push her off the rock and hit her then refused to look into the camera lens for the remainder of the trip.

Proof. Notice the offset eyes looking in the opposite direction. I kept saying, "Jack! Look at this circle. Look at mommy!" Useless words.
We couldn't actually spend any time here since it didn't seem right to be yelling at your kids on sacred ground.

We ate a lot of breakfast food at Dennys. We tried to go somewhere more classy, but the line was too long and I was too hungry to not eat the children while we waited. My kids LOVE breakfast. Which works out well, because I LOVE breakfast foods. Lachlan can eat three fried eggs. She likes to dip toast in the yolk. It sometimes makes me a little nauseated, but also happy to see that she is eating so much food (it doesn't happen very often). Jack is a pancake man. He could eat pancakes for every meal. Every day. Partner it with a half-dozen sausage links and you are good to go with that kid. The dude can eat. It's awesome. I have a lot of happy childhood memories centered around breakfast meals (farm people eat a good breakfast) so in some ways it is just a good extension of that for me.

We also spent the better part of a day in Snow Canyon. Jeff and I have been rock climbing here a number of times, but it was fun to hike around with the kids. I loved the petrified sand dunes. I also wished that I would have had my bike. They had some paved trails that would have been so fun--next time. Jeff told Jack that Uncle Jason wanted him to find and capture a Gila Monster and a lizard. Jack chased every lizard in that whole park. He never did catch one. He said, "Uncle Jason be sad. The yiszards are too fast!" We just saw the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" and he is convinced that "Toothless" is going to "come down from the mountains and live at our house," and "Mom is going to have to get him some fish," and "he will be my friend because he loves me." I think that he thought if he could catch a lizard that it would be a great way to start his dragon collection.

That's me! Yeah, for breaking away from the pack. Jeff wanted to go to the top, but Jack pulled the poop card about half way up. I think by this point Jeff wanted to leave him in one of those restrooms.

While in Snow Canyon, we also took the kids over to the Sand Dunes. They had a great time. We must have sat in the sand and watched them dig for two hours. I loved it because it was perfectly warm and relaxing. I could not stay all day there, though because for some reason White Trash LOVES the Dunes. Why? There wasn't even any OHV access--and still they came. It's hard to relax in a sea of wife-beater tank tops and small chihuahua dogs.

Lachlan can make a mean tunnel. The kid digs in the dirt like a Meerkat. It's really quite amazing.

We spent Easter morning at a local park. More sunshine. Kids played. Jack used public restrooms. He also gave himself a big goose egg right above his eye. He tried to jump from one toadstool to the next and lost his footing. His favorite part of the day was relaxing in the hotel room and catching up on episodes of Curious George. We had to bribe him with treats to get him to agree to come out of the room.

Kolob Canyon is the very northeastern edge of Zion National Park. My dear friend, Peggy has told me for years that it is an amazing place. The best hiking in all of Southern Utah. We took the time to do the driving tour. As soon as we left St. George valley, the weather was windy and freezing, so it wasn't even a possibility to walk around with the kids.

Lachlan: "When are you going to give us some more licorice?"

Jack: "The wind is blowing. It is cold. I want to get back in the car...if you don't take me to the car I am going to have to poop!"

Sidenote: Dear Jack, I hope that you are 17 years old and reading this with your girlfriend. I love you son, but you can be a real pain in the pooper.

Kolob is beautiful. Breathtakingly amazing. Jeff and I are already planning to go backpacking in a few weeks. I just can't believe how accessible this area is--and the best part, there are NO people. It's not on the main grid of the NP so hardly anyone takes the time to see it. Sounds like our kind of place. If you haven't been there before--you must go.

Sidenote: Dear Self, I know that you are 62 years old and reading this with your thick glasses, crying for the "good old days"--but I want you to live it up girlfriend because what you don't remember is that you cried for over an hour in the hotel bathroom because you didn't know if you could have any more "fun" on this vacation. Going on vacation with little people is not really a vacation. Build character, yes. Going a couple days without doing dishes, yes. But freedom from tyranny, no.