Down South

I know I already did a Cedar City post this year, and there will probably be another for Peyton's baptism in October, but oh, well... we just like to go to Cedar City.  It's really not fair for Matt and Sara when we decided to make a trip because they are always really good about feeding us and entertaining us, and it's more work for them when we decide we want to come visit. 

This time they had planned for us to take a small road trip through some small towns like Pine Valley and end up in St. George.  The poor kids are always so bored when Matt and Ryan go on their photography drives, but they are good sports and hang in there.  Meryn and Andrea were in the far back seat while Peyton was stuck between Sara and I in the middle seat.  At one point the two girls were both singing along to the movie Tangled and it was so cute!

Later they both decided it was nap time.

We made a quick stop to Mountain Meadows Masacre, which is really hard to explain to kids, so we didn't try, but they had fun sitting on each of the benches going up the hill. 

Next we headed to Pine Valley where Sara had packed a nice picnic for us all, so we ate on the lawn of the visitors center.  The kids had a lot of fun playing freeze tag and playing in the unique drinking fountain. 

Next we stopped at the Pine Valley church, which Ryan and Matt's great-great grandpa (I believe) helped build.  It's a really cool church, especially since it's the oldest LDS church still in use today.  It was three floors, but the top floor had just one classroom-sized sitting room.  Some of the old benches still had the last names painted in them from back in the day.  Even the tithing house, which is a seperate building, is still used for the Primary's sharing/singing time. 

After Pine Valley we headed to St. George where Sara and I talked the boys into letting us stop at the outlets, and I was able to get some fall clothes for Andrea, all pink of course!

Then we headed back to Cedar to decide where to eat for dinner.  We tried a small little restaurant called the Little Brick House and it had some delicious sandwiches! I'd eat there again in a heartbeat.  It also had an attached antique store which was fun to look through and you would have thought Ryan had won the lottery when he found Prince Albert in a can, so of course he had to buy it! I still don't know where he put it, at least it's not displayed in our living room, and that's all I care about.

The next day, Sunday, was pretty relaxing, I got some work done while their family went to church.  Then we went over to Grandpa Ray's for a visit while Ryan and Matt re-arranged some furniture and rumaged through Grandpa's old tools. 

That night Ryan, Andrea, and I went for a walk over to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Fernlee's to play with the dogs.  The timing was perfect, it rained the whole time we were inside visiting, but stopped in time for us to walk back. 

Monday we headed back home.  Andrea loves going to Cedar City, so I didn't even tell her we were going until the day before. Now I've made the mistake of telling her dance class starts next week and I get to be asked all day long how many more days she has to wait.