Fall Break ~ UTAH!! {st. george}

We had one more temple to see in Utah.  We drove down to St. George on our last day.  Our first stop was the St. George temple.  I love how WHITE it is!  We checked out the visitor's center and watched a quick film.  

Let's talk about something very important here.  For so long, I've heard about these two soda shops in Utah, Swig and Sodalicious.  Now, I don't drink soda so that's not what I care about.  They also have cookies, these pink frosted sugar cookies and I.LOVE.COOKIES.  There are knock-off recipes all over Pinterest.  Since we were going to be in Utah, I made it a point to give these cookies a try, see what all the hype is about and make my own judgements.  We stopped by Sodalicious in Orem on our way up, then Swig while we were in St. George.  I have to say, the Swig cookie was definitely the winner!  I think you can even tell here in the picture, it just looks lighter, softer, fluffier!  Yummmm.

My cousin Derek and his wife Krystal so kindly offered to let us chill at their home while we had time to kill between plans.  It was good to catch up with them!  I don't remember the last time I had seen them?  I'm pretty sure that was the first time I've met their two darling boys.

We hadn't told the kids what we would be doing this evening, all they knew is that we were dressing up nicely to go somewhere.  We stopped at the Pizza Factory for dinner- how cool are these twisty breadsticks??! (bad pic)

I'm a sucker.  For the arts, that is.  I stumbled across an advertisement for the Tuacahn theater so I clicked over to find that Beauty and the Beast was playing while we would be in Utah!!!  I immediately called Matt, pleading my case that we NEEDED to go.  The tickets were not cheap (x7) and I promised him that I would sell things we no longer needed from around the house to make up for the cost.  And I did!!  I was SO giddy once the tickets were purchased!!  Our kids are getting old enough that we can take them to productions like this, which makes my heart burst.  It is such a unique experience, seeing a Broadway show in this outdoor theater build right into the red rocks!  Hayden was thrilled, of course, since Belle is her favorite princess.  I even found this rose dress for her to wear in honor of the occasion!  She did SO well and stayed attentive until the end.  I didn't think about this and thus wasn't prepared but within the first five minutes of the show, there was a loud "boom" along with some pyrotechnics as the prince turned into the beast, which freaked Preston out and he wouldn't take his hands off his ears for the rest of the show.  He's ultra sensitive to loud noises.  I was SO glad we did this, it was definitely one of the highlights of the entire trip!

After the show was over, we quickly changed into comfies in the car, stopped by a gas station for a fill up and potty stop then began the trek home overnight in order to make it to Lexi's baptism at 8am the next day!  

lights of the Vegas strip

I really, REALLY enjoyed our trip this time.  The kids are at the age where traveling with them is relatively easy.  I loved our focus on temples and spending time in the great outdoors.  I hope the kids never forget this adventure!