Viva St. George!

We are moving to St. George too... just kidding. We were just visiting for a fun weekend with Curtis and Kristin and their family.

We headed down on Friday and got to the hotel about the same time. Cousins galore!!!

Swimming and swimming and diving for fish, sharks, rings or torpedoes!
(Sorry I forgot the camera!)
 
Then we headed to Chuck -A-Rama for some much needed choco milk and nutrients. 

Boys Table with Jessie

The much calmer-Girls Table

Nap time was next for those wonderful dads that do all the driving.

Then it was off to see Mary Poppins at Tuachan. Jessie and Christian were having major melt downs from all the fun and no naps, but we made it to our seats just in time. It was wonderful! Super great singing. The set was amazing with smoke and fireworks and chimney sweeps walking the walls and ceilings! What a production! Thanks for inviting us guys.

Saturday we got up and ate some breakfast and swam some more. Then off to shop the outlets. After some lunch we went to visit Jacob Hamblin's home in Santa Clara.

"Though the arrival of Brigham Young in St. George meant the Mormons' efforts to colonize far southwestern Utah would endure, it was probably the peacekeeping and community building efforts of an Ohio man named Jacob Hamblin who made Young's arrival possible. Hamblin, known for the red bandanna he always wore, helped ease relations between Native Americans and settlers in southwestern Utah and across the region. The native tribes, themselves struggling with drought and heat, appreciated his arrival and obeyed the deals he struck."







Went to see the St. George Temple

The week after our little vacation the kids learned in Primary about the vision Wilford Woodruff had had of the Founding Fathers, while in the St. George Temple. They felt pretty special to have just been there at that temple.


We had a lovely visit with Mitzi, Jeff and Preston and the cows in beaver. Sorry I didn't get my camera out!

We visited Cove Fort on the way home

"On 12 April 1867 President Brigham Young wrote a letter to Ira Hinckley asking him to take charge of building a fort on Cove Creek, located in central Utah a day’s journey from the town of Fillmore on the north or the town of Beaver on the south. This Fort, built instead of a town because of the scarcity of water, was to be a way station for pioneers traveling along the “Mormon Corridor”—settlements stretching from Idaho to Nevada connected by a network of roads, telegraph lines and postal routes. Being a man of action, Ira left his home in Coalville, Utah, on April 17th for his new assignment, his family to come latter.

For years the Fort bustled with activity. News of the great, growing West throbbed over the lines into the telegraph office at the Fort and postal riders delivered the news of the new western empire to the post office. Daily, two stage coaches with a variety of weary travelers rumbled up to the Fort. Travelers unhitched their teams from their heavily loaded wagons and led the horses to the barn. Cowboys tended the tithing herds and a blacksmith fashioned metal into horseshoes with his hammer. Evening conversation was lively around the long table where each night a new variety of visitors joined the Hinckley family for dinner.

For more than twenty years the Fort served an important function, but as times changed so did the need for the Fort. By 1890 the Church leased out the Fort and after the turn of the century, sold it to the Otto Kesler family."
In talking with Uncle Jeff  he told us that the fort had been in a lengthy court battle and his uncle had been granted the property only to find out later that there were several back taxes due on the property. He then sold it to the church.

telegraph office

Brigham protecting the fort! This kid can make the best gun noises with his mouth!

Not sure if this is cool or gross, but this floral arrangement was made from human hair by the daughters of Ira Hinckley.

The cute missionary lady tried her hardest to feed us spiritually throughout our tour, but reverence was not to be. She ended up giving the kids some pioneer toys she had made and then things really got out of hand.

And Jess played in the dirt!

Glad we stopped! It is always amazing to hear of the hardship and sacrifice that the early saints experienced.

A pretty nice little weekend trip!