Nice and Breezy in St. Geezy

I have been incredibly blessed to have amazing friends in my life.  College was no exception.  I had an amazing group of girls that are still called my roommates despite the fact that we all are married and therefore have eternal companions as roommates.  We all have kids similar in age so it's fun to keep in contact as we enjoy our crazy mommy adventures.  By some miracle, (and a lot of work) the stars aligned and we were able to find a house that we could stay in St George, Utah.  Whitney, Alisia, and I were able to meet up there and enjoy a few days of friend catch up and child rearing fun.  We missed our roomie on the East Coast as well as Treesh.  Her amazing, miracle boy had some pretty important appointments that we are glad he was able to go to.  Hopefully, we'll get another trip with all of us there.
Anyway, Laila and I drove the 8 hrs that it takes from Phoenix alone.  We put on our big girl pants and survived to tell the tell.  Laila was awesome on the road.  We enjoyed our Disney Pandora station as well as our "Princess Show" (Frozen.)

When we arrived in St George, Laila and I enjoyed a walking break at the B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L St. George Temple.  I'm pretty sure there are few things that invoke such a calming, welcoming feeling as seeing this majestic, white building against the red rock as you come into the city.

Soon after, we met up for an exciting meal at the Pizza Factory.  We realized quickly how much fun we were going to have as 3 moms with 5 kids!

^ She loved the twisty breadsticks. This mother was so proud!

The next morning we got all 8 of us packed into Alisia's sequoia (I wish I had a picture of 5 carseats and me in back!) and we enjoyed the nice walking paths in Snow Canyon.  I'm telling you, every time I'm enjoying the red rocks, they make me fall more and more in love with their beauty!  Throw some friends and our cute kids in the mix, and you get a great day!

The great part of having the house was that we could head back for nap time. Us moms got to enjoy some talking. We would make dinner and just hang out around the house. (Yet somehow, we still stayed up super late still talking! ha!)

The next morning, we packed all up again and went to the temple grounds.  I love seeing how excited our kids are to be on such holy grounds. We tried taking as many pictures as possible, but our kids (mine in particular)  had their limit...

^She also is an AZ baby through and through. The wind was blowing so she was cold!

Afterwards, we took our stroller brigade to a park nearby and let our babes enjoy the beautiful day.  

 ^Truly in her happy place

We made an awesome stroller train!  By the end, moms and kids were ready for naps again and another fun, slow evening at the house.  I wish I had taken more pictures. Especially of our delicious trips to SWIG and more of the wonderful home we stayed in thanks to some friends of the Horito family.  However, I was just too busy having fun and enjoying my girl being friends with my friends' kids.  I can't believe how quickly our lives went from this:

To this:

The next morning, we head out again for our drive home.  Laila did a great job again, but let's just say we both needed a break in Wickenburg to stretch our legs a bit.  On a side note, our drive home also got a bit more spicy when a bird totally did a kamikaze dive in front of my car.  I briefly closed my eyes so I didn't see impact, but I did see the rest of the bird ricochet over my car. Gruesome? You bet.  The rest of the drive, I would randomly see feathers floating up over the car.  As my dad would say, it doesn't have the guts to do that again... eck....

It was a short, but sweet trip. I am so glad everything worked out and I have friends who were willing to meet us half way for some fun!