st. george getaway

we have got a pretty amazing group of friends who live two hours from us (and some even further!) since there are a bunch of us, a lot of time usually passes between when we can all get together. but, we've made it a point the last few years to get together at least once during the year and this year it worked out that we could all make it to st. george for a weekend getaway!

we left thursday afternoon and we could not wait! 

// "selfies" in the car! :) //

// love this handsome fellow so very much //

the weekend pretty much consisted of staying up wayyyyyy too late, eating lots of good food, swimming all day long, playing scum, ticket to ride, and new this year: corn hole. (it is all the rage, in case you didn't know.)

swimming was especially awesome for two reasons. 1) it was within walking distance (like, a two minute walk!) and 2) danny bought the kids goggles!! kids in goggles=the cutest thing. EVER. 

// cafe rio in between swimming sessions. so yummm //

// our sleeping beauty at the pool //

// love me some kids in goggles!!! //

// avery mistook this corn hole as a different kind of hole...if you know what i mean! oops! //

// max took the above two pictures :) he is turning into quite the budding photographer! //

// swimming and playing all day long can wear you out! the three oldest kids zoned out in front of elmo for a bit while we snuck a few more games in! //

friday night we all went out to dinner (all sixteen of us!!!) to anasazi. the presentation was really neat (they bring you partially cooked meat & a 700 degree "rock" to finish cooking it on)...but it's not the most child friendly place :)

and then, after dinner, danny & i snuck away to see mary poppins at the tuacahn amphitheater for our 5th anniversary!!! (our friends kindly put our kids to bed. thanks again!) it was AMAZING. the backdrop is incredible. the singing was wonderful. the entire thing! ahh. not to mention, i'd forgotten how great the story mary poppins is! i loved it.

// i stole this pic from lauren's instagram. thanks lauren! //

saturday night while the guys were out playing corn hole (until 3 am!) the girls were home chatting and at about 1:30 we decided it would be awesome to pull a prank on the guys. we tried to think of everything (it's been so long since i've thought about pranking!) and what we eventually came up with totally backfired, but we loved it. it felt like girl's camp all over again :)

// the idea was that they would have to come through the front door, since all other doors would be locked. we checked the garage door multiple times, but somehow half of them got in since it wasn't totally shut! the half who didn't make it in, went around to the front and were faced with shaving cream on the handle, a failed attempt at saran wrapping the door (that is hard to do!), and tons of cups, bowls, and pie tins filled with water. we piled up trees and furniture behind the water making it "impossible" to come in...but the guys easily jumped through.

lame.

oh well, we all had a good laugh (it was 3 am after all!) 

the next day, we cleaned up, said our good-byes, and were off.  thanks so much to dave & sarah for hooking us up with a place to stay! and everyone else who made it happen. we love you all!!

on our way home, the kids were antsy to get out and run around so we decided to stop at cove fort to stretch our legs. the sweetest lady missionary tracked us down and promised to give us a short "10 minute" tour (which turned into a 35-40 minute tour!) but it was actually really neat. the inside of the cove where they actually lived was beautiful (i wanted to move in!)

whew! and that is how we spent the weekend before school started!!

 can't believe summer flew by so quickly!