the year of the mini & stay 'cations

Every year since CJ and I have been married, we've saved for and splurged on a big, long vacation or two each year. Travel is something that we both LOVE to do... and it kinda seems like we don't function as well if we don't have some kind of trip on the horizon to look forward to.

Well this year is a bit different with a new littlemiss in tow... so we decided that it would be the year of the mini-vacations and close to home stay-cations. No super long flights, no super long trips but enough short close to home get-aways to keep our batteries charged! It's kind of a year-in-training of sorts for all of us and our new chapter of family vacations.

We started to wonder if the sun was ever going to shine this year in our neck of the woods... so for our long Memorial Day weekend, we decided we better go searching for it. It also gave us a chance test drive LJ's thoughts on roadtrips. Yikes.

We took off for St George on Friday morning, not knowing what to expect would happen in the backseat. Turns out, it wasn't pretty. She did great until about Spanish Fork (which by the way, is about 15 minutes past her longest car ride to-date) and then it felt like she screamed all the way to Beaver (I think there were a few short periods of reprieve in there... but they were definitely few and they were definitely short). We finally stopped to eat, stretch, feed and play which made that last hour to St George much more pleasant!!

(Thankfully our drive home on Monday afternoon was much more pleasant as she slept nearly the entire drive. thankyouverymuch)

I kept trying to tell her (through her tears and screams) that it would be worth it when we finally got to where we were going, but I think 7 1/2 months is still a little young to reason with?

Luckily... once we arrived, donned our swimsuits and hit the pool, she agreed that it was worth the drive and was nothing short of delightful for most of the weekend!!

We got her a pool floatie so she can relax, hang out and kick in the pool without having to be held. She LOVED it. She would kick and splash and then when she'd get tired she'd just lay her head down and relax. Several times she was would close her eyes and nearly fall asleep. I'm pretty sure she was thinking that life was pretty, pretty good! :)

When she wasn't in the pool, she was soooo good to just hang out in her stroller and watch all the people. It was heaven and allowed momma and daddy a little relaxation time to replenish our lacking vitamin d.

She's such a content, low-key baby most of the time.

It kills me how big she looks in this picture... sitting up by herself, sippin' a nice cold drink.

She's growing up waaayyy too fast for me.

*


One of my bffs lives in St George and we managed to get some together catching up and hanging out. We snuck off for Saturday morning pedis and left the daddies in charge for a little while. It was heaven and desperately needed!!

Saturday night we met Jill and her husband and enjoyed dinner at Benja Thai & Sushi. It was incredible! We even ran into another SLC bestie who was down there with his family for the weekend. It's a small world in a small town.

Sunday afternoon, Jill and Matt had us over for a delicious dinner and more great company! Leah LOVED all the attention from her adorable kiddos and she loved the loads of new toys that they shared with her.

Leah (sporting sweet potatoes), Paxton and Sena

A St George trip wouldn't be complete without a trip to the temple grounds. Such a beautiful temple. Unfortunately it was a little chilly that night and we weren't quite dressed for it... so a few quick photos was all that we got.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Leah is getting to be such a good little traveller and doesn't seem to mind sleeping in all these strange jail cell type cribs....

(in fact, she even seems to like it)

even when it looks like she's clawing to get out...

(she's used to snuggling up against her bumper at home when she sleeps... here, the only thing to snuggle up against is cold metal bars with her limbs hanging out. somehow she didn't seem to mind)

The C*K*J's at the end of a warm, sunny and happy weekend together!

She's never seemed to love her crib more than when we finally made it home after that long drive!

Home*Sweet*Home

***As hard as I tried to run away, hide and ignore it, another birthday seemed to find me on our journey (I'm now officially closer to 50 than 20, sigh). The good news of it all is that I was spoiled rotten with treasures, treats, suprises, love and well wishes. Thanks to everyone for all the love!

XOX