Reality

Our trip to St. George was very wonderful and spiritual--centered around General Conference, Easter, and the beautiful temple right down the street. We loved watching Conference in our hotel room, sitting on the beds, all together in a small space, soaking in the goodness of the inspired messages. In-between sessions we'd go down to the pool, get lunch, or walk around the temple grounds. It was such a great weekend.

Of course besides the special, spiritual experiences of the weekend, we were, nonetheless, still us; fortunately or unfortunately, there's no escaping that. So as much as I don't want to detract from our experiences at the temple (therefore I'm making this a completely separate post) the reality of it all requires me to also include some of the not-so-spiritual aspects of our trip, like:

Blake super-gluing his finger & thumb together... (not one of the most brilliant activities he's found to do for fun). These are his attempts at pulling with all his might to get them apart:

















There was also the training, of course (the initial reason for the trip). On Friday Rob took Blake and then Spencer along as he ran the course. In the Ironman this 13-mile course is run twice, but for today's training once was sufficient. So each boy ran 6 1/2 miles with Papa. (Only got pics of Spencer though...)

We also went through Colorado City on our way home, and took the opportunity to observe the lifestyle of the polygamists. Very interesting. And we saw an old Hopi Indian Village that dates back several hundred years and is still occupied.

Last but not least, a family trip would not be complete without some level of teasing/terrorizing. Somewhere around Colorado City, the boys needed a pit stop. Just as they got out of the car and "got going," Rob drove just far enough away to expose them to all the highway passersby.

Here they go... ;-)

Their shock as they realized we weren't hiding them anymore...

Blake finishing up quickly...

And heading back to the privacy of the car... And finally Spencer gets outta there!


Thank goodness they're such good sports!!!

As We Touch the Temple...

We spent General Conference weekend in St. George. Rob wanted to practice on location for his upcoming Ironman, and Conference weekend was the perfect time to go: The kids were out of school for Good Friday, we didn't have to take care of our usual Sunday responsibilities... and the fact that it was Easter weekend was just frosting on the cake!

As we found our way around this beautiful town all weekend, we often quoted, "You are never lost when you can see the temple." No matter where we went in St. George, we could almost always see the temple. It really impressed upon us the feeling of surety that came with knowing that the temple--our source of guidance and direction--was always within view.

"As we touch the temple, the temple will touch us." --Pres. Thomas S. Monson

We walked around the grounds, took some pictures, smelled flowers, talked about how sparkling white this temple is... and just enjoyed the whole feeling of it all. We found a spot on the perfect grass to sit and talk about Easter and the Atonement of our Savior. Everyone contributed and bore testimony of the things they have known and felt about this wondrous Gift. It was the perfect Easter/Conference experience.