Cactus country! What did we do for 4 months?

Soltis is the whole reason why we even came to live in St. George, Utah. Ethan was privileged to work with some incredibly smart and talented businessmen for his internship. Another bonus= 3 of them are my uncles, whom I love :)

Ethan and I are so grateful and fortunate to have had such an opportunity as this. Ethan learned a lot about responsibilities within a company, communication, professionalism, clients, managing finances, assembling portfolio's, stock market, interviews, meetings, and so much more! The skills he learned while working with these men have increased his ability to be successful in the future. 

THANK YOU, SOLTIS.

What else did we do?

Well, let me show you...

St. George is an incredible place to live with nice people, warm weather, beautiful mountains/rocks, and lots of bike trails and hiking trails. One weekend we went to Snow Canyon and spent over 4 hours hiking there. It was a great family outing.

Sweet pic right?

We did a lot of fun things when Daddy got home from work. One particular weekend we made pizza's, decorated sugar cookies, and made a tent in the front room where we watched a movie, "Puss in Boots" and ate popcorn.

I love Wyatt's curly hair. I miss it :-(

 

I had fun making this cookie for a friend of mine that is a die hard ZUMBA gal, but I must say, I'm totally getting into it too. I think it is SO FUN. It's one of the funnest ways to exercise, I think. I love rocking out to music and to be able to dance, sweat, and get gross without people looking at your wet pits and saying, "Ewwww, she's gross!" it's actually acceptable. Hahahahaha. Seriously though. 

We went on SO MANY bike rides together as a family. There were tons of trails to go on and this bike trailer made Wyatt's ride most enjoyable. This activity became almost a daily routine. I commend Ethan for picking it up and being about to pedal our 200lb. chunky bike AND the bike trailer everywhere we went- definitely gave him a work out.

Wyatt did a lot of funny things throughout the day when we were home together. I walked in the kitchen after getting ready for the day and he was just sitting there quietly on his bar stool. He got in the fridge all by himself and grabbed the ENTIRE clump of grapes and was plucking them off one by one. He triumphantly held them up here and said, "Mommy look! I eating Bbbrapes!"

Eth worked about 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day and this was the kind of job that didn't have a lot of homework. We really had a fun time spending time together. It was nice to have the whole night off.

Wyatt loves to show off his "jammies" to Daddy every night when he puts them on. These were his new ones from Grandma. Oh, and he is wearing a toe sock on his arm haha.

This looks really bad . . . I know, but it was hilarious! Wyatt told me to, so I am not being cruel. I wrapped him all up and was laughing my head off (literally) and at this point he realized it wasn't very fun anymore. He was a little freaked out that he couldn't move- I would freak out too. We were just playing and having fun wrapping things. This was a one time thing but I'm glad I captured the moment. Look how skinny he is!

I just like this picture a lot. Funny smile, but I like it.

On a long weekend, we decided since we were half way to Arizona, we should go visit Ethan's Nana. The drive and visit to Chandler, AZ is always one to remember. Wyatt loved the warm weather and all the crazy, fun toys that Nana had at the house. When we come to visit, all Nana wants to do is watch Wyatt play and be himself. Kids truly bring us JOY and they know how to enjoy the simple things in life. (It was also fun because we stayed at my cousin, Jesika's, house and hung out with her family as well. It was so fun to talk to her and play with her darling kids.)

Tradition: we all gather around the table and we light these candles for Wyatt to blow out with the stopper. He's a pro at it now. What a fun game for him.

Nana adores her grand babies.

DATE NIGHT= GOLFING! in the sprinklers with ducks....

This was one THEE funnest date night we've had in a long time. We actually got a babysitter for the night so the two of us could go play. We went with our awesome friends, Chantel & Kurt Baker, and had a blast. This was my VERY FIRST TIME GOLFING ever. I have to admit, this is not a sport I am good at, at all. I got a workout because I had to run and chase my ball all over the place. Man, it felt good to WHACK that thing though :)  We had some great laughs when the sprinkler drenched the guys kart and all their personal items. The sprinklers made it really cool actually.

"Jumping Jacks"

Thanks to these two lovely ladies, Chantel & Holly, I did not become a hermit in the condo all by myself. These two girls are what made this 4 month experience so much fun! We went to parks together, did Zumba, had dinner together, played games, went on walks, went running in the mornings together, played volleyball, went out to dinner etc...  I am so grateful for these two girls and for the kindness they showed me when we moved in. I LOVE THEM TO PIECES! I miss them so much already.

I am proud of all the exercise I did by myself and with Chantel while I was here. I went running almost every morning or else I took Wyatt on bike rides around town and on trails. Most the time I went so long that he fell asleep. One morning though, Chantel and I actually hitched up our bikes to go on a sweet trail and I ended the joy ride short. We were dangerously close to getting hit by an oncoming truck who was going way too fast, and my instincts just told me to go for it instead of stop in the middle of the road. So I yelled, "GO!" we were both going fast but I was cut off a little too close to the corner and the back wheel of the trailer hit the curb and flipped Wyatt over. It was very scary. Wyatt was terrified, I was just trying to see if he was hurt, and Chantel was the calm one. Wyatt had a huge goose egg on his forehead and was scared to death crying and the crash ripped a hole in the material, bent the back wheel on my bike, and almost tore through the leash. I felt really bad for Wyatt but he was ok. It was stupid of me to even be in that situation. I'm learning as a Mom that I need to be more patient and things don't need to be done so fast. I learned a lesson. Sadly, we hadn't even begun our ride and the ride was over haha.

My family has all been teasing me about when I was going to get rid of Wyatt's binky and I always said, "soon". I finally decided that he really was too old for sucking on a binky so we had a little ceremony one night. We tied the binky to some balloons, along with a note, and let Wyatt hold onto it until he was ready to let it go. When he let go he thought it was really cool as the balloons soared into the sky. He went back and forth from being sad to happy, sad to happy... but he handled it quite well. I'm totally doing this again. It was so funny.

We went and climbed rocks one Sunday afternoon. So cute.

Ummmmm, he likes peanut butter? HA! We found a pine cone, stuck peanut butter all over it, put tootie fruities on it and hung it in the tree with a sack. (You can see it in the background) I looked over and Wyatt was making out with the PB.

ZION NATIONAL PARK!

Another wonderful, fun, beautiful weekend spent together. We love the outdoors.

This pretty pool was cool, don't drool, fool. Woah.....

I now know that I need to live in a place where there is more sunlight and heat rather than cold. We were lovin' the sun!

EASTER- we painted eggs, made cute cupcakes, talked about the resurrection, and had an easter egg hunt for Wyatt. He was really good at it but the funny thing is that he would find the eggs and put them directly into the bucket. He didn't even care about the candy inside! So weird for a two year old. He definitely had a one track focus on the hunt though. If he found one, he would stare at it and walk right at it, while passing other eggs by his feet that he wouldn't even notice haha.

"I want more of these, or else.........."

Since I was the music coordinator for our ward here, I had the opportunity of putting together the musical Easter program. I was so grateful for this opportunity because I love the challenge of creating music and coming up with a script. It takes a lot of time, effort, and coordinating, but it was so worth it. We had a variety of songs: choir piece, violin/piano duet, singing quartet, sign language piece, choir and congregation etc... The variety kept people's attention and many were brought to tears, including me. Music has an incredible power of touching our hearts. Good, uplifting music truly does help bring in the spirit. It was one of the best programs I've done yet.

Our back porch served as a perfect canvas for Wyatt to draw on. We spent many mornings and afternoons just hanging out here in the sun blowing bubbles, feeding the birds, drawing with chalk, or eating snacks together.

Fortunately we had access to a pool & hot tub so we visited it many times during the week. Wyatt loved going to the "Poo".
My favorite part is that he would say, "Where are my aqua shoes?" He always made sure he had his shoes as seen in this picture. I was amazed at how he could handle the heat of the hot tub! This kid is a mammal! 

Wyatt also entertained himself a lot during the day, which often led to these kinds of incidents ... eating markers.

These pictures only show half of all the cool things we did while living in St. George but hopefully you get the gist. I would come back and live here in a heart beat. The people are great here. I especially have to thank my Aunt Carrie for taking the time almost every Wednesday to teach me how to make bread. I enjoyed bonding with her and the rest of my Aunts and Uncles while we were there. It's so nice to live close to family. 

We are also grateful for Grandma Anderson for allowing us to stay in her condo for four months. This is overly generous of her and we will forever be grateful for how she helped us. We've realized through this experience that being frugal is a good way to live and that families are there to support you. Many others did little things for us here and there and their kindness did not go unrecognized. 

ST. GEORGE ROCKED! It was a wonderful adventure for us and we can't wait for our next one in Cleveland, OHIO!