Mom and George Buy a House in St. George

My Mom who has always lived far away in Chicago since I was in high school just bought a house in St. George, Utah only 3 1/2 driving distance away.  The whole thing is really surreal to me still.  Since I ended up having the Friday off work, we decided to make a trip down to check the place out the week that they closed on their new house.

We left Thursday evening straight from ice skating.  The kids and I picked up Derek from work with the car fully loaded (which meant I packed it all by my lonesome all day), hit the ice skating class (and Derek got to skate around with the kids during their free skate time), grabbed some Wendy's which we just ate in the car, and were on our way to St. George.  The kids were so anxious to get there already and see Babi and Papou and their new place.

Once there, it was a bit like camping in a house.  The only people with a mattress and actual bed to sleep on were the kids.  My Mom and George purchased a bunk bed for them.  All the rest of us slept on the floor. There was no refrigerator and no furniture except a long folding table and chairs they bought at Costco.  Derek and I slept on the camping pads that he had upholstered himself made from a king size memory foam pad with a layer of firm foam underneath.  I honestly felt they were more comfortable than most hotel beds I sleep on.

The kids loved Mom and George's new place.  They honestly would have been happy to stay and explore around the house most of the weekend.  Mom and George have this great backyard that back up to this empty rocky hill that the kids loved to climb and run around on.

Friday, my Mom and I saw a few of the St. George parade of homes homes.  Then, we let Derek and George hit the driving range while we took the kids to a park called Thunder Junction.  Coolest park ever.  Dinosaur themed with lots of fun slides.  One slide you climbed up the horns and face of the dinosaur like stairs and slid down it's tail.


There were also teeter totters and a music section.




And a flying fox and a train that you could ride.  The train rides were a dollar but it was a good 10 minute ride or so and went through a bunch of tunnels.  Liv was old enough to ride by herself so she made a point of sitting all by herself far away from the rest of us.


Such a cool park and the kids are begging to go back.


Saturday, we took Mom and George with us and the kids to Pioneer Park to climb around on all the red rock.  The kids absolutely loved this too, but it was very panicking chasing all 3 of them in different directions knowing there were drop offs and places they would get stuck.







We had lunch that day at Pizza Factory.  I almost forgot how good those breadsticks are, and the kids were amazingly pretty good.  Then, that afternoon Derek and I took the kids swimming during the allotted kid swim hours at the the Sun River pool.  That night, Mom, Liv, Uncle Nathan (who drove up for the day) and I all went to see a play at Dixie University that Sun River residents received free tickets for.  It was called Peter and the Star Catching.  It was sort of a prequel to Peter Pan.  It had some funny parts and was acted well, but it was sort of different too and not my favorite play.  I'm pretty sure it went right over Liv's head, but she sat and watched the whole thing really well regardless.

Sunday morning, we went to sacrament meeting at the building right close to Mom's new place.  We were of course the only people with kids in the whole building.  Our kids were honestly amazing and quieter than I think they have ever been during sacrament meeting, but it pin-drop quiet in that retirement community ward and every sound even there whispers were loud.  Then, we kinda packed up the car and headed home.  Mom won't officially move in until this summer.  But, we are all excited to have her closer by and pretty stoked to have a little St. George retreat to escape to.