St. George Trip with Avri

I have been planning to take Olivia down to St. George over the weekend of the Tuachan auditions. She wanted to bring a friend down to audition with her and immediately thought of Avri. I invited Avri and her Mom to come down with us, but her Mom had to stay back with a sister who had a competition at home that same weekend. So, the whole fam decided to go down with Avri. And then after we had planned that, Nathan and Benazir decided to fly out with their kids that weekend as well. We got there late on Friday night. Mom and George had Greek pita ready for us, then everyone pretty much headed to bed. We brought Kota down with us and thought that for the most part she was pretty good. Except unbeknownst to us, she left Mom and George’s fence into their neighbor’s yard. They have a poodle. She went inside their dog door, ran around with their poodle, ate her food. And their neighbor Bev called in the morning telling a story about how she got woken up by her dog in the morning, leaned down to give her some pets over the side of the bed only to realize it didn’t feel anything like petting her poodle and was actually our dog in her bedroom in the morning wanting pets from her. Oh dear, George jimmy rigged a higher fence for the rest of the weekend to keep Dakota in their yard. The neighbors were in good spirits about it. They thought it was hilarious. Saturday morning the girls got up, ate breakfast, warmed up their voices and practiced their audition song from Joseph and the Technicolored dream coat (the show they were auditioning for). It was cool to do an audition on Tauchan’s campus. The people running the audition totally remembered them from their earlier audition for Jane Banks in Mary Poppins at COPA last month and were shocked to see they had driven down for the audition. The girls did fabulous as far as I could tell from the room outside. It took less than an hour. 

 Then, it was back to my Mom’s for lunch and swimming in her heated pool. The kids pretty much spent the entire weekend in the pool. 

 Nathan and Benazir and the two adorable nephews arrived Saturday afternoon. 

 The kids all got out of the pool excited to greet and play with the nephews. The girls convinced Babi to get out her card making supplies and each girl made several hand made cards, we had dinner, and then all the kids and Nay and Benazir and their kids all got in the pool again. 

 Once we got all the kids in bed for the night, Derek and I left and spent the night at a Hyatt hotel not far so Nay and Benz could have the bigger bedroom with their kids. I slept so great at the hotel, I think just the stress of not being in charge or any kids or a dog helped me to relax and sleep better. In the morning, we checked out of our hotel, and went back to my Mom’s for breakfast. Then, of course all the kids and Nay and Benazir jumped in the pool again until burgers were ready. Everyone got out, showered, packed up, ate lunch and then we loaded into the car. Our last stop was Pioneer Park. The kids climbed around and explored. 

 They all went through the crack (not me). 

 Nay and Daniel joined us there too, but weren’t as adventurous as my older kids.

 Then, we said our goodbyes and got in the car to head home, making one stop at the Creamery for ice cream. We had a little Come Follow Me Discussion in the car since we weren’t able to attend church. It was a great trip full of family, swimming, and Liv soaking up all the time with her friend Avri.