St. George, Sand Hollow and Toquerville Falls

Jake and his brothers (and awesome sister-in-law) were running another Tough Mudder. This time in Phoenix, AZ. They were struggling with travel plans and accommodations. Eventually they settled with stop in St. George for a night, continue traveling to Phoenix for a night, run the event and head back to St. George for the night. We haven't had a vacation for a while so we decided to head down early and have some fun. 

Ellie had been asking about cinnamon rolls for a while and then I remembered about my great grandmother Millie's recipe. So I looked up some conversions (scalded milk and yeast cakes) and tried making a batch. They turned out great so we made some for our trip to St George.

Here's Sammi helping measure flour. 

Fresh, homemade cinnamon rolls

They turned out so good.

We took off for St. George on a Tuesday night. My brother Jeff hasn't been to see the house we stay in so we took him along. Also, it would give me an extra adult to hang out with while Jake and his family were in Phoenix. Stef and JT drove out and stopped in Sand Hollow so they could hang out with us as well.

Wednesday we played around the house for a bit and then headed in to Cedar City to have dinner and talk with some friends. Aaron and Julie showed us this great BBQ joint. We went back to their place for dessert and hair cuts. Thanks Julie.

On Thursday we had other friends come play at the house with us. Darci and the boys came swimming in the pool and played in the tree houses. Later, once Dan was off work, we went out for dinner with them. It had been too long since we had seen them last; probably close to 4 years. We were on our way out to Denver and they were on their way to Las Vegas. I really love getting together with friends.

(Sorry I sucked at taking any pictures though.)

Jake's family had shown up the night before and on Friday they were off to Phoenix. So what do we do? Go have as much fun as possible.

We drove over to Sand Hollow, where Stef and JT were staying. Once there we jumped in the Jeep, 4 Runner, and Razor to head over to the beach. I don't know who had the most fun at the beach; Zoey, Ellie, Sammi, or JT.

Zoey, the great dane, ran everywhere except where the water was too deep because she is a chicken and can't swim yet. However, she doesn't want water to touch her belly either.

What would you do if it was warm outside, the sand was warm but the water a little chilly (53 degrees according to the entrance station)? Ellie would run into the water and splash around then run out and lay in the sand becoming a sand monster and then return to the water.

Gotta warm up

Wash off the sand. 

She didn't want to stay out of the water but when she was shivering uncontrollably, I thought it was best and made her stay out.

Sammi splashed a little in the water or walked in to fill up her cups but she would rather dig and make sand castles. Then either she or Zoey would stomp them. Zoey was always trying to run as close to people as possible. Zoey helped dig a big hole so the girls could sit and be buried. Neither girl sat too long in the hole. Sammi didn't want to be covered and the shape of the hole hurt Ellie's back once the sand was piled on her legs.

We dried them off and dressed them so they could go for a ride in the Razor. Even though we had brought their bike helmets down with us, I left them at the St. George house. They just wore Stef's helmet. ha ha ha

Ellie and JT

Sammi's turn

JT said that both girls just laughed and giggled the whole time. Of course, Ellie kept asking to go faster and even squealed when JT took her to do some donuts. That is definitely something we will need to do again.

We went back to the motor home and trailer for lunch and so Sammi could nap. While she was napping, JT took me on a ride. I have been on 4 wheelers before but never through sand dunes. The razor was a blast. The ride was beautiful. I didn't take my phone or a camera because I didn't want sand everywhere in them but that is such a gorgeous area. 

On Sand Hollow, there is this great cliff jumping place near the boat ramp. We went and hiked around there to splash and throw rocks. The water lever was a little low and the water temp a little cold for us to want to jump in. 

Ellie wanted to do so much of the hiking by herself. She was so excited to explore and learn things. I think Ellie and Sammi definitely threw more rocks but Jeff and JT may have created more splash because they kept skipping rocks and throwing in big rocks to try and splash us. It was time to head back when Sammi stepped on a thorn. It bled quite a bit. Sadly the ranger who had just pulled up to the ramp as we walked out hadn't kept the first aid kit up to date. His cleansing wipes were dried up but Stef and JT made great doctors to clean and bandage Sammi's foot.

Just after lunch on Saturday, we packed up again and went out to adventure. My uncle Jon had traveled down so along with him and Stef and JT, we drove up to Toquerville Falls.  It had been close to 7-8 years since I had been there last. The first time I went to the falls was with a friend of mine who lives down in the area about 13-14 years ago. Its a great place to have fun.

Just up stream from the falls we had a great place way from others where the girls and the dogs could splash around and play. Besides Zoey, we had Duncan (my uncle's lab) and Buoy (belongs to friends of Stef and JT). Ellie did great seeing her first golden lab since she was bit. She has really learned that each animal, no matter how much they look alike, is different and an individual.

Anyway, the dogs loved trying to fetch rocks and dirt clumps the girls threw. They also ran and splashed in between anyone standing too close to the water.

Girls at the falls.

This is a little better picture of the falls. Ellie and Sammi were on the middle ledge on the right side. Bert the Jeep is Stef and JT's jeep that travels to Jeep and off road shows all over the country for Nemesis Industries (the company they work for). Honk if you ever see Bert around. He's hard to miss.

Bert the Jeep

Falls in June of 2006

We headed back into St. George for dinner and to wait for the Tough Mudder goers to return. We had such a fun time. I wish I was already back there and had been able to spend more time with various friends. But you do what you can. It was so nice to go and have such a good time and do so many fun things.

Friends, food, fun and gymnastics

Do you know when you have good friends? When you haven't really seen or spoken in a few years but they still call when they are headed in your direction just so you can hang out. Tracey did just that thing a few weeks ago. We hadn't seen her or her family for almost 2 years but they were coming up to go to a gymnastics meet and gave us a call. 

We started with dinner at a local joint, where the locals eat, and then headed to The Spectrum. I had looked up the info online and found that entrance was free if you were wearing pink. We had to buy Jake a ticket. 

Don't be fooled by the look on Ellie's face. She loved watching the gymnastics and playing with friends. 

Ellie put your hands down. Sammi look at the camera.

Apparently USU's gymnastics isn't as popular as the Utes' Red Rocks. We showed up late but where still only 5 rows up from the floor.

We has such a good time. We got out of the house, the kids were able to play and enjoy something new, and Jake and I could take with friends and have adult conversations.

Thanks Tracey and Adrian. We had such a great time.

Where do they come up with these things?

Both girls have recently said things that I just don't even know how to react or how to respond to. Of course being a toddler, Sammi always says things that are funny, don't quite make sense, or whatever simply because she is learning to grasp the language. I can understand that. I try to re-phrase what she said making the proper corrections or ask for clarification so I can understand what she is trying to say. However most of the time, I just end up laughing because its just too funny.

Lately Sammi has been telling people, "You're not the most. Jesus is the most." Or similar variations along those lines. Every time it ends with Jesus is the most. I have no idea where she picked this up or learned it but with her goofy toddler accent (which you just have to hear). She sounds like an extreme bible thumping church goer. This makes me laugh almost every time, except when she yells this at someone in the grocery story trying to walk down the same aisle as us.

The other thing she says a bunch is "You're not a mean guy. You're a good guy." Then she proceeds to name everyone she knows as a good guy. "Jeff's not a mean guy. He's a good guy. Frampa's (who she says grandpa) not a mean guy. He's a good guy." She even includes her uncles who she shies away from in person. Again, poor strangers at the grocery store have been told they are bad or mean guys because they want to walk down the aisle. (Do you get the feeling she doesn't like strangers at grocery stores and I that I spend a lot of time apologizing to people because my child is extremely rude?)

As funny as these have been, it's something that Ellie said to me the other day that has me questioning where kids pick up these ideas or phrases. About a week ago, I was making a meal. Ellie was standing there talking with me and out of nowhere she says, "Mom, you won't be there when I get married. You'll be dead." I tried to ask why she thought that or what gave her that idea. Once she answered because I'll be older than grandmas. So I explained that both my grandma's were still alive when I was married and one of them is still alive. However, again she insisted that I wouldn't be at her wedding cause I would be dead. She said it a few more times. Not quite sure what to do or say to that.

What happened for thinking for ourselves?

Can someone explain this to me because my logic is getting into the way?

We signed up for a service and agreed to a 12 month contract with 12 months of a promotional price. This month the bill went up (and we've lived in our place for a year) so contract and promotional price over right? Wrong!

After chatting with 2 people and having 2 different phone conversations with people from 2 different departments, this is what I learned. According to the company, the promo pricing ended with the bill that started at the end of Jan. This makes sense because they bill a month in advance (so the end of January bill covered the month of February). This bill is for the 13th month, however the contract and the promo pricing are still on the account until next week. Because of this, they can't cancel the contract or give new promo pricing until next week when that information "falls off the system" so I will need to call back next week to change the contract, try for new promo pricing, and try for a credit for the bill they are going to auto-deduct from my account even though I cancelled auto-pay (because they won't guarantee the auto-pay won't pull the money if you already received your bill).

What bothers me:

1. Not a single person, of the three I spoke with about my questions, seemed to understand (or if they did, they no longer cared) that if the pricing was for 12 months and the contract were for 12 months why did the pricing end last month but the contract is in force until next week? Why if the promo pricing was still on the account (it won't "fall off" until next week), why wasn't in affect for the price of the services? If the contract was over, why couldn't changes be made simply because there was information just sitting and doing nothing on my account?
2. How is it that people who work there haven't ever questioned this so they can best deal with customer who are going through this issue? I was always trying understand and learn how or why things worked the way they did. I felt it helped me to know how to explain things to customers or work out solutions that worked best for both sides. 
3. This company built they're system this way and the underlings don't have codes or control to do or change anything. It seems as though it were built in such a way that would cause extra work for both the employees and the customers just so that when people aren't paying attention to their account, they can make some extra bucks. 

Is my logic wrong here? Am I the one who doesn't understand?