St. George has a really cool park high up on the hill above town. I'm not sure why we've never been there before. It was obviously a well-known hiking spot judging from the number of people who were there, and on a Sunday, when you would think that most of St. George would be in church. The boys enjoyed climbing on all the rocks, but we couldn't stay as long as we might have liked due to being over-dressed. The weather report said the temp was 56, so we dressed a little on the warm side. When we got there, it was clearly over 70, maybe around 80 and, of course, we didn't bring water. Simon was quickly over-heating, so our stay was short. We can always go back another day.
The boys saw a couple of lizards out there, which was followed by lizard chasing. I'm not sure what they thought they would do with the lizard if they actually caught it. I know they were able to keep some backyard frogs alive in the house for a long time, but I'm not sure if the lizard would have survived the trip home.
There were some big rocks to climb that didn't require any real rock climbing skills. That was fun!
DAY 3: Day 3 was apparently so uneventful, I can't remember what we did. I'm sure it included swimming and shopping at stores like Target. This may have also been the day that we took the boys to one of those bouncy places. I sat on a couch and read Stolen Innocence and paid no attention to the boys and what they were doing. Afterwards, I was chastised for not taking any pictures. Stolen Innocence, by the way, is a very interesting story of a young FLDS girl who was forced to get married at 14 to some guy she didn't like, who then abused her. Since I spend most of my days and weeks with 14 year olds, I am quite aware of how immature they are and how they are still children and should not be getting married and having babies. Also disturbing was the 18 year olds being married to some guy in his 80s.
DAY 4: We were up early and off to visit the Best Friends animal sanctuary in Kanab, UT. Kanab is in the middle of nowhere, but it is a cool place to visit and they really take care of a lot of animals. I wish we had had a chance to visit with more animals, but I guess you need to take the time to volunteer to do that. Some people make a vacation out of volunteering at Best Friends. That might be fun to do sometime when the kids are a bit older.
We sat all the way in the back of this big van:
Torsten in one of the cat houses.
A very friendly dog:
A donkey?
A mean pot-bellied pig:
A lonely dog named Chico:
Another strange creature:
After Best Friends we had a five plus hour drive to Peoria, Arizona. The drive was long, and only sometimes scenic. We stopped at a dam, and got out to see the dam view.
Shortly after that last photo was taken, Simon attempted to kill himself by running across the highway in front of an RV. Steve's scream scared me and apparently scared Simon enough to get him out of the street. Simon is just one crazy kid. I hope soon he gets enough common sense to keep himself alive for a few more years.
After finally arriving in Phoenix, we went out for some dinner. And do you even need to ask where? There was a Mexican place just a block from the hotel, so of course we ate there.
On the walk back to the hotel I spotted a Trader Joe's just across the parking lot. I can't believe we are so lucky to have picked a spot right next to Trader Joe's. I went in for some after-dinner snacks and also got some yogurt to have for breakfast. Steve noticed that on the other side of the hotel is a Costco. I think I know at least one place we'll be going tomorrow!
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