Watch out St. George, Here Come the Martins!

A few months ago Nettie had the idea of getting together in St. George for a little family vacation.  She has an old Bishopric member that has a house down their that we could rent.  Since it was so much closer to Cameron and Rachel's place in California than Orem they decided to come and join us.  Not everyone was able to make it, but there was a good group of us: Glenn, Cameron, Rachel, Candice, Michelle, Andrew, Drew, Nettie, Dy, Bracken, Tina, Chelsea, and Darren.  We all took off work a little early on Thursday and made it down to St. George by late afternoon.  The house was located in a subdivision that included a recreation center with a pool and tennis courts.  We settled in and looked around the house.  It was back up to a golf course, was very nicely furnished and had extremely high ceilings and there was enough beds that no one had to sleep on the ground.

Cameron and Rachel were running a little later so we decided to just meet them at Brick Oven for dinner when the time came.  When we got back to the house we just hung out and talked.  Before going to bed Nettie wanted to make sure that we would be getting up early so we could play tennis and not let the day go to waste.  Friday morning came and we didn't wake up as early as wanted.  After a few of us played tennis we headed to the pool for a swim.  When we got to the pool there were a few girls and then an older couple relaxing.  That changed within the first few second of us entering the pool area.  We got all of the kids in their floating devices and started playing games.

Drew just loves the water and he definitely fit his floaty much better than at Bear Lake.  After an hour or so of playing around Drew and Bracken got tired and decided to take a rest with me and papa Martin.

When we got home we all got ready to go to dinner.  Rachel had used urban spoon to find a Chinese restaurant in the area that focused on Mongolian BBQ.  You chose the size bowl that you wanted for a set price and then you filled it as high as you wanted with vegetables, meats, sauce, noodles, or rice that you wanted and then they cooked it up for you.  The food was decent and it was a lot of fun.  My favorite part was the older people in line rolling their eyes in disgust as people would pile the food twice as high as the bowl itself. After eating we did a little shopping for the kids.  We found this hat that looks just like one Grandpa Woolley has and for only a buck we had to get it.

 That night Michelle, Dy, Glenn, and I went to the Tuachan for the production of Disney's Tarzan.  The show was pretty good, but I do admit that some of the singing could have been better, but it was nice to know most of the songs that were being sung.

On Saturday morning we got another late start to the day.  Michelle, Nettie, Tina, Darren, Chelsea, and I played a few games of tennis.  Michelle and I did pretty well.  I had a rough start, but soon got into the swing of things.

Later on another group went to the pool for a swim, but I decided to stay behind and relax.  Since it was so close to Candice's 2nd birthday and Chelsea's 21st birthday we decided to have a party for them.  We had hamburgers and fries for dinner and then opened presents, sorry Chelsea, non for you.  Candice loved every singe one of them.  Afterward we had some good old Costco triple chocolate cake and ice cream.

Bracken maybe loved the gifts just as much as Candice.  Being a two year old Candice wasn't liking the idea of having to share her toys, so Bracken's fun didn't last long, but with a new baby brother coming she better learn fast.

Glenn, Nettie, Cameron, and Rachel headed off to "Crazy for You" at the Tuachan leaving the rest of us to veg out and watch a movie.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday morning.  We attended sacrament meeting at a church near by and then went and visited the St. George Temple to take some pictures.

We came home, packed our bags, ate lunch, cleaned, and took a group picture among others to help remember the occasion.

 Then we all got into our cars, fastened our seat belts and made the trip back to Orem and then to our own home and reality.

While Drew was waiting for everyone to get into the car I took this little video of him laughing at me.  He makes us so happy.

Thanks Nettie for putting the weekend together.  We all had a lot of fun and hope to do it again soon.  When we got back to Orem Michelle and I stuck around for a little while and were able to see my brother Scott and his girlfriend Megan. 

Scott lives in Arizona and Megan is going to school at BYU.  He drove up on Friday to surprise her for her birthday and was just staying at the Martin's house for the weekend.  We only got to visit for a few hours, but it officially completed us seeing all of my family members in Utah these last few months.