We just got back from a great vacation in St. George! We were there for a week and had tons of fun. LOTS of food was consumed, LOTS of money was spent, and LOTS of memories were made! :-) For the sake of remembering, I am going to recap each days events. If you don't want to read it all,...don't feel guilty, just look at the pictures. :-)
DAY #1 New Years Eve! Lots of food, games and family bonding time!
Jack didn't make it until mid-night! I believe this was taken right before he dozed off. :-)
My girls LOVE their cousins! Spending time with them was the best part of the trip!
DAY #2 Most of this day was spent cutting and highlighting Amy and Jessica's hair. Both gals turned out wonderful! The rest of the family went to an awesome park near Mindy's house. The kids call it the spin park, but adults call it the spew park. Whatever the name, it was great fun!
Day #3 was the first of two trips to Zions Canyon. We took a nice Sunday drive up the canyon. It was so gorgeous! Look at that sky! We couldn't help but pull over and let Mike and the kids...Hike up a mountain...uh...to get closer to heaven...because it was Sunday... Jack and I stayed in the car and watched them climb. It was cool because I could hear them talking like they were right next to me, but in reality, they were 200ish yards away. I guess I can't finish talking about this day without mentioning that we totally missed driving through the main part of the canyon. We are tourists who didn't bother getting directions. In reality we just drove through Zions park without actually entering the famous canyon. Both Mike and I agree that it was still a day well spent.
Day #4 Ok the details of our trip are starting to all melt together...I am going to use Day four to make a list of all the fun things we did and then finish with day six!
*Ate at Pirate Island Pizza.. The kids had fun playing in the arcade.
* Went swimming
* Gorged our selves on Delicious meat at a Brazilian restaurant...(thanks again Mindy and Kyle)
* Went to the Hot tub almost every day/night...The pool was open, but none of us had any desire to die of hypothermia on our vacation. :-)
* Enjoyed some down time in our Beautiful Condo (time share)
*Had an AWESOME sister shopping spree with Amy and Mindy. Amy and I stayed in the dressing room while our own personal shopper...(aka Mindy) brought us arm fulls of wondrous selections to try on. It was so fun. Mindy even had another shopper ask her for assistance. Mindy had to tell her..." Oh, I don't work here, I am just helping my sisters."
*Had a fun Date with Mike. We ate at Panda express and then watched Seven Pounds. Thanks Mindy for watching our kids.
*Went to dinner with Dad and Pam at Golden Corral. It was really fun to tell the girls that they could choose WHATEVER they wanted, then sit back and watch. Ellie came back with Mac and Cheese, spaghetti, and pizza. The best was the dessert bar. I normally would NEVER let my kids loose on a dessert bar, but we were in vacation mode. As the title of this blog indicates, we were in a bit of a glutenous frame of mind. It wasn't until after they returned with six desserts each that I read the sign.."Children must be supervised at all times". Oops, chalk it up to a good memory. It actually felt good to let loose and not care if other Moms were tisking their tongues and shaking their heads at me. :-) Luckily they each only ate one dessert off their plate. Thanks Dad and Pam for the yummy time! 
Somewhere in between meals, we went back to Zions! I am totally in love with that place! It was actually really awesome to be there in the winter. The combination of the snow and the red rock was breath taking! We took a short hike to the Lower Emerald pool. At the end of the hike we gave each of the girls an unofficial award.
Annie earned the "Best Lover of Nature" award. She loves every minute of being in the mountains. She loves to explore, use her imagination..(eg. she found "Santa's Chair on our hike) and appreciates the beauty around her. She is always asking things like, "So how do you think Jesus made that mountain look like that." Annie led the way the entire hike. Once we reached the pool she made her way straight to the icicles and began using one as a pointer. She was standing right under the waterfall. We didn't notice until it was too late that she was getting completely wet. She didn't care one bit. What a sweetie.
Ellie earned the "Best Sport Award" She seriously fell like 10 times on our hike. The path was totally snow covered and her shoes were very slick...(FYI, us Bearden's aren't known for our outdoor skills and preparedness) I was holding her hand the whole time, but she still went down. She kept laughing at herself and got right back up. (...Casie also thought Ellie's falls were hilarious..what is it about watching people slip on ice that makes us laugh?:-)
Casie earned the "Doesn't LOVE hiking, but still tries" award. It was obvious that Casie wasn't loving the hike, but we gave her props for trying. She reminds me of myself when I was her age. The word "hike" never filled me with excitement and joy. I think she did end up enjoying herself though...probably because she thought Ellie was so entertaining as she slipped down the path. :-)
Jack earned the "Cutest Hiker award" He stayed nestled close to Mike in his little carrier and slept the whole time. :-)
I am so grateful we are able to do fun things as a family. I hope my kids will have good memories of their childhood. I hope our efforts to promote family togetherness will make them stronger people. ( I also hope they won't be too disturbed their parents rendition of "99 Bottles of Milk on the wall.")
Of coarse at the end of every vacation, we are so happy to be safely home. Ellie was so cute as she ran around the house. She kept saying things like, "Oh, I forgot what our pantry looked like!"
Back to life...Back to reality!!!!!!!!!!!
Jack was in Bed during all the fun...but this is his general mood during the holidays. :-)
Because we had other kids the same ages, we thought we would be funny and tell them all to act like babies while we took their pictures!!
