Rick and Janell's News: ST. GEORGE FOR THE HOLIDAY

A few weeks ago when thinking and planning for the Thanksgiving holiday, I knew that it would be an "off" year and that our married kids would be with their in-laws. I suggested to Rick that instead of making another full-on Thanksgiving meal and being sad that most everyone was gone, that we go down to St. George for the holiday. He agreed to the idea and, I invited Kaitlyn and Gary to come along. Kaitlyn thought it would be fun, and Gary said he wanted to stay and work. So that was our plan, to just take Kaitlyn and her kids. Just a few days before Thanksgiving Alyssia came into town, and so we invited her to come along as well.

We started off Wednesday morning to miss the heavy traffic. Kaitlyn was nervous to drive her car, but she followed us the whole way and felt good about that. The backroads were great, but the freeway traffic was pretty crazy. We made it to St. George by 3:30 and decided to have dinner before the crowds got in. We stopped at Olive Garden and had some seriously good food! Olive Garden is always a good idea!😀

After dinner we drove to La Quinta, where the trade has been plentiful.

We got checked in and found, unfortunately, that the hot tub was closed for repairs.

I had been looking forward to sitting in a nice warm tub because the pool is not warm enough for me this time of the year. Rick and Kaitlyn took the kids out to the pool to swim while I watched the Home and Garden channel.😃 Later that evening together Rick and I watched Midnight Lace. That was fun!

The next morning was Thanksgiving Day!

After breakfast we took Haivyn and Merik to the movie. We saw The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Rick bought popcorn for the kids, and they had a fun time munching on that.

The show was cute and the kids liked it. Kaitlyn and Alyssia wanted to stay back in the room, so it was just the four of us.

After the movie we came back to the hotel to get the twins and went out for our Thanksgiving Dinner. We were hoping to go to Chuck A Rama, but the line was SUPER long so we went to Cracker Barrel instead. There was a line there as well, but somehow we were able to get right in. The food was really good and we all had dessert. After all, it WAS Thanksgiving! Pumpkin pie came with our turkey dinners but I gave mine to Alyssia, and instead I had the coca cola cake with ice cream. It was really delish!

Afterwards, the kids wanted to go back to the hotel to go swimming. While they did that we took our bikes out and found a trail to ride. We ended up riding by Jim and Emily's home and found Jessica Ricks and her daughter Grace just outside of the house by the park. We stopped and talked with them for a bit. Brian and Jessica's oldest children, Paden, Garret, and Maddie live in St. George and work for Jim so the whole family came down to be with them. While we were talking, Emily came up with her daughter, Faith. We chatted for a few minutes and then took off again. The sun was going down quickly and we had only gone two miles. Anyhoo, we rode for about twenty five more minutes including turning around and getting back to the truck. It was getting too cold!

The next morning, Rick led Kaitlyn and Alyssia to a shopping center to do some Black Friday shopping.

Kaitlyn has not felt good about driving on her own here in St. George, so she will not drive unless she is following us. Anyway, while they were off shopping, the kids stayed in our room and watched a cartoon movie while I did my own Black Friday online shopping. After that we picked up the girls and went to Bath And Body to get some Christmas gifts. The store was PACKED but we were in and out in 45 minutes. After that we led them out to Hurricane for the movie Wicked. While they watched the nearly THREE HOUR movie Rick and I found a spot in Washington to ride our bikes. We had a nice time and had some beautiful vistas overlooking the valley. The weather was warmer than the day before and the sun was shining, so it was really a great ride.

When the movie ended, the girls met us (Rick convinced Kaitlyn to use her GPS and meet us) at the Black Bear Diner. We had a nice meal and then went back to the hotel for about an hour to chill.

Rick and I had scheduled a sealing appointment at the St. George temple for 6:30, so that's where we spent our evening. It was very nice. I love this historic temple; it is special to us as we were married there. I love the fact that it is a pioneer temple and that the renovation has gone back to much of its pioneer decor.

They had just turned on the Christmas lights an hour before we had our sealing session so when we arrived there were tons of people walking around the grounds. After our sealing session we walked around to admire the lights, as well. It was nice! This picture doesn't show the Christmas lights, but it does show the lit up temple!