George!

So, I must've done something right in these past few weeks to warrant the stars alining and wonderful happen-stance of this amazing last minute trip that Brandon needed to take to St. George to film some distributors for work, because holy COW, it could not have come at a better time!! And the fact that it came at all, well, is just such an amazing thing! I'd been dying to take a little family trip to warmer weather for months! I wanted to soak in the sun and swim in the pool with Scarlet SO badly before this little guy came, it was borderline ridiculous. It just really didn't seem like it was in the cards for us though, and I was slowly starting to accept that it just wasn't going to happen.

Randomly, Brandon learned of a trip he was going to need to take to film in St. George just last week! But with 3 family birthdays the last weekend in March, and knowing the beginning of April would be the cut off point for any travel due to the pending arrival of this cute little boy, I knew we were going to have to set something up fast if Scarlet and I were going to be lucky enough to accompany him on this quick little trip.

Like I said, luckily, amazingly, nothing short of divine intervention, were we able to get it all worked out for that weekend, like.. for just a couple days later!! The people Brandon needed to film were actually available for him to come so last minute! The weather was beyond perfect, high 70's and 80's the whole time! We found a perfect, yet totally affordable hotel, right in the center of St. George, and.. most importantly.. it had a beautiful, perfectly temperature controlled OUTDOOR POOL!!! It. was. incredible!!

I can't believe how much fun was had in just a couple short days, and more so, I can't believe I never realized how AWESOME St. George is!! So many fun little things to do so close, and super family friendly. And the scenery just was gorgeous! Brandon kept laughing at me, but I never realized how red the mountains were!! It was so gorgeous! I couldn't stop talking about them!

The couple days leading up to the trip we explained that daddy needed to go out of town to Scarlet, like we normally do, but that we were going to go with him this time! She was SO excited!! And every night and nap would ask if when she woke up we'd be leaving to 'George' yet. Haha! Then the whole way down she kept saying how excited she was to see 'George!' Oh man, were the feelings mutual! :)

We left first thing Sunday morning, and even with all the frequent preggo potty breaks and toddler leg stretch pit stops, we made pretty awesome time, getting there at 1:15ish! Since we were a little to early to check in we stopped at Pioneer Park to walk around for a little bit. It was such a fun hiking area, full of those gorgeous red rocks, and a perfect way to start soaking in the wonderful heat.

Even though it was super kid friendly, we got a little nervous at how adventurous Scarlet started to get and decided to take off after a little over an hour to see if our hotel room would be ready a little early. Luckily it was! And we were able to check-in and get our swimming suits on for the moment we'd all been waiting for!

The OUTDOOR POOL!!

After a short little swim, we got re-ready for the day and set out for some dinner at The Black Bear diner next to our hotel. It had really good reviews on-line so we thought we'd try it out!

After dinner we went to visit Brandon's grandparents who randomly were on their way back from their winter home in Yuma! They happened to be staying at Brandon's aunt's and uncle's condo for the night. It was so wonderful seeing them! It'd been since Christmas! Scarlet had a wonderful time playing with all the dolls she found in a room, and teasing this absolutely ginormous, pretty frightening, swan in the backyard.

I looked down this gorgeous little lake in the back that kinda connected all these condos, and I see this swan just b-lining it for Scarlet, like.. full speed. Haha! Even though there was a small little fence it still made me a little nervous so I ran and picked her up, and I'm really glad I did! He started reaching his head and snapping through the bars of the fence, I'm guessing expecting to get fed some food that we didn't have, but considering his size, it was pretty creepy! Haha!

After we got back to the hotel, we, meaning Brandon and I, were pretty dang exhausted. I'm pretty sure we totally fell asleep before Scarlet was able to finally doze off, she was too excited to even think of sleeping, at all, that whole day! And right before bed was definitely no exception, she was acting CRAZY!! Haha! We'd never seen her like that! George was proving to be WAY too much excitement for that little girl.

The next morning Brandon had to do part one of his filming, so Scarlet and I took our time getting ready and eating breakfast at their beautiful and free continental breakfast, and then played at the outdoor play ground and blew bubbles for a couple hours. I know I've probably said this a lot, and I'll probably say it a little more, but it was BEAUTIFUL!

Once Brandon got back we went to lunch at Chik-Fil-A and ran into a distant relative we occasionally see at Brandon's big Hutchison Family Reunion! It was so crazy!

After a delicious lunch, when does Chik-Fil-A ever disappoint? :) We went back to the hotel and swam again for awhile.

It was just SO gorgeous, and absolute perfect day. And after Scarlet had had her fill we put her down for a nap and played some cards. I feel so lucky to be married to my best friend. I love him so much and we just have so much fun together!

After Scarlet's nap we dropped Brandon off to finish filming with the distributors and went to the Outlets at Zion to get a little shopping in. It was awesome! Well, for Scarlet, they had the CUTEST kid stuff at such great prices! So, happily for me, maybe not so much for Brandon ;), I was able to snag some pretty fun summer outfits and sunglasses for my favorite little girlie.

After shopping Scar and I met up for some dinner with Brandon and the distributors at Red Lobster. SO delicious and such wonderful company! Brandon really does work for such a wonderful business full of such wonderful people!

Dinner went a little late, waaay past Scarlet's bed time so it was straight to bed for all of us as soon as we finally got back to the hotel.

The next morning was check-out.

Grabbing some grub before we hit the road

Even though Brandon was done filming, we weren't quite ready to go home, so we went to the St. George Children's Museum that we'd heard so much about and had a great morning there! We're pretty spoiled to have passes to the Discovery Gateway Museum in downtown Salt Lake, but this one was so different, even though we went through it a bit quicker, it was full of fun different toys and exhibits that Scarlet super enjoyed. They even had a dress up room with a ton of different princess and knight outfits. It was really cool, and I think because it was a smaller museum they were able to have all those fun costumes and the detail on everything was amazing!

After the museum we got Scarlet in her swimming suit and went over to this absolutely AWESOME little splash/play area. I'd heard someone refer to it as the 'River Walk' but I didn't ever notice a sign or anything that said that. It was SO awesome though! They had water coming down this little wall of rocks and a little river area that it poured into. It was such a gorgeous day, the cold splashes of water were definitely welcomed. It was the absolute perfect way to end an absolutely perfect little vacation.

The ride home always takes longer, Scarlet was such a champ though.

Man I love my little family and I'm so glad we were able to go on this fun little adventure together before life gets really exciting! :)