Cedar City

We had a fabulous time on our spring vacation this last week. Nate had to go to a conference in Cedar City, so we decided to make it into a little family vacation. It might have been a mistake to tell the kids about it way ahead of time. We knew we were in trouble when Elise and Emily started including it in their prayers weeks before were supposed to go. They were so excited about it they almost drove us nuts. When we told them that we were staying at the Abbey Inn, they thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I think they told everyone we know . . . “we are going to the Abbey Inn, just like our baby is named Abby.”

Our kids are so easily impressed/entertained. They thought the elevator was the neatest thing ever. They all wanted to ride up by themselves every time, so it took three rides to move them all upstairs. They were also pretty impressed with the ice machine and the cool key card to open the door.

While Nate worked, we hung out around the hotel. There was a McDonald's right across the parking lot with a deluxe playland and an awesome park a couple of miles away. Between that, the swimming pool and a few DVDs, the time went by pretty fast. Nate’s coworker took his family along too. They have two boys that are the same age as Ben and Elise. The kids, especially Ben and Max, loved playing together.

Abby started with a bit of a fever on Tuesday night and was sick (or maybe just teething) pretty much the whole time. Obviously, we would prefer that our kids were always healthy, but the timing kind of worked out to our advantage. We were a little anxious about how naps and bedtime would work out with all six of us in the same room, but it turned out not to be a problem. She was pretty lethargic and slept really well.

Here we are in front of the Abbey Inn sign. This was actually taken on our last day and Elise had apparently had enough!

At the park:

The park was a big hit. It was huge and had lots of cool things to do. The kids had fun playing with their new friends Maxwell and Asher.

At the pool:

Nate and the kids ready to try out the pool.

The kids had lots of fun swimming with Nate. He amazed us all with his ability to hold his breath and swim under water for a really long time.

Max taught Ben how to dive down and get things off the bottom of the pool. Ben was so excited about his new trick that he spent LOTS of time underwater. We were glad that we had invested in some new swim goggles for the trip.

The girls having fun at the pool.

A rare moment when Abby was feeling good and looking happy.

Sick Abby:

This is how Abby looked for most of our trip . . . her clothes and location varied, but she spent a lot of time curled up in a ball sleeping or just looking miserable. It was pretty pathetic. It is out of character for her to fall asleep anywhere but her crib, let alone at the pool with 20 people around.

Miscellaneous:

Elise was the caboose of a slide train at McDonald's and put her tooth through her lip when she bumped into the kid in front of her. It was quite the trauma and left her with a huge fat lip.

Luckily the kids wore themselves out every day. They slept really well considering their close quarters.

We let the kids each pick their own entertainment to take along. Ben brought six Star Wars books. He is hilarious when he colors in his Star Wars coloring book. He always has a couple of “reference books” handy to make sure that he colors everything just right.