May Update

The beginning of May St George hosted the Iron man competition. The location of our house was pretty central around part of it and we knew that getting around town was going to be impossible. So we decided to get out of town. We have been exploring around town quite a bit so we decided to head out to a town called Enterprise to see how far it was. On our way we passed Mountain Meadows and decided to stop. It was very humbling and serene and beautiful. Mountain Meadows is where the Mountain Meadows Massacre happened. We went to the memorial first that looked down upon the camp and the sight of the massacre.

 Then we headed down and went to see the grave and the field.

 Avery watched James when he was bent over reading the poem next to the head stone. After he got up and walked on, she bent down and looked at these flowers for a long time, then she nodded her head and said "yup, those flowers are orange." and then got up and ran after James. :) She wants to be just like her daddy.

 Enjoying the view, river and feel of the day.

 There were a few other places a long the way that we stopped, one for where the men were killed and another where most of the women and children were killed.
 We continued our journey to Enterprise and over to Cedar City talking about what we just witnessed. Enterprise is pretty, but its to far away from St George and work to consider living there. But we did see a house that someone built to look like a white castle. I wish I would have stopped the car to take a picture, it was pretty crazy. On our way into Cedar City we saw a sign for Old Irontown and decided to stop there too. Old Irontown is an old mining town where they would mine Iron and make coal. It was really interesting too.

 Avery declared this old oven where they use to make coal hers and she said she was going to live there. :p

 It amazes me how straight the got these mud bricks just by hand

                                                         One of the miners houses

 After a stop for dinner in Cedar City we headed back home to St George, successfully avoiding all the people and chaos that came with the Iron man competition and had a fun family outing. With a beautiful sunset to end the day.

We have been having a fairly wet May as well. When we got a break from rain we headed back out for some more hiking. On one occasion we were able to get out for a quick hike and back in the car before it started to rain.

 At the end of the hike it started to sprinkle and by the time we got Avery buckled and in the car it really started to come down. We were lucky. :)

 My in laws are moving, and we had the chance to go up for a weekend and help them with a garage sale. Avery was happy to see Parker and Andrew again. She's really been missing them. It was very cold and rainy the whole weekend and we had gone up with colds and they just got worse after we got back. All three of us were down for a good week. Over Memorial weekend we wanted to get out of the house and decided to take a drive. First we went down old hwy 19 which took us to a little town just inside the Arizona border called Little field. Then the hwy met I-15. It was such a short drive that we decided to take a drive up to the La Verkin overlook. It was a gorgeous view of both the small town of La Verkin and the entrance to Zions National Park.

 When we got back from the holiday and went back to work. I got called into my bosses office and was laid off. So now I am back searching for jobs. But on the plus side I get to spend more time with my super energetic Avery. :)

 So as the days get hotter and Summer gets into full swing. I will be looking for work, but we will also continue our exploring adventures. :)