Canoers; Tuacahn; St. George Temple Open House; Denver; Final Destination: Omaha

The City of North Salt Lake sponsors the Jordan River Paddle. All the canoes and life jackets are provided at no charge. 

Dallas invited Glen to join their family last year. This year Glen wasn't able to go (we were substituting for another couple at the prison) and Dallas wasn't able to go (he now works on Saturdays).

The Excell family joined Rebecca, Spencer and Madison for the paddle (Brooke was working at Lagoon and Caroline was babysitting). 

What a great activity for that bunch of boys, and Madison, to be participating in that morning. 

That same day, September 16th, Jacob was with Logan and Claire at the BYU vs. Arkansas football game. 

I'm sure Glen wished he was also watching the football game in Arkansas, but, instead, he invited his childhood friends over--Kenny, Randy and his wife and Kevin and his wife--to our home for a ball game dinner party.

Glen ordered a Feastbox meal to be delivered to our home the day before. That way, on game day, I just had to heat up all the meat, beans, macaroni and cheese, and sauces to go along with the broccoli salad that was also included. We all felt like it was a pretty decent meal. 

There were just enough leftovers for our Sunday meal. 

Then on Monday we were out of here on our way to St. George for a few days to watch three plays at Tuacahn. We were taking advantage of the Bountiful Temple being closed for two weeks to go out of town. 

We enjoy taking road trips. I like to read books to Glen while he drives. It helps the time go faster for me if I am doing something. If I am not reading, I am napping. 

It's a good thing Glen loves to drive and doesn't usually get tired while driving. 

Once we arrived in St. George, we ate dinner at Applebee's and then got ice cream at Cold Stone to use up a gift card we had been given.

It is always a beautiful area to be in surrounded by the red rock mountains at Tuacahn. 

Glen was excited to get our two free cups from being season ticket holders. 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the first play we saw and we wished it had been our last because it was by far our favorite. 

It was so well done and the costumes and scenery were so colorful and exciting. The little boy playing Charlie was so absolutely wonderful. Such a great actor and a great singer at such a young age. So fun to watch!!!!

Tuesday morning we went for a walk along the Virgin River trail.

We hadn't planned our Tuacahn play reservations to coincide with the St. George Temple open house. It just worked out that way and we were happy to take advantage of the opportunity to participate.

We went in the middle of the day and it was not busy at all. It is amazing to see the construction of the older temples. So much went into the original building and I was impressed with how well they have preserved the feel of the older style with the interior design even though everything is new. So beautiful!

It just makes me happy and makes me feel like I am really on vacation when I see palm trees like these right outside our hotel.

We spent some time exploring the city of St. George that afternoon. We went to town square where there was a splash pad, a carousel, the Tabernacle and the Tabernacle Square Gazebo.

There was a giant art sculpture electric guitar made out of license plates and automotive tools. 

The same artist built a giant spider out of license plates which is displayed in front of a pest control company.

We noticed various art buffaloes on display in the city. Reminds me of the painted horses all throughout Ogden City. 

We walked a few blocks away from the town square to take a tour of Brigham Young's winter home. He lived in this home during the winter months from 1870-1877. 

There was a smaller building (seen on the left) where meetings were held to facilitate the work of preparing the sealing and endowment temple ordinances for the dead, conducted for the first time in the St. George Utah Temple.

The garden outside was impressive how it is kept up to show what it might have looked like back then. 

Brigham Young wanted cotton grown and we saw some growing in the garden.

We exited the property walking down the side yard tree-lined path. It was a beautiful, large property on a beautiful street in a beautiful town. 

Glen was anxious to head back to the town square so he could get shaved ice at Thomas Judd's Store. 

There was so much fun stuff to look at inside that old store. I almost bought a box of Cracker Jacks in honor of a childhood memory I have of eating that treat and getting the prize inside.

I could not believe the size of the jawbreakers that were on display in these two jars. Another childhood memory I have is eating jawbreakers, which were way smaller than these. The ones on the left were as big as baseballs!!

For dinner that evening we ate at Utah's Rib and Chop House before heading to Tuacahn to see what turned out to be our least favorite play this season. 

Of course the play was performed very well, but it was a darker subject and a darker set and we just preferred the more animated one of the night before.

Our Wednesday morning walk was along another part of the Virgin River trail. 

We did some more exploring this day, but first I wanted to stop by the Children's Museum because I thought the Humpty Dumpty sculpture out front was so adorable.

We took a little drive away from the city to Santa Clara to the home of Jacob Hamblin who was the Southern Utah Indian mission president beginning in 1863. He had such dedication to serving American Indians. He viewed his mission as a lifelong calling.

Santa Clara's Annual Swiss Days celebration was just beginning that day in tribute to the town's heritage in which Swiss Pioneers settled in Santa Clara in 1861. 

There were wooden cows lining the main street advertising various businesses and restaurants. 

In Switzerland, the cow is an icon. Without them, there would be no milk, no cheese, no chocolate. The fields would be empty and there would be no sound of bells ringing. The cow has become one of the country's ambassadors. 

Back in the city we found Petroglyph Park and took a look at the huge rock with the many petroglyphs on it.

That evening we watched our third play. We were afraid we wouldn't be able to see it because of the huge lightning/rain storm that passed through the city.

We had eaten at Outback and were back in our hotel when the storm hit hard. Wondering if the play would possibly go on, we headed out to Tuacahn to see what was happening out there. We noticed the parking lot filling with cars and it didn't look like any people were leaving.

We walked up the big flight of stairs to join the throng of anxious people awaiting news of whether the show would go on or not. 

We stood there for an hour and a half waiting and waiting and waiting. Finally, after the long rain delay, we were let in to take our seats. 

Our favorite thing about this show was watching all the people squeegeeing the stage to get rid of all the rain puddles.

Then, the very first scene there was a large waterfall cascading down the back of the stage with all the water spilling out onto the stage. There was no squeegeeing after that. It was quite hilarious and made absolutely no sense to us at all.

We did enjoy the play, but still not as much as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Thursday morning we packed up and drove away from St. George, Utah with our destination being Denver, Colorado where we were spending the night. 

We stopped for breakfast at the Tamarisk Restaurant. 

It was pretty slow service, but at least there was a beautiful view out of the large windows of the restaurant. 

There is such beautiful, unique scenery in southern Utah and on the route to Denver. I had never been on that road before, so it was fun to see something new.

We ate breakfast at our hotel in Denver on Friday, at Subway for lunch along our way, and ended up at our destination of Omaha, Nebraska. 

It was just Jacob, Logan and Claire at home that evening.

We took them out to dinner at a restaurant of Claire's choice--Olive Garden.