Two National Parks and Glenwood Hot Springs, Dec 30, 2019 - Jan 1, 2020

Part 2 of our Christmas Trip included a day at 2 National Parks and Glenwood Hot Springs.  We left St. George on Monday morning ( Dec 30) and set off for Zion National Park.  We have a free National Parks pass this year because of our cute 4th Grader...so we decided to take advantage of it in UT since there are so many parks on the way back to CO.

We stopped at the visitors center in Zion National Park.

The lines to take the shuttle bus further into the park were really long, so we decided to just do a driving tour of the park through the tunnel headed towards Bryce Canyon...which was our real destination.  It was still a very beautiful drive.  The pictures don't do it justice.

 And we saw some wildlife

We left the park and headed north on Hwy 89 to Bryce Canyon.  It was a beautiful fall day heading into Dixie National Forest.

We stopped at Ruby's Inn for lunch and destination t-shirts.

Then headed into the park.

First stop was for Passport stamps at the Rangers station.

Then we headed to the lookouts.  I have been to Bryce in the summer but not in the winter with snow on the ground.  It was as amazing as I remembered. The kids were less impressed, mostly because it was cold.

In fact, they were so unimpressed that at the next lookout point they refused to get out of the car. So James and I did solo parent walks to the lookout and back.  It was a bit slick getting out there...so maybe it was better they didn't come.

From Bryce Canyon we headed north on "the road less traveled" towards Richfield UT where we were spending the night.  It was a very small rural road.  We hardly saw any cars and at one point there were not even painted lines on the road.  But we made it to the hotel before dinner and into bed at a decent hour.

Dec 31st we packed up again and headed east to Glenwood Springs CO to spend New Years Eve at Glenwood Hot Springs Resort.

We went swimming right away.  The hot springs were nice and warm but the wind was blowing so it made your hair and face kind of cold.  Amazing scenery.

After swimming we changed and had dinner at a Japanese Restaurant (super yummy).  The girls also decorated our hotel room for New Years Eve.

While waiting for the party at the hot springs to start (9 pm) we had a little New Years party in our hotel room.

James and Elin wanted to go back to the hot springs for an evening swim.  Ani and I went with them so we could watch the fireworks but we both did not to swim.

James and Elin got to watch the 10 pm fireworks from the hot springs.  Ani watched about 3 fireworks then went into the locker room and fell asleep on a bench. 

We got back to our room around 11 pm and the girls literally passed out. 

New Years Day we had breakfast then went back to the hot springs to swim before heading home.  It started snowing as we were walking over to breakfast so we got to swim in the springs in the fog and snow. The girls that it was AMAZING. I borrowed Elin's stocking hat to keep my head warmer this time.

By mid morning we headed over the mountain. We had snowy roads at first so it was slow going but we made it to Dillon, had lunch and were back home to Colorado Springs by dinner.  

The whole trip (St. George and back) was around 1430 miles.  We made a lot of great family memories along the way.

Maija

Christmas in the Desert - St. George UT Dec 22-30, 2019

Since we are now within driving distance of  UT we decided to spent Christmas in St. George UT this year with James' parents who spend their winters there.  We left at  6 am on Sunday the 22nd of December and drove 12 hours, arriving in St. George at just after 6 pm.  REALLY long day.  But we made it with ALL the stuff for Christmas.

The next day we relaxed while GG taught the girls to make Scottish shortbread.  The girls got new aprons for themselves and their dolls.

We took the girls swimming in the afternoon.

In the evening we went to dinner at Cafe Rio (Ani's request) and went to Tuachan to see their light display and live nativity performance.

The next day was Christmas Eve.  We spent most of the day telling the girls "no, you can't open presents early".  So, we played a white elephant game after lunch with helped them to settle down for a while.

We had Christmas Eve dinner....

then got right down to opening presents.  We let the girls open sister gifts (to each other) grandparents  gifts and PJs/game from Mom & Dad on Christmas Eve.

We played games and they played with their new things for a while then it was time to get ready for Santa and off to bed.  They made a special cookie plate and note for Santa.  

The next morning, CHRISTMAS, they were up early and guess what?  SANTA came!!!

The morning was filled with PRESENTS and lots of playing, baking and building.

They stayed in Pajamas all day and had a great time with all their new stuff.  

Santa brought them cameras

The parents were exhausted, as usual, by the end of Christmas day.  We took them swimming in the evening to get them out of the house and to burn off some energy.

The next day, Dec 26th, GG and Elin went out for a little shopping and GG brought the girls new outfits.

Then in the afternoon they went on a movie date with their Grandparents to see Frozen 2. 

James and I went on our own movie date.

On Saturday (the 28th) the girls and I drove an hour to Cedar City to visit my cousins Linda and Melanie.

 In the evening we went to the Pizza Factory for dinner

and stopped by the St. George Temple visitors center.

On Sunday we went to church 

Then spent the rest of the day relaxing and packing up to leave the next day for part 2 of our trip.  

We all had a great time spending Christmas in the Desert. James and I did 2 puzzles while we were there.

Part 2 of our trip included 2 National parks and hot springs (see next blog entry).

Maija