A jaunt down south

It's not very often that the university where my husband works and the school district where my son attends have Spring Break vacations that match up.

It happened this year!

And so we took the opportunity to head south for the week to spend some time with my sister Megan in Utah, and then go further south to Las Vegas to spend the majority of the week with Bill's family. 

 (And yes, I thought of you and waved, Loni, as we drove through St. George.  We even ate at the In n' Out, and sat at the outside tables without jackets....Wow, St. George is beautiful this time of year!!)

While in Utah visiting my sister and her family, we walked around the Mt. Timpanogas temple with my nephew Ryker.  Evelyn, from that time forward, insisted on touching every temple we drove by or visited.

A picture of Mt. Timp temple that Bill took.  It was a beautiful day.  It's always a beautiful day when you have pot roast with potatoes and gravy for Sunday dinner....thanks Meg!

While in Las Vegas, we spent most of our time visiting family, which was wonderful.  But we did try to venture out once a day to enjoy an activity with the kids:

Ethel M's chocolate factory and cactus gardens.

Evelyn was whining for the better part of this excursion, as she tried to make friends with a cactus and decided to shake it's hand....lots of little cactus spines in little fingers.

We love the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.  We really don't like going to the strip much at all, but when we do, we visit Shark Reef.  Oh, and M & M world.

The highlight of Porter's trip was coming home with two brand new saxophones.  An alto and a tenor.  He has played the alto all year (one that we had been renting) and has begged us to let him play the tenor as well.  We are making him earn the tenor sax.  Right now it is sitting in our bedroom and it is killing him.  He is extremely talented and is leaps and bounds ahead of his band class with his ability.  He can melt any grown woman's heart with his rendition of Edelweiss and make you want to tap your toe to The Pink Panther.  We are starting him in private lessons at the university on Thursday.  He is super excited about it. 

Since being home, we have been battling illness, trying to unpack and do laundry, and just get back into the swing of things.  We have some home renovations that are in the process, and the kitchen countertops to be put in this week or next.  

Pictures soon to come.

Evelyn hand update:  She's healing well.  She's got some pretty good scar tissue that we apply some concentrated cream to a couple times a day.  But overall, we could not ask for a better outcome with the accident.  Time will tell if more needs to be done in the future.