Summer Adventures, part 1

Our first adventure of the summer was a long weekend trip to St. George, Utah for the 4^th of July and an extended Freeman family reunion. We left Tuesday night and drove through the night, as we like to do. We rolled in at about 8:00 a.m. and met up with my cousin, Lori and her cute family for an early swimming/lunch from Jimmy John’s visit. We are only 3 weeks apart in age and grew up together so it is always a highlight of my trip when I get to see her and her family. Unfortunately, I have NO photos from this.

After lunch, we drove to our hotel to check in. Freemans, Freemans by the dozens / All those uncles, aunts and cousins! / Freemans here, Freemans there / We’ve got Freemans everywhere! That’s how the family chant goes and my goodness! It was true! I felt really bad for anyone staying at the hotel who was not with us because we took over the place. Little toe-heads were running all over.

We swam (and swam, and swam, and swam)!

 

On Thursday, Dave and all his siblings boycotted the planned expedition to Parowan (we couldn’t face another hour and a half drive just to keep our kids quiet on a tour of a cemetery) and instead took a quick day-trip (with just the immediate cousins) over to the St. George “splash park”, definitely the best I have ever seen. Make sure you stop there if you ever get the chance.

We took some family photos that evening before dinner.

In the morning after all the extended family checked out, those of us who were left had a field trip to Brigham Young’s winter home, and then to the St. George temple visitor’s center. It was worth the trip.

That evening we drove up to Cedar City to stay with Joey and Emily, our good friends (Joey was one of D’s trio in the Missionary Training Center and went to the Dominican Republic with him). Their kids were a hoot!! The kids made movies in the wilderness (you think I’m kidding) while the dads were in charge. Emily and I went to see Mary Stuart in the outdoor Shakespeare festival theatre. That was heavenly.

We hung out most of Saturday, then said our goodbyes. We caught up with my brother Scott and his wife Meridith who were also in Cedar after a family reunion. We had dinner then hopped in the car for our L-O-N-G drive home. Note to self, attempting an all-night drive just 3 days after the last one is not a good idea!