Our Trip to Utah

Jimmy and I went to Utah last Thursday for a few days.  This was the first time we had left all of our children behind while we went on a trip in many, many years---I think it has been 9 years since we left all of the children for this long!  We really had a fun, fun time!  Of course, most of the time we talked about how much the children would have enjoyed seeing  or experiencing this or that.

But the children had fun too!  Olivia, Julie, and Clay stayed with one set of grandparents while Leah and Sam stayed with the other.  I didn't worry one bit about any of them.  I knew they were in great hands, and they enjoyed their vacation too!

So, why did Jimmy and I trek across the country to Utah?

For Jimmy to run the St. George Marathon!  We flew into Las Vegas (my first time to Nevada), and then drove the beautiful, scenic two hour drive to St. George (my first time to Utah too).  I have never seen such absolutely breathtaking mountains!  It was so pretty!

Shortly after checking into our hotel, we drove the race course backwards to check out the course and find the starting line.

Jimmy-two days before the race

There were flags for each state and country that had a runner in the marathon.

a volano--on the race route

After checking out the race course, and seeing all of the incredible hills--both uphill and downhill--we stopped at the Snow Canyon State Park.  Beautiful!

Lava....there were hunks of lava everywhere in this area.  The lava ranged in size from huge boulders to small pebbles.  I had never, ever seen lava before!

It is hard for a photograph to capture the immenseness of these mountains.

cactus

 more lava

I could just picture my children oohing and aahing over the massive amounts of lava everywhere.

Jimmy is in this picture--do you see him?

And I am in this picture--can you find me?

I have never seen anything so massive, so peaceful, so beautiful.

God's creation is so pretty!

The second day we were in St. George, we went to the Marathon Race Expo.  Jimmy had to pick up his race packet with his race number, and we spent most of the day leisurely browsing the many vendors.  We also attended three meetings that featured speakers talking about various running topics.  One of the speakers was Bart Yasso of Runner's World magazine.  He entertained us with a power point presentation of his many adventures as a runner.

Jimmy and I enjoyed our meals together, and we just generally enjoyed each other's company.  It was a slow, uneventful day, but it was just what Jimmy needed the day before the big day--the marathon.  Just before it got dark, we drove out from St. George in a different direction where we saw more of God's beautiful creations.

I'll share more about our trip in the next couple of days
It's good to be home!