Guest Blog - St. George 2021 by Princess

 I've decided trips with young kids are basically like child birth. The whole time, you're miserable. Time seems to slow and you question if you will make it out alive. There is blood, sweat, and tears and you vow to never do it again! Then, suddenly it's over and as you tuck yourself into your own bed you look back at the pictures and all you can remember are the happy moments. You laugh at the things that caused you great stress and you start thinking about where you will go for your next vacation. 

Ok, I'm being dramatic, not about vacations, but about labor. ;)  All of my three kids came into the world fairly easy. But, that's a topic for a different day. Let me tell you about our St George trip!

My two oldest kids are actually very well traveled. They have been on airplanes to New York and driven to Disneyland twice. But, that was prepandemic which also means it was before they were true kids/toddlers.

I actually have the best kids in the world, but they are so curious and imaginative. Both great traits, until we are in a semi sketchy motel or a parking lot. Three kids, two adults. It was just a challenge. One kid suddenly forgot he was potty trained, all kids forgot how to sleep, we had to call the doctor to make sure one of the kids didn't have a concussion, and the only thing anyone would eat was chicken nuggets.

Let me give you an example of what traveling with a 3, 2, and nearly 1 year old is like. It was my birthday. We clicked all three kids into their three carseats in the back of our car (we have to have expensive special carseats to get them all to fit). Then, we drove to Handel's ice cream, which took less than 10 minutes. We finally found a spot to park and turned our necks to find that the two youngest had fallen asleep. 

Sleeping babies are precious at any time but especially on vacation, so rather than waking them we decided to drive around and look at beautiful St George. It wasn't very long until all three kids were asleep. We drove around for over an hour chatting and looking at the rocks and buildings until one by one each child was awake. So, we pulled into the ice cream shop for a second time. I unclicked one kid and was moving to get the next when The Frog realized one of our kids had wet his pants while we has sleeping. So, we clicked everyone back in and drove back to the hotel. 

Everyone went to the bathroom. We got a fresh pair of pants and got back in the car. We pulled into the ice cream parking lot for the third time and unloaded. We got everyone an ice cream, only to discover there were no chairs or tables and most guests ate their ice cream sitting on the curb. Yeah, not going to work for our kids. So we clicked everyone back in and juggled four heaping bowls of ice cream as we drove to the park. Once there, The Frog jumped over a splash pad river while carrying three ice creams to claim us a little table. I held an ice cream in one hand as I pushed our umbrella stroller and herded our two oldest away from the water and to the table we had snagged. And, in the end, the ice cream wasn't nearly as good as Neilson's. 

I know I'm complaining, but we really did have fun. We went to three different parks, saw real airplanes, went to a kid museum and took a dip in the swimming pool. We had only been home a day when Tadpole suddenly said, "I'm disappointed. I didn't want to leave our hotel. I wanted to be on our trip forever." And I've now heard similar sentiments from both talking children nearly one hundred times. 

So, in the end, the kids forgot the five billion times we told them to quiet down or not touch something or stop throwing things. They forgot having to stop the car over and over for different kids to go potty. They forgot me begging them to go to sleep or threatening to take away park visits. Of course, the parents remembered all of this, but the kids just remembered that everything was new, and exciting, and fun. So, I guess it was worth it. I mean, look at all the cute pictures I got.