A Week in St. George

This summer was the second annual, Jacksons-go-to-St. George-Utah-during-the summer-because-we-are-crazy vacation. 

At least Covey thought it was a good idea. 

I flew in from the West Coast, Matt flew in from the East Coast, and the rest of the crew drove down from Utah county. It was the first time we had all been together since Christmas. 

Our Sunday walk turned into a photo shoot. Enjoy. 

This kid. I can't.

So happy to be together.

So sad that it was only going to be for a week.

Collecting "flowers for Mom" soon became a mission.

You might just see a trailer in an empty lot,

but we saw a photo opp. 

How Makenzie feels about Rachel leaving her for college.

But then she remembers she gets Rachel's room. 

Some of these flowers might have actually come from someones garden...whoops.

 We spent most of our time swimming, playing tennis, and just taking it easy.

One of the days we did go fishing for crawdads and swimming in a spring fed pool.

With the temptation of some raw hotdogs on a string, those crawdads didn't stand a chance. 

We stopped by Veyo Pies on the way home. Would recommend.

On our last day, we hiked Kanarra Falls

 the falls looked nothing like this mural.

It is a hike that is primarily through a river that will lead you to a slot canyon, and then some small (really small) waterfalls.

 Most of us hiked it in flip flops-would not recommend.

It was a beautiful hike-would recommend.

Some of the waterfalls we saw.

The slot canyon

The obstacle portion of the hike

It was a great week spent in St. George, with the weekend spent back in Provo. We saw Incredibles 2 and celebrated Fathers Day at Grandma and Grandpa Clarks. Then I got on a plane to fly back to California. 

A few more things that happened...

It was Brittany's birthday, who is also now my roommate. 

Tiffany and I made her this delicious Funfetti cake with cake crumbs between the layers and on top. Would recommend.

Before the cake and ice cream, we spent the night belting our hearts out at karaoke and eating Chick-Fil-A for dinner. 

The Sunday before the 4th of July. 

We dressed appropriately.

Another coordinating outfit, calls for another picture. 

 On the actual Forth of July I went to brunch, went thrift shopping, attended a pool/BBQ party, watched fireworks from the Google baseball fields, and then went to In-N-Out at 10:45 at night. A pretty all American day if I do say so myself. 

We played frisbee on the field while we waited for the fireworks to start,

 One FHE we went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, which included a stop at Marianne's for ice cream afterwards.

It was delicious-would recommend.

One night we went went to watch a summer outdoor movie in Redwood City.

 Gotta love summer nights-even though you need a jacket if you are in Northern California. 

Many Days worth of being in the Bay

It's been a while. You might have forgotten that this is something I even do. But here we gooo. 

What my life has looked like since April:  

Justin Timberlake concert. As my brother Nathan said "He is one of the most talented men. And he has stayed relevant through 3 decades. What a man." Direct quote. 

BB girl Rachet Rachelle graduated from High School so, like the great older sister I am, I popped on over to Utah to be there. 

She crushed her graduation speech just like she crushed Makenzie.

I turned 25. I try not to think about it. But the actual celebration of my birthday was great. I got to celebrate it with family while I was home in Utah, and then with friends when I got back to California. Some friends and I went to dinner (tacos, of course), and then ate a delicious cake that my roommate made for me. 

It was so good. The "Tonight Dough" cake. Caramel and chocolate cake layers, with peanut butter frosting, chocolate chip cookie dough spread, and chocolate cookie crumbs between the layers. Did I say it was good??

Memorial Day Weekend: We were going to go to Yosemite, but the forecast of rain made us make new plans which included....

A Sea Kayaking tour in Monterey Bay. 

 Thank goodness the rental place provided wet suits and coats, because some of us came grossly unprepared. 

We saw beautiful views, like this concrete wall. We also saw sea lions, sea otters, other boats in the marina, aaannd that is pretty much it. We didn't get very far from shore. 

 Regardless, we had a good time.

 We decided me doing the splits across the kayaks would be a great photo opportunity. 

 We could have stayed and kayaked more, but we had more to see. 

 Bixby Creek Bridge

We spent the rest of the day in Big Sur. 

 This hurt. 

 We spent a significant amount of time making rock towers. 

 Other events from the beginning of summer: 

Coordinating outfits, call for photoshoots. 

Girls movie night to see Oceans 8. Followed by pazookies. The theater worker wasn't super thrilled to be taking this photo for us. 

Summer kick off BBQ's calls for America themed coordinated outfits.

This BBQ also included an outdoor movie of Top Gun. Honest review: don't need to see again. 

Sailing the Bay: 

Matt's coworker goes sailing as often as he can, and one Saturday he invited us to come along.  

Our trusty ship. 

We sailed though Raccoon Straight to the Golden Gate Bridge. 

We became quite familiar with boat lingo #starboard, and took turns driving the boat. 

  

It was a great day on the bay and for a brief time, napping in the cabin. 

We went and got deep dish pizza afterwards. 

A tired Matt. Who knew sailing was such hard work?