St. George Albert Smith!

Bradon and his Super League Baseball team "STRIKE" played in a tournament last weekend in St. George, UT. Bradon called to invite his Grandma and Grandpa Haws to meet us there. Instead of giving Bradon an answer YES or NO Grandpa gave him a little history lesson about St. George! St. George was named after the apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, George Albert Smith.
Grandma and Grandpa decided to meet us in St. George which made the trip all that more special!

On the trip down Talan did a little self entertaining! He thinks he is so funny! And to tell you the truth, I think he's a little funny too!

Of course the fun of a really long road trip doesn't last that long for a 3 year old and soon enough he was throwing a fit screaming "LET ME OUT!"

Bradon joined this Super League team kinda late and so when we found out we would be going to St. George all the hotels were already booked. They had something like 350 teams playing in this tournament alone and several other tournaments being played in St. George the same weekend! It was crazy how many people were visiting St. George all at once! Luckily we found a family in our ward who owns a home there that isn't being used right now. We had to bring our our bedding and towels but it worked out great!

The first day of the tournament we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to play in MOAPA, NEVADA! It's about a 50 min drive from St. George. And there is seriously NOTHING out there! Well nothing but this really high tech cool PORTABLE convenience store that doesn't even sell fountain drinks!

I got such a kick out of this!
You know, I believe that we are all snobs of some sort or another. There isn't anything wrong with being a snob! It's just fun to be able to identify what it is we are snobs about! I have found that I'm sort of a drink snob! I like my soda a certain way. I like pebbled ice. I like Diet Caffeine Coke topped off with some Real Cherry Coke! And I like a clean soda store with friendly employees! I'm not asking for much and I'm not saying I won't go just about anywhere to get my soda. I'm just saying that all soda stores and fountains aren't created equal. For example, the mix between syrup and carbonation has to be just right. Some convenience stores have it right, and some don't! This one just so happened NOT TO HAVE IT AT ALL! They only offered bottled drinks... not my first choice, but I'll take it!

So we spent the day in the Moapa Valley in the middle of nowhere at a baseball field next to the city library, splash park, rec center, court house and elementary school. Not to mention the LDS church house across the street. We were there in the center of all of it! The the center of nowhere! But I have to say, the best part of it all was the sign posted in the window of the library. It read, "No Wetness Allowed!" We got a kick of that!

This is my favorite picture of the tournament! It was right before he hit the ball! Ethan's pretty sure that the ball is leaving the bat but I'm thinking it hasn't been hit yet! It was a good hit though! The Strike played pretty good. They lost their first game in extra innings. It was so close! It took them a while to settle down and start to play but they ended strong!
They lost their second game too but it was all good!

Talan LOVED this digging toy they had at the playground. He called it a tractor! He just couldn't seem to get enough of it! So much so that a lady who decided that he had had enough time on it physically picked him up off the toy, set him down and then picked her own child up and placed her upon it! Talan just about died! He came running to taddle on the rude lady but none of us could understand what he was so upset about. Ethan was the only one who witnessed it and by the time he told us the story the lady and her kid were already finished playing with it. It was once again unoccupied and Talan was at it again!

The next day of the tournament we got to play in Washington City.
The day was beautiful, the fields were nice and the company was exceptional!

Reagan absolutely eats up every moment she get's to spend with her Grandma. Grandma is everything Reagan loves! She's a teacher with the ability to converse at a child's level for countless hours. She always comes bearing gifts of books and clothes. And does a super job of making Reagan feel extra special!

Ethan tried on Grandpa's hat and we all agree that it looks super cute on him. I hope that it's okay with Grandpa but Ethan still has his hat. And it still looks super cute on him!

Day 2 of the tournament resulted in 2 more losses however the boys learned a lot and played really good! A lot of these teams have been together for a long time therefore play really good together. The boys all seemed pretty pleased with their hard fought efforts!

Here we are!
The whole gang at the end of the tournament!

A few of us hit the outlet mall in the afternoon while a few of us slept.
While at the mall we heard the biggest BOOM! It sounded like a firework or an explosion of some sort. It was followed with a few more booms! We looked outside toward the noise and saw a huge cloud of gray dust with something really big flying through the air end over end on the freeway! You could see people running on foot toward the freeway and hear people gasping with disbelief! I immediately felt sick to my stomach! It took that 'fun to be shopping' feeling right out of the air! Strangers started talking to strangers about what they saw. It was seriously unbelievable! It was obviously a wreck on the freeway but why the big boom? Where did the gray looking dust come from? All the dirt in St. George is red! Where did the gray come from? It didn't all add up in my head. My mom found a cop who ran to the scene of the accident as soon as he saw it and then after getting the information as to what happened came back to the mall. He said that it was a cement truck carrying bags of dry cement that wrecked. No other car was involved and the man driving the cement truck was still alive. The driver was unsure as to what happened but he ended up nose down off to the side of the freeway. SO CRAZY! So that answers the gray dust question! I'm glad nobody else was involved in the accident and that the guy was still alive.

The next morning we met Brent and Kami Ellsworth
for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel.

Brent and Kami are one of the cutest couple!
David and I have always loved Brent. He's one of the nicest sports fanatic guys around. And lucky enough he found Kami who equally enjoys the sports arena too! They came all decked out in their BYU attire in support of the BYU basketball game that afternoon. We really enjoyed hanging out, talking and catching up with them. It's funny because I've only met Kami in person twice now, yet I feel like I've known her forever. Since Brent and Kami got together I have followed her blog. It's amazing how much a blog can make you feel connected!

After breakfast the kids successfully convinced Grandma and Grandpa to buy each of them something from the country store. We all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. It's always sad to say goodbye! I wish that we could see and spend more time with my parents! When we got back to the house Talan said, "Grandpa is here?" The poor kid didn't understand that when we were saying goodbye, it wasn't goodbye until we get back to the house, it was goodbye until who knows when!

So we grabbed our swim stuff and headed off to the pool!

Nothing cures a broken heart better than a fun swim!

Reagan is so dang cute!
I love the missing tooth look of a young child!

We decided to do a unison jump into the pool!

Ready, Set, GO!!!
They all jump with their own personal style!
Carsten totally had that one planned out! Cool dude!

Talan didn't quite get it!
He loved it though!
He was like, "Ahh! they all jumped!"

"I guess I'll jump too!"
That night we rented a few red box movies and hung out at the house. David and I went to Chris and Kim Coons house for a little visit and then to Walgreen's to get some NyQuil. We got there just before 10:00. We walked in and the worker lady quickly looked at us and informed us that they were closing in just a few minutes. We nodded okay and walked on. We walked straight back to the NyQuil and by the time we got there she was making an announcement that they were closed! David looked at his phone to check the time and it was 4 minutes till 10. I had to go to the bathroom really bad so I told David to go pay for the NyQuil and I would meet him up front. I ran to the bathroom and as soon as I could sit down the door opened and a worker lady said, "Mam, the store is closed!" Are you kidding me? Who does this? I quickly finished up and went to the front of the store. I tried to get out the front doors of the store but the door was locked. The lady said, "The door is locked BECAUSE WE ARE CLOSED!"
Seriously the rudest Walgreen's employees EVER!
David and I got in the car and looked at the time. It was 10:00!
Holy Hannah Montana, Who do they think they are?

Anyways....

Sunday morning it was time to clean up and go home. Before heading out of town we stopped by the St. George temple visitors center for a little religion.

After a quick visit and a few photos we were off
on the road again!