A Saturday in Snow Canyon State Park

Who knew that a short, Saturday afternoon hike in a state park could be so fun, educational, and exciting?!

This past Saturday (the 29th of March), Jeff, Mason and I decided to go out and enjoy the perfect St. George weather. We left the house only knowing that we'd be hiking, but weren't sure where we wanted to go, so we just drove to where we knew there were a lot of hikes that we hadn't been on yet. We ended up at Snow Canyon State Park at the White Rock trail.

First, a little history lesson that I learned on Saturday - and it fascinated me: Snow Canyon used to be inhabited by the Anasazi Indians way back in AD 200-1250. Later, Paiute Indians used it for hunting. Then in the mid-1800's, Mormon Pioneers discovered the canyon while searching for lost cattle. The canyon was renamed for Lorenzo and Erastus Snow (previously called Dixie State Park). "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was filmed in Snow Canyon!

So the White Rock hike that we went on starts out in an old field of lava flow - just miles and miles of black lava rock, with a trail carved right through the middle for hikers. You can see dormant volcanoes all over the place. Eventually the lava rock turns into sandstone, and you're walking on a white surface.

When we got to the end of the hike, we were surrounded by white - the walls around us, the ground we were standing on, and the white sand dunes to the right side of the trail. To the left, at the very end, there was an overlook where you could see Snow Canyon (middle picture).

Anyway, it was so much fun! We put Mason in the sand barefoot, up at the top of the dune, and he had such a blast crawling, rolling and jumping down to the bottom where Jeff was waiting for him. I'll eventually figure out how to include a video on here so you can see how much fun he had.

If anyone wants to come visit us out in St. George, there are so many amazing, wonderful, beautiful things to see and do!

Happy Birthday, Mason!

Today's Mason's first Birthday, and even though his party isn't until Saturday, we let him open his present from Grandma & Grandpa Donnelson this morning. Not much to open - it just had a bow on it - but he was so excited! He totally ignored his bottle, and hasn't gotten off the car/truck since he got on it an hour ago. He should be easy to look after today!

Forklift...

Last Saturday we decided it was time for Mason to start learning how to feed himself with silverware, so we put his suction plate on his highchair tray and handed him a fork. We helped him the first few times, but got pretty good with it! Here are a couple of pictures.

Jeff's Day Off

So Jeff was able to come home around noon from work yesterday (Friday), and the weather was perfect here in St. George, so we decided to go fishing. Once we got there, it was pretty cold and windy, but the lake was beautiful and we really enjoyed the silence that nature provides. We didn't get a single bite - not even a nibble - but we had a really good time!

We brought along a pack-n-play for Mason to stay in while we fished, but he wasn't having that, so we ended up letting him explore. It was a productive exploration day for him! He discovered his shadow, mud, and showed off his fish face each time I told him "Daddy's trying to catch a fish." After an hour and no success for either of us, Jeff decided it was the right time to teach Mason how to fish. It was sooooo cute!

After much peer pressure...here we are!

I know, I know. It's been a long time coming! Everyone I know has a blog, except for me, and since our families and friends are spread out all over the country, I decided it was time to give in to the peer pressure and hop on the blogging bandwagon.

I tend to be somewhat lazy about this sort of thing, but I'll do my best to keep updates coming, post pictures and videos often, and try to keep it interesting! :)

Love you all!
Sheri (along with Jeff & Mason, neither of whom will EVER be writing any posts for this blog, so their names are assumed when I just sign "Sheri.)