Day 3 at long last

Day three we woke up bright and early and took the kids out to Snow Canyon to play on the sand dunes.  I grew up playing out there on the dunes and hiking through the canyons.  It was amazing standing there in the early morning seeing the red cliffs reaching into the clear blue sky.  I felt homesick even though I was standing right there.

Anyway, the kids had a great time.  Mom (who stayed behind to watch Matthew (who does NOT like sand) and do some work) had bought them all their favorite color sand bucket and shovel so they brought them along to dig in the dunes.  TJ spent part of the time tracking animals and looking for "specimens". We had running and jumping competitions and John kept a few of the boys entertained for about 30 minutes by burying an ant and watching it dig itself out over and over and over again.

Grandpa Lew dug some good sized holes in the sand and we buried a few of the kids (lying down) up to their necks.  It was all fun and games until TJ started teasing Henry, who was buried, by stealing his hat and putting a bucket on his head.  Henry was less than thrilled.  He was able to get unburied on his own to chase after TJ.  Cameron and Nathan needed a little help.

On our way out of Snow Canyon we pulled over to take a couple more pictures around the spot where John proposed to me.  I really love this place!

After the sand dunes for a little over an hour (it was HOT!) we went back to Mom and Dwane's and did some swimming to wash off some of the red dirt and to cool off. 

Funny thing about the red dirt, it doesn't ever really come out of your socks.  Today I put on my socks that I had worn to the sand dunes that day and I got sand all over the place.  I had washed them but the sand just sticks around.

In the evening we had another song practice- minus our accompanist who was teaching piano lessons in Las Vegas.  After practice Keri went for a frozen custard run at Nielsons.  Frozen custard is an extra creamy soft serve type ice cream that is super rich and can be mixed with whatever you like.  The chocolate custard tastes a little like Cold Stone's chocolate cake batter.  Yum!