The kids come home. . . well, SOME of them!

President's Day Weekend brought a lot of people from up north to the warmer climes of St. George. . . .including Kristy, Christopher, and Natalee!!  Hooray!!  It was a whirlwind weekend with way more stuff to do than there was time for.  But we got in as much as we could!!  FUN FAMILY TIMES!!

We started off with a neighbor's horse getting stuck in the "bog" down in the gully.  It was a great rescue effort!!

 When everyone managed to get together in one place for more than a couple of minutes, it was at Wal-Mart!!  Luckily there weren't many shoppers there and we had the pharmacy area to ourselves.  We came up with 4 scavenger hunt lists, divided into couples, and had 20 minutes to find each item, take a picture of each, then meet back and see who got the most.  It was a lot of fun, and a few of us were only told a couple of times to "don't run in the store!"  We weren't!  Just walking quickly!!

Sunday was a great day to be in church together!!  Rhet Williams was home for the first time in about three years, and he sure looks good!  Was a sweet reunion it was for so many!  Sure love that boy!  After our meetings we came home and had our FAMILY Valentine's Dinner...everyone was sad they couldn't be here for the dinner on Valentine's Day, so we just had a late one!  Sooooo, fun!

 And Nat made a darling three-tier Valentine's cake!!  Of course there was lots of piano playing

and enjoying being together!  And the chimichangas, Spanish rice, taquitos, beans and salad were tasty!

After dinner we thought it a good idea to walk down to the horses to feed them...

and give us a little exercise!  Perfect night to be out and about!

 Monday morning Nat and I managed to get a horseback ride in with Kristy's "boy."  When we were saddling the horses he made the mistake of asking, "Did I put the saddle too high on her withers?"  Uhmmm, dead giveaway that he was NOT a normal "dude."  I've NEVER had an inexperienced rider ask if the saddle was on correctly, let alone on the horse's withers!!  Yeah, turns out Chris had ridden English (hunter/jumper category) for several years!!  The only problem Chris had was learning how to not sit so stiffly and just "roll" with the horse!!  But he did catch on and it was a fun ride, even if he did slit his pants open on a nail protruding from the saddle!  Oops...my bad!  But we had fun looking at some of the petroglyphs on Anasazi Ridge in spite of the "breeze."

"The Boy" knows how to ride. . .  REALLY!!

Dezmond got his FIRST RIDE WITH GRANDMA!!

And Grandpa tended while Dezmond's  Mom and Dad went riding with Grandma!

Millie and Hans got to ride up on Paradise Rim!

After all the horseback riding, teaching a few piano lessons, feeding horses, and eating dinner together, it was time for good-byes, and getting the "northern folk" back on the road.  We'll just have to 

have some more fun in MARCH!!

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 BLAST FROM THE PAST. . . 

Here are a few of the pictures I was able to find from Valentine's Day Dinners Past. . . 

Valentine's Day 2006...with Grandma Hunt AND Jaimi!!

2011 Valentines Dinner - with Korean student Min Tae Kim

Valentines Dinner 2012 - 

2012 Valentine's Dinner held "early" at Brandon's & Tannya's.  SO grateful Denzel & Anna were there!!

2012 Valentines - continued!