this past weekend ashton and i had the opportunity to road trip down to st. george with one of my new favorite people, mark. we went for our other friend marc’s farewell talk, but didn’t expect the plethora of fun we encountered.

it started with me leaving my phone in provo. on purpose. i needed to get away.

5 hours and 3 flying j’s later, we arrived in st. george…at 5:00 a.m. saturday morning.

i woke up 2 hours later to crying babies and what not.

2 hours after that the rest of the group woke up as well.

we went with marc’s family to breakfast and then…

we prepared to drive towards las vegas to the “ranch”. i’ll admit, i was quite nervous. i didn’t know what to expect at this so-called ranch.
when we got there i immediately envisioned a horror movie.
desert. miles from civilization. one mexican.
i was fearing for my life…for a moment.

ashton and i proceeded to take a cruise on the paddle boat, which was broken. thank goodness for the wind, or we would’ve been stuck in the middle of lindsey lake. the water was slightly colder than the arctic tundra, or i may have jumped in.

after a good while on the paddle boat ashton, mark, marc, and myself took a drive over to see the animals.

horses. donkeys. mini horses. llamas. cows.

tina and bobby, the llamas, would not leave us alone. bobby kept following us everywhere, and i was just waiting for him to spit on us. tina kept staring at us out of the corner of her eye…plotting her next move.

that kept us entertained for at least 47 minutes before we headed back to the lake. at that point we were exhausted from only 2ish hours of sleep. mark, ashton, and i ended up in the van. asleep.

before i knew it we were heading back to st. george.

that night we (the main 4 and 3 others we met) went to the “glowstick cave”. this was probably the most fun out of the trip. we had to climb down jagged rocks into this cave until it opened up into an open area. we then busted open 35 glowsticks and sprayed them everywhere, including all over ourselves. then, in the dark with only glowstick goo camouflaging us, we played hide and seek. i suggest everyone does this at some point.

after a couple hours we headed back home. hit up the hot tub. jumped in the freezing pool. slept.

sunday morning we woke up at noon after sleeping in the most comfortable bed.

we went to marc’s talk, then we all came back to his house where his parents had cooked amazing food.

barbecue. ribs. brisket. potato salad. baked beans. cornbread. heaven.

once our food digested a bit we all went to the temple. took great pictures. napped in the grass. went to the visitors’ center. it was wonderful, so peaceful. so warm.

not long after we began our trek back to provo. on the way home ashton and i had a great talk with mark, who has inspired me more than he’ll ever know. i love pure, honest conversations.

sorry for the novel, even though it could’ve been longer. this trip was very much needed.

thanks for reading.