St George/Lydnseys College Graduation

Lyndsey's Graduation from Dixie State University in St. George was happening on May 5th. So we went down the day before, and my wonderful mother in law paid for a hotel room for us. The drive down was uneventful, except for the regular kid stuff :)...The next day we parked and walked to the event center. We found a seat in the not so very good seating, when Lydia called and said they opened up seating that was being saved, so we ended up going over there. Jake had to leave not far into the ceremony because William wouldn't stop crying. He needed a nap and refused to fall asleep. And I was taking pictures, so Jake left. I felt bad because it was his sisters graduation he was missing (for me). We cheered when we finally saw where Lyndsey was sitting after the walk in that the graduates do. We were in there for an hour, maybe more. The graduating speech wasn't even that good. I've heard better. We watched her walk across the stage, and once she was seated we left the auditorium. Lydia went back in to watch and make sure Lyndsey knew where to find us. All the kids started running around.We eventually wandered to where they were serving donuts and drinks.
A little while later the whole family found us. We said our congrats and visited before heading off to a park where the kids could play and the adults could visit more.
This park was pretty cool. Had a adventure area. Zip line. Swings. And a little water park. Which of course that is what attracted my kids. So for a few hours they played around the park, and mostly in the water.

We left that way we could get home before it was too late. Right outside of Cedar City, the car broke down. So we had to be towed into town. Lizzy, Will, and I had to take a taxi because we were told the tow truck couldn't hold that many people. Up on seeing the truck it probably could have. But it was only ten bucks for the Taxi so I didn't complain.

We were towed to an Auto shop that had closed shortly before we got there, but there was an employee leaving who stopped to talk to us, and looked at the car. They wouldn't be able to fix it til the next day. But we were told if we used water, we should be able to keep the engine cool long enough to get home. So we went to Walmart, got food and water. Got back on the road, and stalled right off the Beaver exit. So Jake pushed the car for a little bit (after we waited for a half hour to see if it would cool off). Turns out that we had a thermometer that stopped the car from overheating, which in turn stopped the car. He pushed it far enough I was able to get the engine to turn over and we coasted into the Quality inn parking lot. Jake walked that distance. We spent the night, and had to figure out how to get Spencer or Sarah into my apartment to walk the dogs. (Spencer had spent the previous night at the apartment with the dogs). So around Midnight, Sarah was able to get in and walk the dogs.

The next day we wandered around Beaver (which is so small and boring) waiting for my parents to come. We didn't have a place for the kids to nap. The car couldn't be on so there was no cool air. So Jake found a car parts shop and I found a pizza place to buy lunch. We were the only ones there so i didn't feel so bad that the kids were loud. After the pizza we walked to this park behind the city library, but it was windy and hot. So we waited inside the Library til they closed at 3 PM. My parents didn't get to us til like 6 PM, because they had trouble getting the tow trailer and Mom had primary stuff to do.

We went to eat at a dinner, and then hopped into their suburban and drove home.
It was a long, not so good day. It took all my ingenuity (probably not, but felt like it) to keep the kids happy.

So glad we got home. We ended up having to borrow my parents car for a couple days while our car was in the shop. It was a little pricey, but glad nothing really bad at gone wrong.