Alvin and his buddy, Wayne, wanted to hike the famous Angel's Landing hike at Zion. After reading about Angel's Landing and how it is one of the most dangerous hikes in the nation and a number of people have plummeted off the trail to their deaths, including a man just days before, I determined I did NOT want to take my babies anywhere close to that trail! So instead, I borrowed Wayne's car and drove the boys into the nearby town of St. George, Utah. St. George is a quant little town with a large Mormon population. I drove by the massive white Mormon temple in St. George out of curiosity. Then we went to the St. George Children's Museum. This little place was wonderful and the boys absolutely loved it. It was made up of a number of rooms, all with a different theme and many things that children could play and interact with.
This train track was the boys' favorite display and I could barely drag them away to see other rooms
My little mechanic was amazed to find a Liam sized car in need of fixing
The mini grocery store looked to be in full pandemic panic buying mode with all carts full and barely any items on the shelf. It was a mad house in there! Unlike in the adult world, children happily traded items and carts at will
The submarine room had ALL the buttons
Luca figured out how to milk the cow. His Amish Grandpa would be proud.
After spending a couple hours at the children's museum, we headed over to the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site. This place had real fossilized dinosaur bones and dinosaur tracks that had been found in St. George.
The boys got to observe real life paleontologists working in their lab
The park in St. George had a carousel for $1 a ride. Liam has experienced these before but this was Luca's first time. He was absolutely delighted by it and did not want to leave. I ended up having to scrounge change from Wayne's cupholder so they could have another go around.
Liam was fascinated by this huge guitar made from scrap metal
While Utah and Arizona have enormous Mormon (LDS) populations, there is a fringe group known as the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints) who still hold to the old Mormon beliefs in polygamy. This group has seen enormous media scrutiny due to huge abuse scandals and corruption in leadership in recent years in addition to media fascination with their lifestyle of plural marriage and separation from the world. I have always been fascinated by various people groups and cultures and so have read extensively about the FLDS and their community in Short Creek on the Utah/Arizona border. Since we were so close, I decided to drive through the town. Due to the corruption of their most recent leader, Warren Jeffs (since imprisoned), the town and community has been devastated. It almost seemed eerie driving through and seeing the enormous houses built by heads of households for their many wives and children. Most now stand empty and falling apart.
This is the compound of Warren Jeffs. He reportedly had over 80 wives. Since his imprisonment, one of his wives who left the FLDS took over the compound and turned it into a community refuge center for people in need.
We saw a number of current FLDS members still in Short Creek, including women who ran this store. Judging from this sign, they are wary of cameras and do not want to be preached to.
It was so fascinating to see a place I have read so much about and to talk to some of the people there.
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