St. George Vacation...so far.

On the way down, we enjoyed some scenic countrysides.

Then we stopped at a gas station in Scipio and ate some delicious SUBWAY sandwiches...and cheetos...all the while Kort BEGGED us to buy him: a hand-carved bald eagle back scratcher, a hand-carved giraffe slingshot, a huge package of powdered doughnuts, and a large jewel paper-weight. (Yeah, I sort of hate eating in gas stations with 6 year olds, but at the same time, I sort of love cheeto-mouthed 6 year olds hangin' in gas stations with dads that they love and such.)


Then, for our first official day of vacation, we went to Pirate Island Pizza for lunch...and ALMOST had to head straight to Vegas because Kort's luck was OUTTA CONTROL! In the arcades, he hit jackpot after jackpot! It was crazy! He would win hundreds of tickets at a time. He was just LIT up and having a blast.

Then, he picked the "million dollar" (aka 200 ticket) case on the "Deal or No Deal" game! It was so fun! He came down to his last 2 cases and he had a 2 ticket case, and the 200 ticket case left, and the banker offered him 101 tickets. His dad told him to "Take the deal!" but his mom said "You are the luckiest boy I know, NO DEAL!" And, of course, being the mama's boy that he is, he listened to me... AND WON 200 TICKETS!! Kort and I were jumping around and yelling like we'd won an actual lottery. Livin' on the edge is just down-right exhilarating! It was fun and funny!

So, with just under 1,000 tickets, he raided the prize counter and left Pirate Island looking like this:

The evening ended with Kort "fighting bad guys" on a treasure hunt, getting carried away, slicing a potato bug (aka roly poly) in half, then, when he realized what he had done (he really likes bugs, and we don't really kill them at our house) he burst into tears (like, four different times) and lamented that he wish, wish, WISHED he hadn't done that. I just hugged him and told him it would be okay, and to let it go.

Later that night, we read a bed time story about Big Bird catching a firefly and it's light started going out because he was sad in a jar, and then Big Bird let him go, and he "twinkled" brighter than ever... (I had NO idea that that was what the book would be about, by the way...I am so not that cruel! oi!) and Kort teared up again and said, "That's what I should have done. I should have just let "Roly" (I guess he named the slaughtered bug) go!" More tears, more remorse...oh bless his tender (and let's be honest, EXHAUSTED) little heart.