Ben's Birthday Trip

Ben's birthday was earlier this month right in the middle of family reunions.  While we did celebrate with my family by going out to dinner a few times and having cake with them, we didn't get to do anything with just the two of us.

For Ben's present this year, I got tickets for us to go to St. George and see Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express at the Tuacahn Amphitheater.  It is a really beautiful place, tucked right up in a canyon of the beautiful southern Utah red rock.  We had a great time seeing the show, even though it was almost canceled due to rain.  It really was a wonderful experience and we already want to go back next summer and see another show.

In addition to the productions, Tuacahn has dinners every night that match the theme of the show.  Here is the menu from our dinner.  Everything was super delicious!

The view!

The stage from our seats.  And yes, those are ramps on the stage. Starlight Express is done almost completely on roller skates! It was so neat to watch. 

Parts of the show had us put on these 3D "safety goggles" for added effects

The wonderful stage crew cleaning up/drying the stage after the rain storm.  They had to make it completely dry in order for it to be safe for the actors to skate on. 

We left for St. George Tuesday afternoon as soon as I was done with my classes and we saw the show that night.  Wednesday was Pioneer day so we had the entire day to hang out and explore and did not feel rushed to get back to Provo.  We went hiking and played on some big, red rock; we went to the St. George Tabernacle and Brigham Young's Winter Home; we had 5 Guys for lunch; we saw the temple quarry; and on our way home we stopped at Cove Fort.

Here is one of the places we climbed and played at

We had a beautiful view of St. George from where we were hiking.  The temple always stands out so beautifully. 

We climbed to the very top

Ben's awesome picture: the temple is right between the rocks

The St. George Tabernacle

The beginning of the trail head to the Temple Quarry Trail.  This is the path that the pioneers used to bring the stone down from the mountains to the valley to use for the temple. 

Here we are at Cove Fort and I think this is my favorite thing we did on Wednesday.  We had a cute senior missionary give us a tour and I learned so much! It was like completely stepping back in time to the pioneer days. 

We had such a great trip and loved being able to get away from Provo together. :)