Our Most Epic Adventure of All Time: Zion's Canyon, St. George, and Las Vegas

This is a story six years in the making of how the Fillmore Family planned a virtually free trip to Disneyland!  It all started over six years ago when I was expecting Charlotte.  At that time Zac and I weren't using credit cards, because we didn't even want to go there and risk getting ourselves into silly debt.  However, by the time we were expecting Charlotte we started hearing of the wonderful things people were getting with their credit card points and we figured that through our nearly 10 years of marriage we had proved to be on top of our finances enough that we felt we could manage having a credit card and paying off our balances each month.  We decided to get a credit card to pay off all of our doctors and hospital bills with the coming baby.  We selected a Disney Visa, the points would accrue and we could use it for anything Disney... including a trip to Disneyland.  Then because we were so awesome at paying off our Visa on time each month, we picked up another credit card when we built the house, because by a Lowe's credit card would give us good discounts on our building materials.  The points from that card could be used to purchase gas cards.

After six years of patiently paying off monthly balances and accruing points we had enough Disney points to buy 3 day park tickets for our whole family +$250 spending cash in the park.  With our Lowe's card we had enough money to pay for all of our gas.  And through rewards at Hotels.com we had earned a free night stay in a hotel.  So there wasn't so very much that we had to pay for out of our own pockets!

The hardest decision was whether or not to take Whitlee.  History has shown her to be a terrible car rider.  She HATES long car rides.  We also factored in that the weather was supposed to be in the high 90's-100's all week and were worried about our little lady being in that heat all week.  The kicker was that she wouldn't be able to go on most of the rides... the rest of the kids could do all but two of the rides in both parks and we would have had to separate all week to leave someone behind with Whitlee.  So with a heavy heart, we left Whitlee behind with both sets of her Grandparents to bond and have an adventure with them.  We left her with promises that we would save our credit card points again and come back with her in a few years when she is taller and more mature.

Then we began our adventure!

One of our first stops was in Fillmore, Utah, because well... how could we not?

So many photo ops there and the kids got to visit the Fillmore Visitor Center where the kind tour guide gave them a trilobite to take home and told them of the illustrious history of Fillmore.  Did you know it was Utah's first capital?  Who knew!

Our first over-nighter would be in St. George, UT.  We learned from family and friends that Zion's National Park was just off the path to St. George.  And we could take a five mile detour on a loop to visit Kolob Canyon.  We are so glad that we did.  As soon as we got off the Interstate and turned a corner, our jaws dropped.  The scenery was SO breathtaking.  We loved it there.

It was SO gorgeous!

The next day was Sunday, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to go check out the St. George home of Brigham Young, the St. George Temple, and the Temple Visitor's Center.

Brigham Young's Home

Brigham Young's Office

The St. George Temple- The longest operational temple and first temple built in the West.

Charlotte's first time ever seeing a palm tree.  She was so excited!

Next up was a stop to stretch our legs in good old Las Vegas.  The kids weren't terribly keen on stopping in Vegas because they have heard what an evil place it is.  We tried to tell them of all the fun things to see, The Luxor Pyramid! The Statue of Liberty! The Eiffel Tower!  The Belagio Fountains! and of course the M&M World Store...

Wall to wall M&M's, how cool is that?

And we met blue!

Apparently, people make a good living in Vegas by buying Halloween costumes and then enticing children to come and take pictures with them and then telling the parents that they work for tips.  At least these costumes were better than some of the other costumes people wear in Vegas!

The Hershey's Store

Statue of Liberty made out of chocolate... yes please!

After a couple of hours on the strip, the kids were begging to leave.  Despite all of the fun things to see, they just hated it there!  There was litter (especially inappropriate litter) all over the street.  Pan handlers, and beggars.  Lots of smoking, inappropriately dressed tourists, and signs everywhere that you couldn't look at.  They said that it felt dirty there and they just weren't at all comfortable.  It was a good lesson for Zac and I, because we got so caught up with the glitzy and fun things that I think we weren't as sensitive to the evil.  Our kids are good examples to us constantly of striving to stand in holy places.  So grateful for them... but I still don't regret taking them to Vegas.  It is something everyone should see at least once!