When I was 9 years old my mom moved us to St.George Utah, I loved it instantly! I don't know if it was the weather or because we got to stay with The Nortons when we first moved there and I thought they were the best people ever or what but it was instant love. Well, we moved when I was 14 back to northern Utah and I will just be honest, I hated my Mom for moving me away from St.George I thought she was doing it just to ruin my life, you know how dramatic teenagers can be.
So four years later, June 2001 I graduated high school and 2 weeks later I packed up my little Nissan 200sx and headed south, all by myself, and I wasn't even scared or sad to leave. 4 1/2 hours later I arrived in St.George and from that moment on it was love. For the next 5 1/2 years (with a few short moves to northern utah for a month or two or to Boston for 2 months) I loved it. I loved the summers the winters, the smell. The heat on your skin! I loved that we would have the air so high in our apartments that we would wear hoodies to stay warm but you never dared turn the air down in case it getting too hot. I loved the Temple, I can't even tell you how many Sundays or even just random days I would go and read my scriptures on the lawn and just watch people and stare up at the beauty of that Bright White temple in amazement. I loved that I had my spots, the places I could go when I just needed to get away from everyone and everything that seemed to be a stress for me.
Well the time came for me to leave this place that I loved so much, I didn't really know why it was time to move but it was time, I headed back north, and a few month after being home Josh and I started dating and the rest is history. And now its been 4 1/2 years since I moved away from St.George and I am not going to lie, I definately haven't been back as often as I would like to, I am a time in my life when I am too busy for quick trips, its usually because I am too tired. But yesterday I had to go to Cedar for work and decided to make a weekend trip to St.George and never before have I noticed until today, how much I really miss it. And I can't even tell you exactly why or that I would even live here again but I miss it more than I realized. Everywhere I look I have a memory. A memory of crazy things we did as freshman at Dixie, places I worked, all the different apartments, houses and condos I lived in, the many different room mates I had and personalities I had to learn to deal with. Everywhere there is a memory, and it's almost like it was a different life time. A lifetime that seems like it was so long ago. Or even like it was a different person, like there was a Ashlee Petroff of St.George and now I am Ashlee Johnstun of Clinton. I don't know and non of this probably even makes sense, I am sure it just sounds like I am rambling forever but as I sit here at one of my Best Friends houses, a house I used to house sit for her all the time and watch the pups for her and her husband I feel at home at peace. A different home and peace from what I feel when I am home with Tate and Josh. I can't explain it, just different. Well anyways I better end, because this is probably getting worse and worse as I continue to type. Good Night.
6 comments:
I totally get it. Hope you and your cute family have a geat weekend down there! BUT just remember that Clinton is your home now and you are not allowed to go anywhere else. :)
I feel the same way! I have family that live down there and I hope and pray that one day MP and i can live down there! i love everything about it!if not you can move w me ha
Hey Ashlee!
I told get it to! I threw a fit when my mom moved us in 8th grade and I thought I would be back as soon as 18 hit and I even remember talking to you about rooming with you at Dixie but then I backed out at the last minute to go to beauty school in Vegas and then for those years Vegas felt like home and just a year ago when I had to move back home here to St. George with my mom cus of work situations I was soooo sad to leave Vegas it was home but now being here in Dixie again I am totally in love again. I think about having to leave St. George again for work and I get sad! My little family has grown to love it here so much and it is so weird how St. George does this to you!
But anyway next time your down we need to get in touch and do lunch or something!
Nichole
The saying is true.... Once you get the red sand on your feet there is no leaving.
Oh Ash, me too!! Every time we go down there I try to convince Mark that we should relocate. And every time we feel like it's not the right thing to do I cry on the way home. Although July and August I do not miss (It's too hot with the G's now days) every other time of year my heart is broken that I am not raising my kids there. It's absolutely the most gorgeous comfy town in America. We are tempted to pay this place off early, and instead of buying a more final home, we want to buy a small condo in St. George. Hopefully someday!
I didn't really know St. George until we started visiting the Bentleys but now it is where I would like to eventually live. I don't see it ever happening because of Cole's job on base but, ah, it would be so wonderful to be there always. In the meantime, we try to go as often as possible.
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