The Time We Kicked Tony Finau’s Family Out of Our Lounge Chairs at the Pool (and Other Saint Georgey Tales): For Real This Time

When I last left you, my family had just checked into a resort in Saint George. A resort! Who are we?

(Spoiled is what we are!)

Anyway, the guests, in addition to our family, included Scotty’s dad and step-mom and five of Scotty’s seven siblings (on that side) and their families (for informational purposes, Scotty has a total of 13 siblings, and I have 11. Our family stories often require a diagram). 

19 of the 25 grandkids

Instead of doing a full play by play of our vacation here are ten things we did once we arrived at our destination:

1. Hung out at the pool for hours and hours

2. Played games - contests and jacks for the kids, poker for some of the adults (myself included, though I’m still reeling from a big mistake I made that took me out of one of the games!)

The kids learning to play jacks

3. Ate 

4. Hiked the Red Reef trail (which had a lot less water than it did three months ago)

Grasping for tadpoles

Thank you for having shade, Mother Earth

5. Had a family golf tournament

6. Tried Pink Box Donuts

Blueberry croughnut on the bottom right was my favorite!

7. Stayed up way too late

8. Caught lizards and tadpoles

This one shed its tail

Lizard

Tadpole (ew)

9. Played in the club house

10. Hung out in the cabana 

Which brings me to the Tony Finau story. If you don’t know who Tony Finau is, it’s time you learn. He is a professional golfer - originally from Salt Lake, and we Utahns love our Tony! 

On Tuesday, our family had a cabana rental at the pool, and after dinner, we journeyed back to our cabana for the umpteenth time, and there was a family sitting in the chairs in front of our cabana. I didn’t think anything of it because I didn’t think we had any claim on the chairs, but when my father-in-law came to the pool, he kicked them all out of the chairs and told them they were ours. The family got up and moved, and then not a single person from our family used the chairs for the rest of the night. My brother-in-law went over and chatted with the family and apologized and asked them how their vacation was going. They said they were there celebrating a birthday and that they were from Lehi (LEE-high), Utah.

After that family left the pool, Scotty came over to me and said, “I’m pretty sure that was Tony Finau’s family.” I was like “Nah! Tony Finau’s family could have rented their own cabana or had a house with a private pool.” But I started googling photos of his family just to see, and I couldn’t make a determination based on my research. For sure, the family didn’t have a father with them… and Scotty knew that Tony was at a tournament in Connecticut. One of the women looked (to me) a little like his wife, but since they were gone from the pool, I was limited by my memory and had no live samples to compare online photos to. 

Later that night, Scotty saw the family, who happened to be staying in a house right across the street from us. He said, “Hey! You’re the Finaus!” and the kids got all excited. Yes! They were the Finaus - Tony’s wife and kids and their aunt and grandma. The kids were excited to be recognized. They said “Wow! We’re famous!” and it was super cute that they don’t know. 

Nicky was excited because he was able to identify their van from watching the Tony Finau episode of Full Swing on Netflix. He came into our house saying, “Mom! I just found Tony Finau’s van!” And, as is indicative of living a very normal family life, the kids had written all over the dusty windows, “Finau.” 

So if the family of a famous golfer ever takes over your space at a pool, and you're not comfortable asking them to move, just call in my father-in-law. He's gotchu.