Randomness...

With some big events lately, I noticed that I had some cute pictures which I hadn't posed which are connected with fun memories--these are from the past six weeks or so.

 

Ben has joined the ward choir in his ward and he sang to me their latest number:  "Be Still My Soul".  I love it when he is happy singing.

 

 

We missed Jena's friend, Nick's farewell so we made a stop there before he entered the MTC.  He is now serving in Alabama.

Jena and Nick Giacolone

One thing Jena enjoys (when she is in town) is Friday Friends which is held at Gigi's Playhouse twice a month.  It is for people with Down syndrome 16 years and older.  This picture is actually from their Dance Mania class which was taught on several Tuesday mornings during the summer.  She loved that too.

 

 

 



Jena, Kaitlyn, and Hyatt with Preston who is their coach from
Special Olympics.

 

The first weekend in August, Jena attended her last Laurel Retreat at Pineview Dam and her young women leaders sent me this great picture.  Bro. Ashby told us later that Jena loved the tube and rode on it as much as she could during the day. 

 



And of course, our sweet grandchildren---- 

 

 

Niki turned 1 and is getting some awesome beach time in Okinawa 



Liam is now 12 weeks old and settling into life.

Scarlett is 13 months old.  She had her first sleepover at our house last weekend.  She had a fun time and we loved having her while her parents celebrated their 5th anniversary in Park City.

Scarlett loves her aunt Jena.
She gets more hugs and kisses than anyone
else in our family (other than Scott and Scarlett, of course).
Jena is just more huggable I guess.

After lunch.....

we got on the road again traveling north.  This time we took a road that we have been on many times between Amarillo, Texas and northern Utah.  However once again we made a stop where I have never been before----

A hint:

 

I am sure you guessed it--

Arches National Park

 

Again. my apologies to my other kids,

we should have stopped and visited this awesome part of the world.

 

 

We arrived well into the afternoon so our idea was just to take a brief visit to see if we wanted to make a trip down some other time.  At the first stop, Ben and I hopped out for a 1 mile walk through a canyon and we were hooked.  We tried to stop everywhere and see everything we could before it got dark.  We had to skip some of the longer hikes but we stopped and looked and walked as much as we could----and I definitely would go back again and again.

 

It was fun to hear all of the foreign languages of the people sightseeing by us.  It is hard to imagine sitting in France and saying, I want to go see this amazing spot in Utah, yet people come from all over the globe.  And I didn't see it in person until I was 60---that is terrible.

 

Ben and I took the hike through a canyon.  It was very striking and beautiful.

 And a bit hot.....

Amazing what sand and dirt and wind and rain can do.............

Because it is a canyon formed by a river, part of the ground is slip rock which was left by the seasonal rains.  The patterns and variation was impressive.

 

And then there are the big boulders.  I assume they fell there but perhaps they were brought by water in the past.  We were the only ones on the trail for much of the time and it was quiet which made it perfect to marvel at the rocks in every direction.

Then we were back on the road again.................

 

 We took the short hike to North Window

 It was windy under the arch.  I heard someone gasp as they looked through the arch just ahead of me.  Even with that heads up, I too gasp as I saw the valley beyond.  It was well worth the short walk.

Everywhere were unusual sights--rocks of every shape and size and color............

Delicate Arch---- 

We didn't take the hike because we hadn't done enough research to know if Jena could manage it.  This was from a viewing area down below.

We got to the end of the road and Gary told me to hop out and take pictures.  It was getting late and we knew that we were running out of day light.  However after Ben and I got out and took some pictures, we met up with Gary and Jena as they were able to get a parking spot for the RV.  We deicded to walk down the path towards Landscape Arch.  I have never been in slot canyons before and the first part of the trail was a little like slot canyons.  We hiked as far as we dared but didn't quite make it to the end before we decided we needed to turn back or risk running out of daylight.  It was pretty dark by the time we got back to the parking lot but it was a pretty time of day to see the moon in the sky and the changing of the colors from the sunset.  A hike left for another day and time.

 

 

This plant was blooming when we came out of the canyons
but it had been closed during the day light.  I knew there were
plants like that but it was fun to see.

We hopped in our RV and headed north and then west until we made it to Green River State Park where we ate salad and leftovers at 11:00 pm before going to bed.

This was the first and only time the TV
was on while we were on our trip.
We watched "Frozen" briefly before going to bed.



 

Tuesday, we (meaning Gary) woke up bright and early and started the drive back home and we arrived around noon--just in time to clean up and start back into our Tuesday routine of school (me), Institute (Jena) and bowling with Allan (Gary).

 

And that was the end of an amazing week of traveling.  We live in such an amazing world--how lucky we are.

Mesa Verde......

First an apology to my three other children--all those trips we made from Utah to Texas or from Texas to Utah and I never took the 10 mile detour from Cortez to this amazing spot on the earth-Mesa Verde.  It seemed like we were always hurrying to visit family and to get back home that the middle spots got overlooked.  It was only in 2009 that we stopped at Four Corners which is another fun spot along this route.  Someday I hope that we can go back and share this spot with all of our kids and their kids.  It is truly so unique.

Mesa Verde is a national park which preserves some ancient dwellings of the Native Americans from this region.  Most famous for the cliff dwellings which are amazing there are also other ruins from more ancient buildings.  It felt like a holy spot in each of these special sites.

At the visitors center----

They had this statue at the visitors center of a man climbing with some wood on his back.  I didn't realize how much those cliff dwellers traveled up and down these walls.  Looking at them I wondered how the mothers managed when they were pregnant or had little ones just learning to crawl and walk--that would be scary.

This high in the mountains there were still wild flowers throughout the park.

 We were able to camp inside Mesa Verde at the camp ground which was great.

 

 

That evening we headed to the Ranger Talk.  As a kid, our parents often took us to these types of things and I still like them today.  The topic for the night was "The Critters of Mesa Verde".  You were a lot more cautious about walking around after you learned that there were bears, mountain lions, and cougars in those hills around you.

 

Jena gave a wave as I was taking pictures on the way to the ranger talk.

Monday morning we headed off to see the cliff dwellings.  They were stunning both up close and across the canyons.  Really unbelievable.  They believe that they only lived in them about 2-3 generations and then left the area but they don't really know why they left.

 On the hike down, Jena and Gary take a break.

These were early dwellings when they started making pit houses which were mostly under ground.

 A larger above the ground structure that I think is called Sun Temple.

Can you imagine coming into a canyon in 1880s and seeing this?  They said that the Native Americans had not forgotten the sites and told of them in their lore, but it was in the 1880s that a rancher searching for lost cattle "discovered" the site and spread the news throughout the US?  Now of course this is a world famous site.  It was the first site in the US declared as a national park specifically to preserve the Native American sites.

Pictures do not do it justice.  You really need to see it in person.  Put it on your bucket list!

And that just took us to lunch time............................