Family Time

My trip to Utah was an amazing experience.  I went so that I could spend time with my Aunt Linda, who just lost her husband Jim after a 22 year battle with blood cancer.  I found out about the trip at Uncle Jim's service at the beginning of May and jumped at the time to spend time with an Aunt I have not had much time with.

She is the Aunt that I am most like and spending time with her made me realize that it is eerie how similar we are.  She has a love of dogs that rivals mine and she is the alpha of the dogs in her family, just like me.  She made a great choice in a husband and picked a great Jim, like me.  She is level headed --  extremely level headed.  Her discussions about the loss of her husband are so grounded.  It is remarkable at how she keeps everything in perspective.  It was especially heart warming when she bought us all lunch and said it was "on Jim" and we all gave a hearty cheer!  She is not super religious but has strong sense of values that she clearly used to raise her boys.  She also shared that she was most like her Aunt Mur in our family, which made a lot of sense to me.

I was also happy to hear the family stories she shared.  She confirmed that I went to Indian Lake when I was little, which was Aunt Mur's place.  And she talked about the strength of my grandmother which I loved hearing.  She also shared that my Great Grandfather was in fact from Russia (even though my DNA shows only a small part of Russian in me) and his wife, Hannah was from Sweden.   And the two of them both came to the US when they were 14 and met in Michigan when they could not speak each other's languages.

It was so important for me to spend this time with my Aunt Linda.  It really connected me to my heritage and led to a lot of self reflection.  I hope that I can live a life that is as grounded and meaningful as hers.

Red Hills Desert Garden

Century Plant

Had a great stop at the Red Hills Desert Garden.  It was a free garden between the town of St George and our condo.  It was a really nicely done garden with a lot of lizards.

Kroenleinia

Palo Verde

Spiny Lizard

White Rain Lily

Purple Heart

Mexican Grass Tree

Purple Pickled Pear

Parry's Agave

Whip tail

Snow Canyon State Park

Today we went to Snow Canyon State Park which is right across the road from where we are staying.  Snow Canyon is named after early Mormon settlers Lorenzo and Erastus Snow. It was designated as a Utah State Park in 1958.

There was white rock, red sandstone and lava rock.  It was warm on a cool day so in the summer it must be unbearable.

Cholla plant

 I was looking for a Gila monster and a tortoise but didn't find any.   But there were a lot of lizards.

Petrified sand dune

Early settlers wrote their names in wagon axel grease

Day 3: Bryce Part 2 and Red Canyon National Forest and the Back Side of Zion

We woke up on the third day and went back to Bryce to check out a few more things in the park, including the Lodge.

Then we went to Red Canyon National Forest and checkout of a hoodoo up close.

Then we took a drive back through the mountain pass, stopped at Chilis for lunch and went up the back side of Zion.

Red Canyon

Back side of Zion

Bryce Canyon National Park

Another amazing day in Southern Utah at Bryce National Park.  Dan and his girlfriend, Margaret were amazing tour guides.  We went into the park and went all the way to the end and checked out all the spots on the way back out.

I learned that Bryce was named for Ebeneezer Bryce, who was a mormon settler.  And it is not actually a canyon but is the edge of an 18 mile plateau.  Its pink steps mark the top step of the Grant Staircase, a giant geologic terrace reaching to the Grand Canyon.

The hoodoos were amazing.  As was the vastness of the area.  Every stop we were at looked different.

Me and Aunt Linda

Nancy, Janet, Dan and Margaret

This was our last stop of our day and it was like the grand finale of the fireworks 

At the end of the day, we went to Tropic, Utah and stayed at a motel so that we could go back to Bryce the next day.  We had a big dinner at the restaurant next to the motel and called it a night.

Part 2 - Hope Chest

This is Anna's hope chest stripped.  We are so thrilled with the beauty of it.  Jim is picking out a dark stain for it.  Stay tuned.