Zion National Park

The trip to Zion National Park was amazing.  Dan was a great tour guide and showed us all around and gave us the inside skinny on the trails.

We went on the Emerald Pools hike which was a hike that was partially closed because of rock slides that Dan is going to have to repair.

The Zion Lodge

Me and Aunt Linda

Dan, Janet, Nancy and Aunt Linda

This is a a wall that Dan made

The Narrows

Our second hike was to the beginning of the Narrows.  It was very crowded but interesting to see the people who decided it would be fun to walk up the river rocks!

Lava Point

Dan took us to the top of the park to the Lava Point Overlook.  There were only a couple people up there because it was off the beaten track.  So cool to see the vastness of the view.

The Ledges

I have been looking forward to this trip for months - I am in Utah with my Aunt Linda visiting Zion National Park and Bryce National Park.  We are with her sisters in law, Nancy and Janet, and her nephew, Dan.  Dan happens to be a trail manager in Zion so he is our tour guide.

We are staying at a beautiful condo in St George.  We have a wonderful second story balcony that we like to sit on and have drinks.

Santa Cruz Triathlon

G completed her second triathlon this weekend - the one in Santa Cruz.  As in the last one, I was the support staff but I had assistance this time:  Jim, Hops and Ahi!

It was a stunning day - blue skies and warm weather!  We dropped her off with her gear and she got settled while we went to park.  Then we met up and went down to the water to get ready for the swimming portion of the race.  This one was a late start with the women going last at about 9:35 am.

Ready to go!

Coming out o the swim to go get her bike

At the beginning of the bike portion

The course ran along West Cliff Drive which is such a beautiful spot. Plus it had the added benefits of being able to watch all the people walking their dogs!

That is G in the pink cap - I guess only short people do triathlons!

Support weener!

First part of the running section of the race

What a great spot to run - right past the light house!

Running into the finish line!

The finish line was right on the beach!

Total time for the race was 1:49:47!  Which was better than the last one but it is hard to compare since the last one was at elevation and was a lake vs ocean swim.  All in all, any triathlon that you can complete is a good one!

Another triathlon complete!

The support staff got bored!

After the race, we met Bronwyn and Rich for lunch at Kellys.  It was great to catch up and they love a good athletic competition so they were happy to hear about it.   What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning.

Treasure

Speaking of treasures...  Jim's mom has gifted this ring to Grace.  It came from G's Great, Great Grandmother, Otilla Theis who is from Germany.  It was handed down from Otilla, to her daughter, Gertrude (sister of Anna's father, Alfred), to Anna (Anna is Gertrude's niece) to Grace.   I hope somewhere in the universe Gertrude and Otilla know that this is treasured!

It is missing a stone and has been since Anna received it.  So I have my friend and jeweler, Staci, locating a stone, repairing it and making it larger to fit G's finger.  Stand by for after "pics".

Hope Chest

With Jim's folks moving, we have run into some real treasures!  This is a solid cedar hope chest that Anna received on her 16th birthday.  It contained a hand made crocheted afghan from an elderly lady, named Vera, that her mom knew.  She had heard her mom talking to the lady so she sort of expected an afghan but was shocked to get a hope chest as well.

It was common for girls her age to get hope chests to begin keeping and collecting stuff to start "home making" when the time came.   The chest is now almost 70 years old and had been in their garage for as long as I could remember.  Anna had painted it at one point, thus its gold color.

I am going to get it refinished and will be honored to have it in my home as a treasured family heirloom and will pass it down when the time comes.  Stay tuned for "after" pics.

#dogloversclub

My new workplace has all kinds of clubs that are supported by the company with funds to do cool things.  You won't be surprised to hear that I am part of the dog lovers club!  The club recently had a fundraiser to raise money for Muttville, a senior dog rescue, in honor of a members' dog who had recently passed and had been rescued from Muttville.  They sold these t-shirts and had a goal to sell 100 but ended up selling over a 1000 and sending them around the world.  And they raised thousands of dollars for Muttville.  The first Friday after we picked up the t-shirts tons of employees had them on!  This is me and Amy, a gal I used to work with at Yahoo!   We work about 20 feet from each other and showed up in almost the same outfit that day.

Grendel

G's youngest beardie, Grendel, is growing like a weed.  He is 9 months old now and with that growth comes a lot of shedding.   Here is a shedding of his foot!

Test Swim

G is doing the Santa Cruz triathlon in a couple weeks and wanted to do a test of the open water swim to get a feel for it.

So we loaded up on Sunday morning (we had brought the kayaks from the cabin on our last trip home) and headed to rent a wet suit at Sports Basement and headed over the hill.  We launched right near the Coast Guard House and paddled out the mouth of the harbor while G jogged to the beach.

She swam some laps while we stayed close by so she could hang on to rest.  It was scary out there - lots of waves!  We did see an otter and a seal so that was fun and kept my mind off how freaked out I was for a little while!

We headed back to the ramp once she was done and she swam into the beach.    Unfortunately she got rolled by the waves as she came into the beach and lost her brand new goggles.  But other than that (and me getting sea sick and doing a lot of belching) it was a good test swim.

Labor Day at the Lake

Labor Day 2019 was spent at the cabin:  two days at Don Pedro and 1 day at PML.  Drew brought a bunch of buddies up and we joined in for the shenanigans.  I also had a coworker and her family, who is looking for a cabin, spend time with us.

Watching the cows on shore

Party Cove

That Labrador thinks it's normal to float on a floaty with me.  She is calm while on my lap but its a dumpster fire if someone throws something....and I have scratches and bruises for evidence.