Well I have two weeks to cover and we did quite a bit for a change (and I also took lots of pictures) so this post is going to be longer (and hopefully more interesting) than most of the ones I've been posting lately. Here goes...
I can't remember much about what we did before we left for Utah on Tuesday the 11th. I do remember that on Saturday Seth & I went with Frank to his office to help him do some cleaning / rearranging in his office. He's been wanting to do that for a while but hasn't had time since he's been swamped with other things, so we were happy to do something to help him. We worked for about an hour and got a lot accomplished...his office looked MUCH better when we were done! On Sunday I had an online RS meeting and Seth had an online Deacon's Quorum meeting. On Monday I was really busy getting ready for our trip...buying things we needed, packing, etc. Seth mowed the lawn so our house wouldn't look abandoned with an overgrown lawn. We managed to get everything done.
Tuesday the 11th was mostly spent traveling. Our flight had a short stop in Denver, but we didn't have to change planes. I got really cold on this flight, in spite of the fact that I was wearing layers on top (a layering shirt, a t-shirt, and a light jacket) plus long pants, socks and shoes. The jacket I had was quite thin so I decided then that I was going to buy a warm hoodie while in Utah for the plane trip home! We arrived in Utah around 4:00 pm, and Scott picked us up at the airport and took us back to Mom's house where we had a yummy stroganoff dinner that she had prepared for us. Erin, Dan & Harvey came by that evening to see us...we enjoyed visiting with them outside in the backyard.
A few photos taken right after leaving Denver:
Since both Scott and Amanda are living with Mom right now, we got to see and visit with both of them a lot and we really enjoyed that! Wednesday the 12th was mostly a pretty quiet day; we just enjoyed visiting. (Tanner, Darlee, and Jared came to see us too. Jessie was still in Maryland for a family reunion.) We were leaving for Moab the next day, so we had to go to the store to get a few things for that trip and put gas in Mom's car. (And Frank & I took advantage of the opportunity to get ice cream cones at Macy's!)
On Thursday the 13th we headed south to Arches National Park, along with Mom in her car. Amy, Maddie, Jeremy, Ammon, Darlee & Tanner caravaned with us in Amy's van. The morning was not without some drama...Seth said he didn't feel well when he woke up and he actually threw up. Great! Since he does this fairly often and usually only throws up once and doesn't appear to be contagious, we weren't extremely worried but we weren't thrilled either. We took a bowl with us in case he got sick again and when we made a stop in Spanish Fork at a gas station, I went in and bought him some ginger ale and some saltine crackers. Thankfully, he didn't throw up again and after the first few hours he perked up and seemed to be fine after that. We made it to Arches National Park by 11:00 and spent several hours there driving around to see the sights. It's amazingly beautiful, although I don't feel like the photos I took captured the beauty very well. We took a short hike to Double Arch although I didn't make it all the way there. It was super hot (about 105 degrees) with no shade and I found that my body wasn't dealing very well with the higher altitude (in addition to the heat). So when Mom decided she needed to go back to the car, I was more than happy to go with her. We could still see double arch, by the way...we just didn't go far enough to stand under it.
On our way back out of the park, we stopped at the Visitor's Center--which was actually closed thanks to COVID-19--to purchase some souvenirs. (The gift shop was open...go figure!!) Seth got a stuffed animal--a bat that he dubbed Bruce, we got a Christmas tree ornament and some postcards, and I got a nice warm hoodie!
We had booked a 3 bedroom condo to stay in so we went there after leaving the park (around 3:30) and we were happy to collapse in a nice cool place! All of the kids (including the grown up ones--I guess I should have said "the younger generation") went swimming in the complex's pool while the adults figured out where we were going to eat dinner. We decided to order take out from a local restaurant and it was quite a feat to get everyone's order figured out but we finally succeeded! Frank & I went to pick up the food and wished we had brought a few more people along when we saw how many bags / drink trays we needed to carry. We managed to get it all back to the condo, though. While we were waiting for them to finish up our order, I noticed a couple of signs that I thought were funny:
After dinner, we drove back to the park to do some stargazing. I took a few photos on our way in:
I made Frank pull over so I could get out of the car to take this picture!
We didn't have a nice enough camera with us to get any photos of the stars, so you'll have to take my word for it when I say that the view of the Milky Way and the billions of stars was totally stunning! We all lay down on a sidewalk (which still felt warm from the day's heat) and just looked up at the sky for a long time. We weren't exactly contemplative--we actually talked and laughed the whole time--but it was a lot of fun and I could have stayed out there for hours longer (except my back started to hurt). We saw lots of satellites and several shooting stars, including one large one that streaked nearly all the way across the sky. Definitely one of the best parts of the trip and one of my favorite memories!
Friday morning, the 14th, was busy because we had to eat breakfast and get checked out by 10:00 am. Seth and Tanner still managed to catch some brother time together for a few minutes:
After checking out, we went back to Arches so we could see a few things we missed, including Delicate Arch:
Then we drove to Canyonlands National Park, which is only about a half hour away. We spent several hours driving around to see the sights there. (The sky was kind of hazy because of forest fires in California.) This viewpoint was directly across the street from the Visitor's Center, where we stopped to get some water and a few souvenirs...postcards and magnets. I had to stamp my National Parks passport too. (I did that at Arches as well.)
After that, we were thoroughly worn out and it was late afternoon, so we headed home. We didn't get back to Mom's house until about 7:30 (we stopped for "lunch" around 4:30) and spent the rest of the evening recuperating. We're so glad we got to go on this trip, though!
The next day (Saturday the 15th) was Scott's birthday. We gave him presents in the morning:
We spent the day doing laundry and relaxing. I also made a cake. Ben's daughter Jessie came by to pick some things up that she left at Mom's house (she was in the process of moving) so we got to visit with her for a while. That night, Tanner & Darlee and Jared & Jessie came over and we all had dinner together. Scott made pork tacos in the crock pot and I made some Mexican rice to go with it. We also had cake, of course!
Sunday the 16th it was Mom's week to go to church so we were all able to go to church together. They are allowed to sing in her ward too, so we enjoyed that! Before church we tuned into the online Sunday school class from our home ward and after church Seth tuned into a Bishop's youth night from our home ward also. That evening we had a gathering at Tim & Rachelle's house in their backyard to celebrate July & August birthdays and just to see everyone. It was fun to see Micah, who is finishing up his MTC training and to see Taran's new baby Quinn. We also enjoyed seeing many other extended family members from Tim's, Shellie's, Erick's, and Amy's families. The evening was too short to visit adequately with everyone!
We also had Anna take some family photos for us at a park nearby...I don't have those yet, so I will have to share them later!
Monday the 17th was our last full day in Utah and we mostly rested. I had a project I've been working on that I wanted Mom to help me with so I took it with me to Utah and she helped me finish it on Monday. I enjoyed visiting with Mom and with Amy (who came by to visit) while I worked on the project. (It's for Christmas, so I'm not going to share the completed project yet.) Meanwhile, Seth and Frank enjoyed playing video games with Scott. Seth actually had quite a bit of video game playing time with his brothers while we were in Utah, which I know he enjoyed a lot! Frank and I took a trip to Deseret Book to get some garments (Rachelle helped us) and I got a few books too. Our kids came over to visit with us one last time that evening also (except Jessie, because she wasn't feeling well.)
Scott's dog, Everest, is so cute and she cracks me up. She looks so much like a human in this photo!:
On Tuesday the 18th, it was time to head back home. Scott took us to the airport, which we really appreciated. (It was nice to have a little more time with him too.) The trip home was fairly uneventful also. Once again, we had a short stop without a plane change...this time in Phoenix. One nice thing about COVID-19 (is there anything nice about it?) is that both our flight out and back were not very crowded. On the way back, we had 2 rows between the three of us so I got to move around a bit and I sat next to the window on the flight to Phoenix as well as the end of the flight to Baltimore.
I took a few photos of what I think is the Grand Canyon on the flight to Phoenix:
In Phoenix I also got off the plane for a few minutes to use a "real" bathroom and stretch my legs a bit:
Frank & Seth got off for a few minutes too and while I was waiting for them to come back, I got a text message from a Maryland friend from our ward: "Are you in Phoenix? Kev and I just saw Frank and Seth at the airport here! We are returning from CA. Or we think we saw them across the terminal." That was pretty funny! They were on the same flight as us for the trip home to Baltimore. They had gone to California for their daughter's wedding. (We also saw some friends from our ward at the SLC airport that morning...they were just flying in to bring their daughter out to BYU. I already knew they were going to be there, though, and actually walked over to their terminal so I could see them briefly.) Because of the time change, it was 8:30 pm before we landed in Baltimore (made it seem like a really long day). It was really pretty coming in at sunset though:
After we got off the plane, we had a very long wait for our luggage and we needed to stop to get some "dinner" on the way home so we didn't get to our house until around 10:30 pm. We unpacked and went to bed!
Since getting home, we've been trying to catch up on things and adjust back to the Eastern time zone. I've been sleeping in until 8:00 or 9:00 every morning! (But in Utah, that's only 6:00 or 7:00.) Frank jumped right back into work...he worked all day on Tuesday and had an overnight install Tuesday night. He's been pretty busy, but it hasn't been as bad as I expected after being gone for a week. The main thing I needed to do on Wednesday was to plan meals and get some groceries because the refrigerator looked like this:
It was actually raining lightly. We didn't see any rain while we were in Utah!
On Thursday the 20th I got caught up on all the laundry and other chores. On one of my trips to the laundry room I accidentally knocked over a long florescent light bulb that was leaning against the wall. It hit the cement floor and shattered into a million pieces! Actually, exploded would probably be a better word. I'm thankful I didn't get glass in my eyes. I was barefoot and kind of trapped, but thankfully Frank was home by then so I hollered for help and he came and did a bunch of sweeping and vacuuming so I could get out. It was amazing how far all those pieces had gone. The bulb was near the door to the laundry room and pieces of glass were not only all over the laundry room but also all over my office / craft room on the other side of the door. Frank said "When you make a mess, you really make a mess!" We finally managed to get the floor cleaned up at least but I still found tiny bits of glass on my desk when I was working on the budget this morning. Last night I watched Pew family home movies, which is always fun and nostalgic. Seth had a short Deacon's Quorum presidency meeting to plan some activities.
Today Frank is working from home; it's been nice to have him around. I spent the morning working on the budget and got it all caught up, and now my blog is caught up too! It's a good thing, because it's time to make dinner.
We had a great time in Utah and made some wonderful memories, and I am so glad that we got to go. I am also glad that coming home is nice too. I like where I live, and I'm grateful for that! I'm hoping we'll get to visit Utah again soon, though!
1 comment:
You didn't call me while you were in Utah! But it looks like you were pretty busy so I'll forgive you.
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