Another Trip to Utah

My third straight weekend of being in Utah...at least for some part of the weekend. Not that I don't enjoy a good trip to Utah. And this was a good trip!

Saturday, I headed south to Heber Valley to stay with Bob and Trixie Adams, good friends who were in my ward in California. They have recently moved into their new home in Midway...although Bob is still commuting each week to work in the Bay Area for a while.

Bob and Trixie

Sunday morning, Trixie and I got up and enjoyed walking around in the area around their home...and then took a little drive around the town of Midway. Nice town!!

Then it was a beautiful drive down Provo Canyon and on to Spanish Fork to hear Tessa Healey speak in sacrament meeting before leaving on her mission for Guatemala. I don't know the last time I drove through Provo canyon, but it has been a long time. It was beautiful!! With the moisture from the thunderstorms, it was so green.

After the church meeting, there was a gathering at a park in Spanish Fork to give Tessa a send-off. She is so excited to serve and will be a fantastic missionary. For the record, Tessa's mom, Shirley, and I were college roommates our freshman and sophomore years at BYU (just shy of 100 years ago), and have been great friends ever since.

Tessa, Shantay (Tyler's girlfriend), Tyler, Shirley, Jack (Shirley's dad) and Velma (Shirley's stepmom)

Shirley and her mom

Shirley with her children, Tessa and Tyler

Have I mentioned that I have the greatest friends...I am so blessed!! I was fortunate to spend the weekend with some of them.

Memorial Day Weekend

Note: I am writing this on Thursday, June 11, but will post it so that is shows up as a May entry.

Ever since I moved back from California to Utah in 1995, I have tried to make an annual trip to Joseph, Utah, to visit the gravesites of my maternal grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great grandparents. Usually this annual visit would fall somewhere on the Memorial Day weekend. Since I have moved to Idaho, this annual visit has not always happened. But this year I wanted to go very much. So after an early Sunday morning meeting, I headed south to pick up my Dad and then headed on further south to Joseph for a quick day trip.

When I was growing up, the trip to Joseph was loooooooonnnnnnnggggggg. But now the trip to Joseph is almost entirely on interstate freeway. FAST!!! In fact if you wanted, the whole drive could be on freeway.....I-15 to Cove Fort, then east on I-70, take the Joseph exit...and you're there. But sometimes it's nice to get off the interstate and visit some of the fascinating places nearby as well.

An item of note, in all the years I have gone to visit the Joseph cemetery, the wind is always blowing. Look at the flags, and you get the idea. Also, the cemetery has undergone huge improvements over the years, but still no water as to allow grass to be planted.

Grandpa Herman and Grandma Fernie's graves

Gravesite of my great-grandparents - my mom's paternal grandparents

Gravesite of my great-grandparents - Mom's maternal grandparents

Grave marker for my great-great-grandpa, John Smylie Lott.

Something that I learned about him when visiting Martin's Cove in Wyoming is that he was one who went to help rescue those in the Martin-Willie handcart companies.

I took many other pictures of grave markers on this visit. Over the years, as I have gone to visit this cemetery with Mom and Dad - now with only Dad - I know stories about many of these relatives....aunts, uncles, cousins...that maybe will be gone when Dad is gone unless I write these stories down.

One the way home, and being true to my reputation for not taking the same way home as how I got there, we traveled up Hwy 89 through Richfield, Salina, Gunnison and then on through Sanpete Valley to Manti, Ephraim, etc. It was fun to visit Manti when the pageant was NOT on. Every other memory I have of Manti is of crowds because that is the only time I have been there - when the Manti Pageant is on.

The cemetery in Manti is in such a beautiful setting with the temple overlooking. It kind of ties everything together.

Arriving Home

When I left home on Tuesday I left my three cats in the house so they would have access to water and food while I was gone. There are also some rooms I prefer them to not have free reign of while I am gone, like my office and bedroom, so I closed the doors to those rooms.

I arrived home from my trip down south on Saturday night, having been gone a little over four days. When I walked in the house, I could hear a meow down the hallway by my bedroom and office. It was a "let me out of here" sounding meow. It was not a happy meow. Unfortunately for Oreo, when I shut the door to my bedroom before leaving, unbeknowst to me he was in my bedroom. He had been stuck in my room for over four days - no food, no water, no litter box.

Fortunately for me, without any food or water there wasn't much of a mess to clean up. Additionally, sometimes I read the paper in bed and last week's version of the Jefferson Star was in the corner that he used in place of the litter box. I was lucky on that account. But poor Oreo was noticeably thinner.

I think we both learned a lesson for next time I leave them for a few days. I felt so bad for him....but it is a funny story.

St. George and Zions NP

Marlene (sister) and Steve (brother-in-law) invited me to join them in St. George for a few days in the middle of May. May is a great time to visit St. George because the weather is still kind of fickle in Idaho in May...and by then I am in NEED of warm, even hot, weather. The timing worked out great because I was already planning to be in Draper, Utah to attend the temple with Tessa Healey, who has been called to the Guatemala Quetzaltenango mission. Why not just head south afterwards for a few days off work?

Highlights of the Draper/St. George trip:

• Attending the temple with Tessa Healey when she received her endowment.
• Good times with family.
• Enjoying the warm, sunny weather.
• Being entertained by two very cute girls.
• NO wind. The day I left Idaho, the wind was insane!!! Couldn't leave soon enough.
• Taking the shuttle bus in Zions National Park with a very entertaining two-year-old, Lisa.
• Hiking to the Emerald Pools in Zions National Park.

Not-so-highlights of the trip:

• Coming down with a cold on my way down.
• Having a cold the entire time I was there.
• Time going too fast.
  

Riding on the shuttle bus

Lisa was my seat-mate on the shuttle bus. She is so fun...and note her cute, doggy back-pack/leash.

Jenny and Natalie - she was the most content little hiker!

Fun times at the pool!!

Just hangin' out at the condo

Anticipation

an-tic-i-pa-tion   [an-tis-uh-pey-shuhn] –noun

1. the act of anticipating or the state of being anticipated.
2. realization in advance; foretaste.
3. expectation or hope.
4. previous notion; slight previous impression.
5. intuition, foreknowledge, or prescience.

I love the anticipation of things. For example, when I go camping, the camping trip does not start when I pull out of my driveway. It starts when I begin making the menu list and go shopping for "camp food", gathering my gear together, pouring over maps of where I might hike. The preparation is as much a part of the camping trip as the trip itself. I derive a lot of enjoyment from just thinking about it.

I am in major "anticipation mode" as I look forward to a few days in St. George next week. Memories from last year's trip to St. George have me thinking of hikes (Zions or Snow Canyon), cycling, relaxing, scrapbooking, laying in the sun . Here's hoping that the weather is nice and warm and the skies are blue.