Utah Part One

A few months ago Grant was talking to his mother during their weekly Sunday chats and we learned that his sister, Virginia who lives in Texas, was coming up to Utah for Thanksgiving.  Grant and I started talking about it and we decided it would be neat if we went to Utah for Thanksgiving as well.  We looked over our finances and saw that it was possible, Grant checked on his vacation from work to make sure he could take the time off; when all of those were good we began to plan our trip to Utah.  We knew it would be a lot of driving, but we knew it would be worth it to spend Thanksgiving with the whole family.

The first thing we did was go and visit with one of Grant's Aunts and Uncles.  We always enjoy visiting with Aunt Irene and Uncle Karl, Grant is practically one of their kids so for him it is like coming home.  It was at this visit that Grant had an amazingly crazy idea to take us down to the seep to throw rocks in the water.  What is the seep you ask?  Well if you ask me it is a grueling hour hike through sage brush and thick sand to the river.  Lets just say I was not skipping along excited to go for a hike.  You know I grew up in the city and the only hiking we did was hiking around the mall or walmart during the holiday shopping season; and the only tricky part was navigating ourselves around huge throngs of people all trying to cram in the coveted toy or electronic section.  I enjoy going for walks on firm cement, but hiking through sage brush, thick sand, and over boulders was not something I was too excited about.  Don't get me wrong the view was pretty and I was content to enjoy the view from my car; but knowing how important this place was to Grant I knew it was best for me to hike.  I knew for it to be a successful family adventure that I needed to be totally on board and excited, or else the kids wouldn't want to go.  So I put a smile on my face and off we went.  Grant, the great man that he is, carried Madeline the whole way down and especially the whole way up.  He wants her to be able to enjoy everything we do and if that means he needs to carry her, he will.  Anthony was in his element and it soon became apparent that as a family we would not be able to keep up with him.  I figured he was safe, I mean we are in the middle of no where, and when I saw NO WHERE that is what I mean.  I knew there wouldn't be any predators looking to scoop up an innocent boy and if he got lost he could just yell; because after all we were in the middle of nowhere and would be able to hear him.  Anthony climbed up some pretty high cliffs and for this scared of heights mother I did everything I could not to fall over from a heart attack.  Just like his father I knew he was having the time of his life and if his Dad wasn't running after him then he must be okay.  I decided to busy myself with taking pictures or focusing on the scenery and not how high up Anthony was.  Spencer on the other hand hiked like a good trooper but he was good at pointing out how tired he was and when we could go back to the car.  I was not surprised to hear how tired Spencer was because he insisted on carrying this big rock all the way from the top of our hike down to the bottom.  You see this rock was special and it needed to be thrown in the water.  Grant and I were not about to carry this "special" rock for him.  We thought after he got tired he would see that the rock wasn't so "special" and just leave it, but no stubborn and insisting Spencer carried his "special" rock while voicing his feelings all the way down to the water.  Once we got to the water, Madeline and Spencer enjoyed throwing rocks in the water.  Anthony enjoyed the view from a high above cliff, and well me I handed over the camera to Grant and had him take pictures of the kids throwing rocks in the water.  You see I was over the hiking through sage brush and just didn't have it in me to hike through the last bit of sage brush to get to shores to see my kids throw rocks in the water.  It took us an hour to hike down and an hour to hike up.  Let just say hiking up in thick sand is a better work then any treadmill can do.  Anthony and I hiked a head of the group, my pace was pretty good for I knew the destination was the car.  Grant stayed behind carrying Madeline and listening to Spencer voice his feelings.  Though he was tired and done with hiking he walked the whole way, he just wanted to make sure his Dad knew how tired he was.  In the end I am glad Grant took us on this hike, it was nice to be together as a family in the middle of nowhere-ville.  There weren't any distractions, nor was there anything trying to steal our time from each other.  It was nice to be surrounded by God's creations spending time as a family and making memories with each other.

While in Utah I was also able to go a do session in the Vernal Temple with Grant's Mom and Sister-in-law.  Grant's Mom and I have a tradition that whenever we visit each other we go and do a session in the temple.  Usually it is when she comes and visit us here, but this time we were able to do it on her home turf.  I love going to the Temple and with how crazy busy life has been it was really nice to stop and be reminded of what life is all about.  The Vernal Temple is beautiful, as all the Temples are.  After our session I treated everyone to lunch before heading back home.  Grant stayed back and watched the kids so that we could have ladies day at the Temple.  I really enjoyed my time at the Temple and as always I walked away with a little more understanding.