A Nice Saturday

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to our daughter's home in Utah country, about 40 miles south of where we live. The day was cold and cloudy as you can see from the picture. We had some snow flurries, but driving conditions on the freeway were fine. When we got off of the freeway, however, in our daughter's town, the roads were very, very icy and just getting to our daughter's home was tricky and dangerous. 

Eventually, we did get there.  Our granddaughter loved her birthday gifts and all of our grandchildren liked the fun Easter surprises.  We visited a while at the house, then took our granddaughter out to breakfast to a restaurant of her choosing.  We had a very nice time. 

When we got back to the house after breakfast, the boys of the family were busy with their Saturday activities, but the two youngest girls were still home and I got some pictures.  This is our four-year-old granddaughter. 

This is her eight-year-old sister.  Our oldest grandson was on the way out of the house just as we were coming in.  He was on his way to the junkyard to pull a transmission from a car there to put in an old car he purchased and is restoring.  He is getting to be quite a talented mechanic, and he is still 16-years-old! Our 12-year-old grandson was in and out during our entire visit, doing whatever 12-year-olds do. I accidently left my phone in the car for part of our visit, so I didn't get pictures of everyone.  Our grandson's birthday is next, in April, and he is excited to have a special birthday breakfast with grandma and grandpa at his choice of restaurants.  

After leaving our daughter's, we decided to spend the day in Utah county. Our favorite bookstore was having a "buy one, get one free" sale, so we just had to check that out, and yes, I admit that both Charly and I took advantage of the sale and got some books. 

We couldn't pass up a visit to our favorite thrift store in that area, which is huge and has lots of fun stuff.  We each bought a few things, but we exercised restraint because we are paring down our possessions for our move.

My best thrift store find of the day, was these lovely, colorful knitted slippers, which, I am pretty sure where never worn.  Only $2! I love comfy knitted slippers, and like to have several pair on hand.  They keep my feet so toasty warm, which is great because tonight (Saturday) our temperatures are back down in the 20s! 

That's all for this Saturday.  I will post more about this weekend in a few days, because more fun and enjoyable times are in the works.  Thanks for visiting.  See you again soon!

Until next time,

😊Deb💖

"Grandchildren are called 'grand' for a reason."

~anon.

 

End of Summer Getaway - Part II - Cedar Breaks

Our final stop on this short end of summer break getaway was Cedar Breaks National Monument.  Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this amazing place:

Cedar Breaks National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located in the U.S. state of Utah near Cedar City. Cedar Breaks is a natural amphitheater, stretching across 3 miles (4.8 km), with a depth of over 2,000 feet (610 m). The elevation of the rim of the amphitheater is over 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level.

The rock of the amphitheater is more eroded than, but otherwise similar to, formations at nearby Bryce Canyon National Park, Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest, and select areas of Cedar Mountain (SR-14). Because of its elevation, snow often makes parts of the park inaccessible to vehicles from October through May. Its rim visitor center is open from June through October. Several hundred thousand people visit the monument annually. The monument area is the headwaters of Mammoth Creek, a tributary of the Sevier River.^[3]

Before we left our hotel room to drive to Cedar Breaks, I was looking in a Utah hiking book, and noticed an interesting looking trail called Alpine Pond Trail. I only saw it on a map and could not find a description anywhere in the hiking book.  It looked like about the right length and location for a nice afternoon hike, however, so I decided to look for it as we drove.  I never saw a sign for it, until we turned into what we thought was a park information center (with what I hoped was a restroom - it wasn't).  There was a sign and when we got close enough to read it - it was the trail head for the Alpine Pond Trail!

This awesome little trail had it all.  I think it would rate in my top five all-time favorite trails. 

The trail was well-marked and easy to follow.

We finally got some rain here in Utah, so the growth on the trail was lush and green. 

There were plenty of tall pines.

There were also a lot of  other trees including quaking aspens.  I bet this trail is amazing in the fall when leaves change. 

There were also wildflowers along the trail.

I really liked these little lavender flowers. 

There was some altitude change along the trail as you can see from the these stair-stepped switch backs.  At an altitude of 10,000 feet, it was easy to get winded, but we all did OK.

You could see views of the red rocks of the Cedar Breaks "amphitheaters" between the trees.

Of course, true to the name of the trail, there was a shallow alpine pond, filled with tiny little fish and tadpoles.

Charly liked watching the little fish and tadpoles. 

It really was a great place.

We all enjoyed it. 

After the hike, we stopped at some view areas. Cedar Breaks has some amazing vistas. These are some of my favorites. 

You can see the ominous dark clouds in all of these pictures. Those dark clouds caused some damaging rains and flooding about 20-30 miles west of where we were when these pictures were taken. We were unaffected by the rain, and didn't even get wet until later that evening when we were back in Panguitch getting our take-out dinner from a restaurant.  

As we were leaving Cedar Breaks, these little fellow came right up to us as we were getting in our car.  It was as if he had come to say goodbye.  

Our end of summer family getaway was a fun and enjoyable couple of days.  We love family vacations, and only wish more of the family could have been with us - but we will take whoever we can get. Thanks for stopping by and sharing the beauty of our visit to Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks.  

😊Deb💜

"The best things in life are the people we love, the places we've been, and the memories we've made along the way."

~Anonymous

 

A Month of Blessings

I realize that it has been almost two months since my last update.  Wow, time flies when you are staying happily busy and occupied. This has been an eventful couple of months with  many blessings.  Here are some of our biggest blessings.

We have a new grand daughter, born at the first part of March.  Meet Ashley Lewis, born to our oldest daughter and her husband.  Little Ashley is the newest of five beautiful children in her family.

Here she is with her big brother Thomas, who is now the only brother with four sweet sisters. By the way, Thomas is still cancer free and doing very well.  He turned 8 last month!

We had a huge snow storm at the first part of March.  It snowed so much one Sunday morning in March that we couldn't dig out in time to go to church.

Fortunately, the snow melted fairly quickly, and now...

 my tulip bulbs are coming up.

They are up even farther this week!

 There are blossoms on the trees...

...and daffodils and in my neighbor's yard, along our fence line. 

Spring is here and welcome to it!

One day, Charly surprised me with these beautiful flowers, so we brought some spring time beauty inside.  I love it when Charly surprises me with flowers. 

Here is one of the beautiful spring sunrises I witnessed this past month as I got out of my car at school. 

A few weeks ago, we attended an anniversary open house for Charly's uncle and aunt. 

It was nice to see his aunt and uncle again and reconnect with his cousins after being away from this area for many years.  We really enjoyed this family reunion!

At the reunion, I was able to get a photograph of this chart, which is a family missionary chart from Charly's family.  It was started by one of Charly's great aunts many, many years ago and unfortunately hasn't been updated for sometime, but it shows the legacy of Christian love and service in Charly's family.  It makes me grateful to be part of this family, if only through marriage.  

Another happy event was attending the Jordan River Temple open house last week.  Josh was with us for Easter Weekend and we began the weekend with attending the open house at this beautiful temple which was originally dedicated in 1982 and has been updated and renovated.  After the open house, it will be rededicated next month. 

 The next day, Saturday, Josh and I attended LDS General Conference at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City.  Charly had a cold so stayed home to watch the proceedings on TV.

Attending Conference is a tradition Josh and I have established and it is one I love.  

We had tickets to the Saturday morning session, but Josh wanted to come on Sunday as well, so we stood in line and were able to get standby tickets to the Sunday morning (Easter) session of conference.  It was a wonderful experience, so hear such inspiring music and speakers on Easter morning.  

We were grateful to have Josh here for Easter Weekend.  It is always nice to be with him.  He has a new job and has been busy so we don't get to see him a lot. 

Last Tuesday, I had the day off for Spring Break, and Charly and I had a very special afternoon together at the Bountiful Temple.  It was a happy day of being together.

This past Saturday was a nice rainy day here in Salt Lake City. After grocery shopping in the morning, I baked treats for the grandkids while Charly went to a movie ("Ready Player One") with their dad. Later, we all enjoyed a nice dinner at Famous Dave’s, then Charly and I took advantage of Educator Appreciation Day at Barnes and Noble and got a jump on some birthday and Christmas gifts for our grandsons. Overall very nice Saturday. 

Our life here in Utah continues to come together and progress.  Charly continues to improve and do amazingly well. We walk 1.5 to two miles a day, and as of last week, Charly has a new job.  He has retired as a teacher in Arizona, and now he is a Reading Specialist at the junior high where I teach here in Utah.  He was getting bored being at home by himself all day and will continue in this job until the end of the school year and hopes to be back as a full teacher in his own classroom next fall.  His recovery and progress continues to make us grateful to God for His many miracles!

I hope to get back into the habit of blogging at least weekly and I am already planning my next post.  Until then remember...

Have a wonderful week!