Is It Naptime Yet

Our trip began a little late on Friday, July 9th. Jon really wanted to see Zion National Park on our way through Utah, and we did, but with packing so much stuff, for a two week trip that had 6 days of camping within the first 8, it was hard to leave as early as we would have liked.

The day was humid as we got to Springdale, Utah and parked. We rode the city shuttle to Zion and then walked around a bit and finally decided to hike a short archaeological trail that was somewhere by the visitor’s center, we just couldn’t find it till a ranger kindly pointed us in the right direction. We did get a nice tour of the river and camping sites. After the trail we rode the shuttle around the park. It was an easy ride with a couple stops. Mostly we planned what might be fun to do on a longer trip to Zion, somewhere in the future. The girls seemed to enjoy sitting and looking around. It was an easy start to our long trip.

We drove to Cedar City, Utah that night and rested. There was some classic car club staying at our hotel the same night and Eden thought we should add classic cars to our slug bug game. Jon and I are are the only ones who actually “slug” each other, we mostly play for points, that we easily loose track of. Little did we know how many classic cars we would see on the trip.

On Saturday, July 10th, we headed to Monroe, Utah to attend a family reunion for my mother’s family. We got there a little late, and forgot to bring a side dish, but hey we were there. Monroe is where my mother’s parents lived when first married, so we drove around the town with my Uncle Bud as he told us about the different houses. One had been turned into a motel and was up for sale. (The owner had turned it into a bed and breakfast, just without the breakfast and for a lot more than what most would pay to stay in a small town like Monroe.) My cousin Harmony had started to talk with a care taker when she was taking some pictures of it, so we actually went on a tour of the house, which was greatly changed with the hotel renovations. We then visited the cemetery, which had some family buried in it, including the aunt my mother was named after. Eventually we said goodbye to what family was left and headed off into the sunset to Orem Utah, where we would stay that night.

Sunday, July 10th, we left bright and early, though not quite early enough. (I’m seeing a trend here, are you?) We decided to cram in a couple visits on our way to Wyoming, and so we visited Jon’s cousin DeEtte, and her family. They had called while we were out of town for Memorial Day, and Jon really wanted to see them. It was a very short visit, just an hour long, but it was so nice to see her and her family. The last time we saw them, we each had only one little girl. Now we have two and they have four! Sadly we only got a picture of the youngest, and it was because she was so dang cute with Nutella on her face from her delicious crepe.

We left DeEtte to go visit Rawlin and Shauntae in Logan, Utah. Sadly, Shauntae was sick, so we only saw Rawlin, but surprisingly, one of Jon’s cousins was there with his family visiting Rawlin when we showed up. Sean and his wife Shauna with 3 or 4 kids. (I don’t remember how many they have.) They left shortly after we got there and we visited for about an hour more. After our visit we hit the road yet again. This time our destination would be close to Jackson, Wyoming.

It was so exciting to be on the road visiting these new places and seeing our wonderful national parks. Seeing family along the way was just the beginning to our wonderful trip. The visits were far to short, so we discussed ways we might be able to see more of our extended family, since reunions no longer take place for Jonathan’s side of the family.

My heart ached to leave each love one after such a short visit so I hope to see them again soon.

To see the pictures that go with this blog post click on Family Vacation Pictures 2011- Part 1.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 24th, 2011 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Family, fun, Life trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.