Vacation 2016 - Provo, Liberty, and Grantsville Utah

Friday morning, we bid farewell to my sister Juli and to the Brian Head condo.  We managed to safely drive down the scary mountain road and on to Provo.  We stopped at historic Cove Fort on the way.  It is a restored fort that was established in the 1800's as part of the telegraph system from Salt Lake City to St. George.


this is the original door and locking hardware.
 
 the weather was drizzly and cool which explains why we are wrapped up in blankets.  This is in front of the bunk house outside the fort.



 

 After our visit, and a picnic lunch, we continued on to Provo.  We met Kirsti at BYU Broadcasting  where she works for a tour.

This is her "office" where she does her editing....


Look who I ran into from Studio C! 


We stayed with Ryan's parents, Craig and Andrea Merrill since Kirsti and Ryan's apartment is so small.  They fed us a wonderful dinner and then Elise, Steve, and I headed off to the 7:00 session at the newly opened Provo City Center temple.

 We met our long-time friends, Steve and Moana Burns there.



 And after, we joined Kirsti, Ryan, and Beckie at a nearby ice cream shop.
 


 Saturday morning, we all went to the Freedom Festival fair in downtown Provo.



 

 

 

 After a lunch of delicious fair food, we went to a local park to relax and rest.


 A lady brought her adorable pug puppy to the park and he loved making friends with all of us. Especially Steve. 
 

 We all left mid-afternoon (Kirsti and Ryan, also) to drive up to beautiful Liberty, Utah .....


where Steve's sister Maurine and her husband Cal live.  They fed us dinner and we stayed the night in their lovely home.  The next day, Sunday, was a wonderful day of rest.  We went to church with Cal and Maurine

 and just relaxed the rest of the day....until early evening when we said good-bye and drove down to Grantsville, Utah where Steve's oldest sister, Michelle and her husband Mike live.  On the way, we dropped Beckie off at a Hampton Inn in Layton where Emily and Joe and kids were staying the night.  (The Southerlands had just finished a family reunion in the Tetons the previous week).

Monday, July 4th, was a long and wonderful day.  It started with the Grantsville parade.


here is Michelle, Mike, Cal, Maurine, and Steve


here are some of Michelle's kids and grand kids collecting all the candy that was thrown during the parade.

After the parade, and after Mike fed his chickens.....


 we all congregated at Kristen and Justin Linares's home (Kristen is Michelle's oldest child) for the Lambson Family reunion.  All of Michelle's family were there.  Just Maurine and Cal came from their family.  Dave, Dale and Megan came.  And all of Jeff and Darla's family came with the exception of their son who is on a mission.   Our family had Emily and family, Elise, and Beckie.



their home is just gorgeous.  It sits on many acres of green fields of alfafa.

notice the tennis court in the background.  All three of the Linares girls play.

Look what Quinn found!
 
 Justin's hobby is racing cars and he has a huge out-building to accommodate all his "toys".  They call it the "Garage-Mahal".

 
 See the trailor in the background?  That is where he transports his racing vehicle (below).  It is pulled by a huge matching RV.



This cute facade opens up into another part of the garage where Justin parks his regular vehicles.  Oh, and the house also has a three-car garage.

the other side of the garage mahal



Not seen  - the large screen television.  Note the refrigerator and the piano (?!?!?).  No temperature controlled garage should be without one. 

Justin's newest acquisition. 

Noah enjoyed the garage mahal.


 Steve with his brother, Dave.  I regret that he didn't get to have a really good, long visit with either of his brothers.  Next time....
 

We all hung out and visited  the rest of the day.  Kirsti recorded a session where Steve and his siblings shared memories of their parents and their growing-up years.  After dinner, when it got dark, the party moved  to Michelle and Mike's house where Casey shot off his fireworks display and where everyone could watch the Grantsville fireworks.  I was not feeling too great (too much food) so I retired to bed early. 

 I will close with a photo of Lucy
 
   and of Beckie and Kirsti.  How wonderful to see these two far-flung daughters!

 

Vacation 2016 - Brian Head and Bryce Canyon

 Wednesday morning, after leaving Kodachrome State Park, we had some time to kill until 2:00 pm when Beckie would be arriving St. George via shuttle from Las Vegas (where she spent the weekend with friends).  Here is where partial information can be bad because I got it into my head that we HAD to enter Zion National Park through the south entrance so we could take a shuttle into the park.  We couldn't enter by the east entrance because traffic would be horrible.  And, so, our best chance to see that national park was lost.  Instead, we just puttered our way to St. George via a non-mountain route, spent an hour in a Barnes and Noble charging our phones and waiting until 2:00 arrived.

It was SO great to have Beckie join us on our adventure.  We even managed to squeeze her luggage into the car! (think Elise and me in the back with one third of the seat piled to the roof with stuff) We then drove up to Brian Head, Utah, where I had rented a VRBO.  Why Brian Head?  As we drove the 14% grade road straight up to over 9000 feet to the condo, with our poor little car struggling to make the grade, I asked myself the same question!!!!  Again, I suffered from not enough knowledge.  On the map, it looked like a logical location to stay since it was close to both Zion and Bryce.  Unfortunately, I didn't take into account it was on the TOP OF A MOUNTAIN!  which meant windy, scary mountain roads there and back!  Sigh.

It WAS a very nice place, however.


 

 

 It was so high up that temperatures were cool and pleasant.


 
We even had hail one afternoon!  But the air was so thin that I struggled with breathing when I went up stairs.

And, it was SO great to have my sister Juli drive up from Payson Arizona to join us the two days were were in Brian Head! 

Thursday we went to Bryce Canyon.  Wow!  It was amazing.
 


 

 
 Juli and Beckie found a Charlie Brown tree.....

 

Elise and Beckie decided to go on one of the hikes
 

down into this canyon.....

 (if you look closely, you can see people down in the bottom right )

while us old folks enjoyed the views from the top.








The altitude got to Elise, too, and she was afraid she was not going to make it back up.  She had a touch of altitude sickness for a couple of hours.  Poor thing.

We ate lunch at the lovely historic lodge - by then Elise was feeling better - and drove to a few additional overlooks



 

 And, then it was time to head back up the mountain to our VRBO for dinner.  Even the sights outside Bryce Canyon were gorgeous....