On Thursday, August 11, after Dan and I got grades in for summer term, and after the kid's swim lessons (and my doctor's appointment--and before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant), we headed out on the road. We drove an hour and a half or so to Bryce canyon, rode the shuttle through the park, and disembarked at the spot recommended to us by the park worker at the entrance. She recommended walking the rim trail between two different shuttle spots because, she said, there was a fence along the trail there (a must for small children). Unfortunately, I think she got the spot wrong, because there wasn't a fence where we were. Luckily, the kids were pretty good about holding our hands when the trail got too close to the edge.
Also unfortunately, we have no pictures, so you'll have to envision a brilliant blue sky and a vast field of colored hoo-doos (the name for the funny looking rock spikes that fill Bryce Canyon). I thought I'd left the camera in the car; I discovered after we left that the camera was actually in the backpack we brought with us. Oops.
Bryce Canyon was also incredibly crowded--mostly with foreign tourists (I heard French and German for sure, not sure about some of the other languages). We left after finishing our rim walk and drove further up the road to Torrey, just outside Capitol Reef.
Dan was set on going to Cafe Diablo for dinner and aimed to get us there right around 5. It worked, too. We were some of their first customers, although, of course, the outside patio (where we were sitting) gradually filled up while we were there. For those of you who aren't familiar with this restaurant, it's run during the summers by a NYC trained chef (who operates a restaurant in Park City during winter months). The food is amazing--especially for such a small town. It's also very expensive, which is why we don't go there more often (that, and the distance). We ordered an appetizer of empanadas with black beans, then I ordered a pecan-crusted chicken and Dan had smoked Turkey with this amazing blue corn cake thing. The kids had quesadillas (nothing fancy, but the tortillas tasted home-made). Then, of course, we had to order dessert. They make their own ice cream on the premises and serve them on these lovely thin almond cookie bowls. Dan and I also shared this chocolate nut torte--and yes, it was as good (better!) than it sounds.
The next morning, we took the kids deep into Capitol Reef. We left around 7, which didn't seem particularly early, but we didn't see anyone else until we were leaving the park almost 2 hours later.
The "hike" we picked wasn't exactly a hike (we got turned around a little), but we walked down one of the dirt roads with the kids for a half a mile or so (which is about as much as they can handle at this point). And the scenery, both as we walked and as we drove along the "scenic highway", was spectacular.
We got into the canyon just as the sun was coming up, as you can tell from the pictures.
After our hike, we went back to the hotel and tried to swim, but the pool was outdoors and pretty cold. So we bundled the kids inside, gave them a warm bath, then packed up and checked out. We stopped by the Petroglyphs inside Capitol Reef before leaving.
We passed through several small Utah towns on our way up North (some of them were so small that it was hard for me to imagine how anyone makes a living there--the landscape was so very dry and desolate in parts that farming, even ranching, seems kind of unthinkable). After having lunch at a pretty decent little restaurant in Hanksville (you could tell it was popular because, just after we ordered, a whole group of girls showed up--probably nearly 20 in all--and the length of the line didn't deter anyone from lining up behind them), we headed north again. Around 1, we pulled off the highway to check out Goblin Valley, which, despite having nearly 40 combined years of living in Utah, neither Dan nor I had ever seen.
It was beautiful, but, given the time of day, it was also blazingly hot. We only spent 30 minutes or so exploring around, and that was enough to make us start feeling dehydrated. (After we left, I think we drained a water bottle each).
We spent that Friday evening in Price and had dinner at a little greek restaurant (the Greek Streak?) downtown. The next morning, we headed up to my parents' house, where a cousins party was in full swing. We spent the morning with my sister and her kids, and my brother Jared and his kids (and their spouses, of course!). The kids had a lot of fun running around together, as always.
Sunday, we drove up to SLC where my cousin Traven was set to report from his mission to Chile. He gave a good report, but my favorite part of the meeting was my aunt Tera's talk--her talk was full of stories of my grandfather, who wasn't able to serve a mission because of WWII (after he came back home, his mother refused to let him leave again, although he wanted to go on a mission). She explained how, even though he hadn't been a full-time missionary, his life was full of missionary service. She told stories of the many people whose lives had been touched, even transformed, by my grandfather. Some of the stories were familiar, some were new to me. But they all made me feel close to my grandfather and to mourn, a little, that my children don't know my grandfather.
After the homecoming (and the inevitable reception afterward), we spent the late afternoon/early evening with Sarah and her family, who graciously fed us dinner.
Monday morning, we stopped by Jeni's house on our way out of town to give our kids even more cousin time (they loved it). We got home Monday afternoon, just in time for me to attend the Shakespeare Festival's Midsummer Night's Dream with my book group--and a surprise attendance by Ally Condie, of Matched fame, whose sister is the main driving force in our book group. Having met Ally a couple of times now, I can only say that, if I ever write a national best-seller (a big IF at this point), I hope I'm as nice and unassuming as she is.
The week was full--if not so exciting--of faculty meetings for Dan (and a couple that I had to attend on Friday).
To liven things up, Wednesday night we took the kids to see the Greenshow for the festival. As luck would have it, it was the same performance we'd already seen. The kids seemed to enjoy it more this time--and so did we. I think it was partly because we sat close to the front so there wasn't as much room for the kids to roam, so they were better behaved.
It might also have been because we discovered that Evelyn's swim teacher (who taught both of the 2 week sessions she attended) was IN the Greenshow. He's second from the left in this picture. I think Evelyn liked watching someone she knew.
Random shot of the kids' towers (Andrew built most of them, but I think Evelyn contributed one of the front ones). Of course, two seconds later my mini-godzillas had destroyed all of them.
Sorry if this post reads so much like a list--I'm trying to cover a lot of information quickly! At this point, I'm less concerned about literary quality than accuracy.
Thursday night I met for the first time with my writer's group, Joy and Tasha. I think this will be good motivation for all of us to keep writing--plus, it's just fun to have some adult girl time.
On Friday, in between my college and department meetings, we took Andrew for his kindergarten assessment. His teacher, Mrs. Ekker, seems really nice and enthusiastic. She took Andrew aside for the assessment portion and had him identify shapes, count numbers, identify letters of the alphabet, etc. She had a little book and asked him about where you start to read, which direction you read (assessing general familiarity with the book) and seemed a little surprised when Andrew, after answering her questions, read the entire book to her unprompted. I'm sure he's not the first kindergartener to know how to read, but he certainly didn't seem to have any problems with the assessment (except, of course, for his fine motor skills and persistent tendency to reverse 2s, 3s, and 4s . . . all of this is apparently pretty normal for his age). Now, we just have to wait another week for kindergarten to actually start!
Yesterday was Andrew's first soccer game of the fall season. I'm just happy that I don't have to coach this time around! Andrew did really well--he scored the team's only non-accidental goal (the first goal was a throw-in that rolled into the goal box, the second goal was scored by the opposite team. Of course, Andrew's team also scored a goal for their opponents, so I guess it's only fair). And he was also the only person on his team who was consistently aware of where the ball was. Not that I would tell him any of this--he's got a big enough head about his soccer skills as it is (like all kids his age, I think, he doesn't have a very accurate assessment of his abilities). But it was fun to watch him. I have no idea where he got his competitive streak from. (I'm kidding, of course.)
I loved this shot because this is pretty much how Andrew plays soccer--fearlessly and aggressively. Now we have to start working on sharing the ball with his teammates (and maybe being a little less aggressive).
After the game, we headed south to the condo, where Bubby, Poppy, Sarah and crew were congregated. Actually, we went to the condo to plug in my cell phone (which we discovered, as we were walking out the door, was dead) so that we could actually call the others and find out where they were. They were at the splash park, and we joined them forthwith.
After the kids had splashed for a while, we took them on the newly installed carousel (I think we posted about this a couple of weeks ago too). Dan took lots of pictures (some of them blurry, one of them a pretty decent shot of the man behind us making a strange face at the camera), these were my favorites.
Maggie loved the carousel and waved with wild abandon at everyone she recognized (Dan and Poppy on one side; her dad and grandma and grandpa Wells on the other side).
Here, you can see me, Evelyn, Lydia, and Bubby riding behind us.
Last night, to cap off a busy Saturday, we went to Todd Petersen's 42nd birthday. Apparently, he's been looking forward to this birthday since he was 16 and read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the first time and learned that "42" was the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. In any case, the grown-ups had fun talking with one another and the kids had fun running around together.
2 comments:
That line about being excited to turn 42 from the time he was 16 is hilarious. Sounds like a great guy to know.
Fun to read about your adventures!
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