Celebration of Pioneers and Rain

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."  ~Meister Eckhart

Kourtni, Grace and Ally

 We had a "memorable" summer reunion at Panguitch Lake this year over the July 24th holiday.  Cori & Jesse came up from Phoenix, Damien & Danielle came up from Hurricane, Arianne and her little boys came up from Enoch, Brittany and Cori came from West Point and Ray and I from Elk Ridge.  E & M, T & B had to cancel at the last minute (did you have a premonition it was going to rain???)  We had a lovely large group campsite where the kids could ride bikes to their hearts content in a fairly quiet area.

A few of our beautiful grandchildren . . . translates - lots of cousins to play with

Grammie and Eden

Our plan was to cook lots of Dutch Oven meals . . .but upon our arrival, we found out that not only campfires were not allowed, but charcoal was outlawed as well!  We were so grateful to have the trailer and our campstove to cook on  and with a little finagling recipes and a little black on some edges, most of our meals turned out edible and some were right down delicious!
We got everyone's campsites set up Friday night and it rained . . . we hung everything out to dry Saturday morning . . . and it rained.  The sun came out, so we headed down to the lake . . . and it rained.  I have been camping for sixty years and never remember a time when it rained so much!

Eden, Grace (doing her comedy routine), Grant (doing push-ups) Ally, Ashton and Kourtni

 Since it was raining most of the time . . . we got to spend lots of time with the grandkids in the trailer - it was  never dull!

We tried our hand at fishing at Panguitch lake and a few of the kids put their toes in the water

Damien, Jacob, Danielle and Mason

Jacob working on some Scout merit badges

Cory, Sydni, Kourtni, Ashton and Damien

A Berenstain Bears moment . . .And now Cory will demonstrate what you should not do in a canoe . . .

Eden and Jesse

 I loved this photo of Eden in action . . . it looks like she's got a great arm there . . . maybe a future softball champ?

Sydni

 "Rain, rain go away

Come again some other day . . ."

 It was lovely and sunny . . . for a few minutes . . . and then it poured . . .  but we made the most of the sunshine moments in between . . . we went on bike rides, canoeing, fishing, played a few games, hiked a little.  On Sunday, when we went to church, we felt a little guilty to hear all the prayers of gratitude for the rain, that was such an answer to their prayers.  Well, I am (somewhat begrudgingly) grateful for the rain as well, I grew up on a farm and know how much it is needed!  But on this trip I felt even more thankful for the sunshine in between!

 Deciding to get out of the rain for a bit, we drove over to Bryce Canyon to do a little hiking . . .  Bryce Canyon is beautiful and is one of my favorite places to visit. We hiked the Navajo Trail down to Wall Street and on around to the Queen's Garden and back up to Sunset Point.  

The views are breath taking !

Grace, Charlie, James, Hunter, Ashton and Grant

Our Jr. Rangers all got their badges . . . they also were able to see a rattle snake curled and defending his territory. I felt most grateful for the kind gentleman who pointed the snake out as he was hiding just behind a bench we were sitting on and in a place where children would naturally love to play.

 We hiked back up to our cars and had a picnic . . . and it rained!  So we finished eating, (in the rain) then decided to drive on through the park.

Ray and I  at Natural Bridge

Eden, Grace, Ashton and Grant

Grace and Charlie

One of the views at Rainbow Point

Papa Ray with Charlie, Hunter and Grace

Grace, Hunter, Charlie, James and Ashton

 Thanks to Jesse for all of these photos from Bryce Canyon . . . my camera got caught, yes you guessed it - "in the rain" and was drying out in a bowl of rice.

All of us at Rainbow Point

"And there's so much to be thankful for . . ."

We got back to camp and celebrated birthdays!  Damien, Jesse, Sydni, Cory, and Irene all have birthdays this week!  By Monday morning everyone was a little tired of damp, cold, wet, soggy everything . . . so we packed up and headed to the condo in St George, to warm up and dry out.  We stopped in Enoch on the way to help Arianne and Will pack up their U-Haul for their move up to Salt Lake. Oh, the warmth of the St George sunshine and a warm shower~ that is one camping trip that we will laugh about for a long time!