Vacation

We just spent part of last week visiting my sister, Lori and her family in Bicknell, Utah. It was a long drive -- took us 8+ hours, but that was because Jim was trying to conserve gas and get better gas mileage by driving only 60 mph. Eh -- like I said a long drive, but after calculating the savings, Jim decided it wasn't worth the extra time, so I'm happy to say the return trip was only 7 hours! :)

Anyway, we had a good time. Bicknell is a very small town in southcentral Utah (about 45 minutes south of Richfield) near Capitol Reef. It was picturesque, surrounded by red hills and farmland. Surprisingly, though, the town is at an elevation of about 7000 feet, but there are no pines and as we drove up the summit to 8000 feet, the hills were covered in sagebrush -- huh? We couldn't figure that out, since Arizona has pines in all the high country. We did find some, though, by Fishlake park and some other areas we visited in the mountains.

We visited Sevenmile Creek on Thursday and had a picnic and the kids played in the creek nearby. That evening the town/ward had a little Pioneer Day parade with the Primary kids walking/riding to a park nearby, then they served dinner to everyone afterwards at the park. It was fun. They had good food and lots of it, and activities for the kids. At the end of the party, they had a fish catch -- a trough was set up on the ground, about a foot deep and 10-15 feet long and they filled it with fresh trout to swim in. The young kids all lined up on the sides and tried to catch them with their hands; whoever caught one could take it home. It was pretty popular with the parents all lined up watching and shouting at their kids as they tried to catch a fish.

It was interesting to watch -- there were all sizes of fish, big and medium and small -- I almost felt sorry for them, because there was no way to escape, though they swam back and forth amidst the little hands grabbing at them and squealing. West and Aaron caught several; I think Brynna might have tried at first till she got splashed by a fish and then she was done with that. Kira was busy playing on park equipment and didn't realize what was going on till it was all over and then she didn't want to leave, but wanted to stay and try to catch a fish. It was a fun evening, but tiring after a long day.

Then Friday we stayed at Lori's house and played games all day -- mostly Scattegories and Scrabble. Jim replaced the brake pads on our van as they were practically grinding the day before -- we were lucky they had a place in town to purchase some. The kids spent most of the time in the basement with their cousins watching movies all day -- not a normal activity for them, but it did keep them out of our hair!

Saturday we went to Pine Creek and Shawn and others hiked to a reservoir nearby and caught some fresh trout for us to eat! Yum! Kids had a good time romping around with cousins and we made a campfire and roasted marshmallows also. Then Sunday we went to Lori's ward in the morning and then spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Lori gave haircuts to Kate, Brynna, Lissy, me (Sher), and Annie (who I forgot to mention was also visiting Lori at the same time -- Dave & Annie and Daniel). And then Monday morning we packed up and headed home.

I took a lot of pictures of scenic views on the way home -- unfortunately, they're out the window views as we didn't make any more stops than needed!

Anyway, we had a really good time at Lori's. She always made wonderful meals: alfredo with garlic bread, homemade pizza (probably the best homemade pizza I've every had!) were some of the highlights. Shawn made pancakes and eggs for us on two of the mornings. Anyway, we ate really well and I'm sure I've gained a few pounds from the trip.

So, we're back home and I'm back to packing up the house to get ready to move in 2 weeks!


At Sevenmile Creek - Kate, Brynna, West


Sevenmile Creek


Sevenmile Creek - West, Kira, Alayna, Aaron


At Pine Creek - Lissy


Pine Creek - Destiny, Alayna, Brynna, Kate


Capitol Reef


Capitol Reef


On Hwy 261 -- we came to the edge of a mountain and the highway turned into a narrow dirt road that switchbacked to the bottom and this was the view from the road on top. Very cool.