Remembering my Childhood at Canyonlands National Park

Every once in a while an individual has one of those moments that both connects them with their childhood and prepares them to face the future. Yesterday was one of those days for me. Bryce and I decided to go on a short childless adventure. We left the kids at Grandma and Grandpa Royer's house (thanks Mom and Dad!), filled our van with the essentials to turn it into a tent for a night, and took a nice little drive to visit Canyonlands National Park. Oldly enough, although I grew up roughly 75 miles south of this nationally recognized landmark, I had never visited it before. So finally, with a willing husband, as an adult I finally visited this place that people come from all over the world to see.

In a way, visiting Canyonlands felt like I was coming home. The red and white sandstone, fields of sagebrush, juniper and pinon pine trees, and prickly pear cactus all transported me to memories of my childhood mornings spent exploring Westwater Canyon with my dog, Goldie. Then, as now, I loved scaling the rocky pathways, scouting for signs of wildlife, and stopping to enjoy the spring desert blooms. Only this time I had my husband with me and I could share this adventure and memories of my childhood with him.

Mostly because it was the closest to my parents' house and because it has more campgrounds than the northern area, we chose to visit the southern part of Canyonlands, called the Needles District. It's named for the spire-like rock formations that are a major feature in this region. This park isn't as well developed as the other national parks that I've been to, but therein lies the charm. We were able to spend more time looking at the natural beauty of the land rather than looking at people, campgrounds, or buildings.

After we found our campsite for the night, we decided to do the four smaller hikes in the Needles District of Canyonlands. Our first stop was the Roadside Ruin. It was a short walk down to an ancient grainery built under an outcropping of sandstone. This was one of the ways that the ancient peoples that lived in this region of the world would store their food.

Next we hiked the Cave Spring Trail. This trail takes you down into a canyon where cowboys in the late 1800s and early 1900s would find water and shelter while herding their catrle. We saw some artifacts depicting a cowboy camp, experienced the cool cave-like environment that you find under a sandstone outcropping, saw a cave where water seeped out and was a water source for ancient and modern peoples (as seen by the pictographs on the wall), climbed wooden ladders, and saw some amazing views.

The Pothole Point Trail brought back a lot of childhood memories. The potholes are mini ecosystems that come to life when it rains. They reminded me of the pools that I would observe in the springtime as a child. I loved watching the tadpoles come to life and slowly trasform into baby toads. It's a cycle of life that is unique to arid climates, but that is part of my past.

Our final and longest hike of the day was the Slickrock Foot Trail. This trail reminded me of the many, many hours that I spent hiking the sandstone trails and canyons near the houses that I grew up in. I would wander in those canyons for hours on end, daydreaming and contemplating the universe. There weren't very many people on this trail when we were and it was nice to be secluded and surrounded by nature. The vistas along this trail were beautiful and we could see for miles and miles in every direction.

All throughout the park and along the trails was evidence that this land that looks so barren is actually teaming with life. I loved seeing all of the spring blossoms, the lizards, chipmunks, cottontail rabbits, and birds. Very few of them would stay still long enough for me to pull out my camera, but I was fast enough to catch these two lizards before they scurried away.

After our hikes, we took a drive back outside the park to Newspaper rock. This is a large rock wall covered with petroglyphs from many different peoples. It is always interesting to me how peoples of all ages want to be heard and remembered. Ancient peoples wrote on walls, modern day people write blogs or post on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The highlight of the day occured in the evening after we had gotten back to camp. A small rainstorm was blowing through the park and that gave us the opportunity to see an amazingly bright rainbow. It lasted for a good 15 minutes and gave us plenty of time to get some pictures of this amazing reminder of whose land this really is. We may be able to hike the trails, enjoy the vistas, and make the land our home for a time, but it is really God who is control. He planned the many miracles that make it possible for life to not only survive, but flourish in a land so barren and beautiful.

Baby Max

In early October, my brother Benny and his wife, Kayla had a little baby boy - Maxwell Bruce Royer.  The first weekend of December we got to go down to his blessing in Cedar City.  Although Bryce and I have 10 nieces and nephews, Max's was only the second baby blessing that I was able to go to.  It was very nice to be able to share this time with Benny & Kayla on Max's important day.

Since we have a time-share in St. George that we hadn't stayed at yet, we decided to make a whole weekend out of it.  We went down with Nita and Emily on Friday night, spent the day there Saturday while we we joined for the afternoon by Benny & Kayla, and my Dad, Mom and sister, Mary.  We played ping-pong, watched a few movies, had a delicious steak dinner, soaked in the hot tub and thoroughly enjoyed our stay.  

On Sunday we went back up to Cedar City for Max's baby blessing and a luncheon at Kayla's aunt's house.  

Thanks Benny & Kayla for such a wonderful weekend! It was a whole lot of fun spending two weekends in a row with my family. The holidays are a wonderful time to be with family.

Family Visit for Thanksgiving

We had a really fun trip to Blanding for Thanksgiving.  We packed up our little family of 5 plus Grandma & Grandpa Christensen and drove down to Blanding. Once we were there we met up with a good chunk of my family: Danny, Aleena, Memphis, and Kayzee, Grandma & Grandpa Royer, Aunts Nita, Emily, and Mary.  The whole time that we were there the kids had a whole lot of fun together.  They spent hours playing outside and enjoyed every single minute of it.

We had the typical delicious Thanksgiving fare, plus lots of yummy pie, and even birthday cake for Nita's birthday on the 27th.

We even took some pictures of those that we got to spend this wonderful weekend with.

We were grateful for the opportunity to spend this time with family. After spending seven years in the Midwest, with only occasional visits home, we appreciate the holidays and visits that we get to spend with our family.  Thank you Mom and Dad for your hospitality.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Christensen for traveling down with us. And thank you, all of you, for helping us make memories that will last us a lifetime.

A Girl's Day Out

My girls and I had a fun outing today.  It started at Weber State University. We had gone to Bryce's work to help him with a couple of things, and then we took a walk to the pond to feed the ducks and geese. MayLynn had fun throwing bits of bread at the ducks, river had fun eating her bits of bread, and I managed to only get bit twice as the geese ate bread from my hand.

Next, we explored the Browning Center.  The girls really liked the giant Christmas Tree and the Nutcracker statue. MayLynn had to hold the "giant man's" hand to get her picture taken :).

Next we went shopping for parts for Bryce's birthday present (more about that later . . . ) and then we found a new park to play at until it was time to pick up Owen from school.

I had a lot of fun playing with my girls and I look forward to many more such days. They are both growing up so fast and I want to enjoy their time being little as long as I can.

Halloween Tricks & Treats

We had two days of Halloween this year.  On Friday Owen got to wear his costume to school and the girls and I got to go see him march in his costume parade.

Then that evening we all got dressed up, as Super Girl, an Army Man, and a Cute Little Butterfly, and went to a theater party at one of the other WSU Theatre faculty's house.

We even got a chance to pose for a picture as a whole family.

For Saturday, Halloween itself, we had the normal list of events on the schedule: reverse trick-or-treating to the university, visiting family and friends, our ward trunk-or-treat, and trick or treating in our neighborhood. But Saturday didn't happen as planned. Bryce had a weekend work call at the school, so we took him to work and then came home and got dressed up in our day costumes (a Ballerina, Jedi Knight, and Cinderella) to go hand out cookies and candy at Bryce's work at lunch time. Just as we were packed up and ready to go, I got a phone call to go meet Bryce at the the McKay Dee Hospital's Emergency Room because he had been hurt at work. So, instead of going to the University, we went to the hospital to meet Bryce.

Once we got there I found out that he had received an electric shock while unplugging his welder in the shop and had passed out for a couple of minutes.  They took him to the ER to make sure that he was okay since it was a work-related injury.  Once he was there they ran a few tests, and although everything seemed okay they were worried about some numbness in his right arm and the right side of his face, as well as having some concern about his passing out after the shock. So they transported him by ambulance (so they could monitor his heart and other vitals) down to the University of Utah Hospital to be checked out by burn specialists to make sure that he didn't have any internal injuries and that his heart was okay.

While Bryce was being transported down to Salt Lake, I packed up the kids and took them to Grandma Allen's for the evening, and headed down to meet up with Bryce at the hospital.  Once there, I found him resting in one of the trauma rooms. He said that he had quite the experience when he got to the hospital.  After an uneventful drive down from Ogden, he and the paramedic that transported him arrived at the hospital.  When they came into the emergency wing of the hospital they were surprised to find a whole trauma team waiting for him since McKay Dee had labeled him as needing burn treatment after an electric shock.  Although his injuries were minor, Bryce was checked out by the trauma team as they all joked about the lack of severity of his condition.  They made sure that he didn't have any internal injuries and monitored him for a couple of hours to make sure that the shock didn't disrupt any of his body's autonomous functions. Then he was released and we were able to go back to Kaysville to pick up the kids from Grandma Allen's house.

The kids had been having a good time with Grandma. They played out side a bit, watched a couple of movies, and then they all went trick-or-treating (back in their costumes from the previous evening). When we got there they were glad to have Daddy back (as was I!), and we made it back home late last night.  Now this morning we are all taking it easy and recovering from yesterday.  We're very glad to be back home together after a very scary and memorable Halloween.