A Visit to the Mile High City

We spent 10 pleasant days in Denver, bookended by David’s birthday on August 18 and David and Jan’L’s 19^th wedding anniversary on August 26.  When we left St. George for our 24-hour round trip, the car was filled to the brim with Jan’L’s favorite hometown goodies, including a dozen loaves of Grandma Sycamore bread (safe for Kole’s allergies), a gallon of Wild Coyote ranch dressing and another of Wild Coyote salsa; two dozen orange rolls from Grandma Tobler’s and a new faucet for the kitchen sink!  Jan’L had already left for her nephew Matthew’s wedding in Southern California when we got there, so Saturday was spent playing with the boys at Heritage Square where we enjoyed the alpine slide, Disney-esque tea cups and taking lots of pictures.  On Sunday we were blessed to witness Kaler passing the Sacrament and were pleased to see David can still wear the suit he bought at the time of their wedding.  He is keeping himself slim and trim – despite consuming a healthy serving of birthday cake and ice cream after opening his gifts - a gun safe from M/D and an assortment of carefully selected gifts from his wife and children.

 

During the week, while the boys were in school – Kaler is a freshman in high school, Kole is in middle school and Kyle, a 2^nd grader who reads at a 5^th grade level – we explored the sights around Denver.  On Tuesday we traveled to Estes Park / Rocky Mountain National Park (luckily, Dad had his Golden Eagle pass in his wallet) including the beautiful – and haunted – Stanley Hotel which was the inspiration for “The Shining” one of hundreds of ghost story novels by Stephen King. 

 

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Ed and I played tourists in the “Mile High City.”  We attended a session at the Denver Temple but almost didn’t get in because we couldn’t find a parking place.   Ironically, the Fort Collins Temple groundbreaking was being held on the same day. No question Colorado needs another temple. 

We went to the Denver Art Museum which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Everything I saw made me smile!

On Thursday, Jan’L flew off to Tennessee for another long weekend with her family at the Nascar races – leaving us to ride herd on the boys while David worked.

 

On Saturday, we loaded the boys up for a “mystery trip” to the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum (Jan’L thought it was a “boy trip” anyway so didn’t mind missing out).  The boys ooooed and aaaaahed at the big planes, the little planes, the old planes, the new planes, the toy planes and the simulators!  It was a pretty expensive day, but worth it to see how excited they all were.

Intermittently throughout the week, we helped with homework and with Kaler's preparation for his Sunday School lesson, played Monopoly (Kaler beat us all by a substantial margin), had some good conversation with our oldest son, did a steady stream of dishes, enjoyed breakfast for dinner and a hobo dinner on the backyard grill and had a couple of movie nights (Hachi, 42, Epic …) with David’s famous carmel corn.

 

When it came time to leave for home, the boys all cried.  “A good sign,” David said as we waved goodbye … but I’m not sure he meant because the kids were sorry to see us go or because when he said it, we were backing out of his driveway!

My New Handyman

Our summer has been busy with lots of travel and visitors, work and volunteering, projects around the house and yard work.  We’ve ushered at Tuacahn a half dozen times, chaired the ward Pioneer Day Picnic at Pine Valley, bottled the harvest from our garden and socialized with many family and friends – all in our usual triple digit Dixie summer weather.  In the middle of it all and as part of our ongoing efforts to update our 22+ year old house, Ed checked into hiring a craftsman to lay tile in our three bathrooms and the laundry room.  The cost was exorbitant so he decided to do it himself!  With absolutely no experience but with good advice from Stacy’s husband Rick and our son David on laying out the 12” tiles, he dove into the project.  I must admit I was very skeptical.  He has always been a “suit” so I just couldn’t imagine he could successfully turn into a tradesman … but despite the effort of getting up and down a hundred times and having aching knee joints, he did a wonderful job and our bathrooms and laundry room now look amazing!  In addition, we saved more than $1000 in labor!  Not bad for a retired banker whose hue and cry is always, “I’d rather be golfing!”

Cedar Mountain High!

On August 2, we took the old camper to the top of Cedar Mountain where members of my Rotary club and their families met for our annual summer party at Jack and Louise Petersen’s summer cabin at Swain’s Creek – about a 200 mile round trip from St. George.  The party was scheduled for Saturday but we decided to beat the rush and go up on Friday so we could ride the ATV’s and enjoy the peaceful, serene beauty of the area sans the crowd milling around.

Jack brought out his four ATV’s and took us for a ride through the Dixie National Forest ending at what they refer to as “Little Bryce” on the backside of Bryce Canyon National Park (see photos).  While riding, Jack led the way while Louise helped Ed turn his ATV around on a narrow trail.  I was on my ATV in the middle of the pack.  Apparently Jack’s ATV caused enough ground motion that when I came along the trail a few minutes later I was the “final straw.”  I noticed some movement on the right side of the trail … and suddenly a good sized tree fell over across the trail missing me by about 2 feet.   Jack said he had heard of such a thing, but in the 18 years they have been riding through the forest, he had never actually witnessed it.

With Rotarians and their families – numbering nearly 40 men, women and children - we enjoyed a spectacular view, comfortable temperatures, ATV rides, horseshoes, volleyball and badminton, a live country-western band, a fabulous meal and the chance to hang out with friends. 

After dinner, but before the sun went down, about a dozen couples on 4-wheelers headed out for an hour long evening ride along Muddy Creek for the perfect ending to a perfect day!