First, I got stuck on tour. The 1st Annual BooMama Blog Tour of Homes! that is. Once I got started, it became a compelling quest to visit everyone. And I did, even though the list kept getting longer and longer. I tried to leave a comment at each home. Although I did grow a bit weary towards the end, I had such a nice time visiting everyone's home. What a great idea, BooMama!
Then, I got sucked into Vacation Bible School Land. For those of you who have been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about - it an all-week affair. Our church chooses to do VBS in the evenings because it allows many more adults to be involved in this ministry. For those of you familiar with it, we did Group's Fiesta VBS. It's a good curriculum - great music, exciting activities, excellent lessons on Bible foundations. Our church had around 50 children signed up and we ended up having over 70 attend! Our whole family was involved in some way or other for the week (Monday through Friday). My three boys were just attenders. Sweetanlo and Rummy were crew leaders, Pastormac was in charge of Hot Bible Adventure and I was the host of Chadder's Drive-in Theater. Because some of us were in leadership positions, we had to be there at 5:30PM and we usually didn't get home in until almost 10PM. What a terrific week, but by Friday we were all pretty worn out, due in part to Fiesta!
And due in part to Pastormac's older brother and his family coming to town for a visit. We haven't seen each other for 13 years! (That was several children go for both families.) Pastormac's brother, I'll call him The Professor and his wonderful wife WonderMom have 8 children - 4 boys and 4 girls, ranging in age from 20 down to 5. We all get along so well! We had a fantastic week together, laughing and talking, playing cards and games, and generally getting to know other again. It's been so fun watching all the cousins together. Our house was a flurry of activity all week long with 17 people enjoying sweet fellowship.
Pastormac's other brother had planned a family reunion for all of us. So early Monday morning we drove around 9 hours to Mt. Carmel, Utah. The drive was uneventful and mostly pleasant although at one gas station, we did have a restroom break with only one restroom stall available - it took nearly 1/2 an hour to get back on the road.
Here are some pictures of the scenery as we got closer to our destination. Amazingly, this was the nonscenic route! (The lake pictured is Lake Powell.)
PastorMac's mom, whom I just call Mom and his other brother, The Maestro, had already arrived when we got here. This is East Zion Riverside Lodge. And we have the whole place to ourselves.
Here's what we saw when we drove up. And while it looked OK, it didn't look like anything special.
When we got inside....WOW! We were pleasantly surprised. This is the view from just inside the front door looking into the great room toward the kitchen.
This is the living room and the kitchen and the view back toward the front door.
The lodge has bedrooms and bathrooms everywhere, but I'll only show the room we're staying in. Our family is all staying in one huge master suite and it doesn't even feel crowded. The unmade bed is the Sweetanlo and Rummy are sharing. Joe Cool and #1 Son each have a roll away and Shorty is sleeping happily on the couch.
Today we just relaxed around the lodge. The kids swam in our very own pool
and WonderMom and I went to the store to get groceries for all 19 of us! (We filled a shopping cart full to the brim.)I did get a chance to relax out back. What a view! And the sound of the Virgin River gurgling by was so peaceful.
Tomorrow we're going hiking in Zion National Park. It should be breath-taking, if these pictures are any indication. This is what we saw on our way to pick up pizza on the first night.
I expect that tomorrow I'll have even more pictures of why you should plan a trip to Utah. Check back then.
2 comments:
Thanks for the summary. After the flurry I lost track of where we were. This helped!
That scenery is breathtaking!
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