2021, May 31-June 6

We spent a week full of natural and state history excursions branching out from Cedar City into sites throughout southern Utah. We’re grateful for these kinds of trips that our parents took us on in our childhood. Thank you to our own parents for giving us the kinds of experiences we’re now hoping to pass on to our little ones!

We woke up pretty early on Memorial Day Monday to drive down toward St. George by way of some area historic sites. We drove down to Old Iron Town, a ghost town west of Cedar City. We encountered mosquitos, lizards, and snakes. We then tried taking what turned out to be a private gravel/dirt road toward our next destination, the Mountain Meadows Massacre Memorial, before we had to turn around and take the longer-but-quicker paved route. The memorial actually comprises four sites, where we learned about different aspects of the massacre and talked about how it was depicted by the descendants of those slain vs. the Utah settlers who killed the travelers. We continued on our history tour by continuing on to Pine Valley to see the historic Pine Valley Chapel, famous for its unique construction techniques. By this time it was getting long past lunchtime, so (as we hadn’t packed a lunch) we drove by Snow Canyon and stopped at Great-Granny O’s grave in Santa Clara before pushing on to get some cookies from Dutchman’s and grab a bite to eat at Lamy’s Mexican Grill before heading back to the motel. Landon has used Mom’s wifi while we have been on the road, and one time when it went out and caused the game he was playing on his iPod to freeze, he yelled, “Frozen Brawl Stars!” which thing Mike found funny, so it became a bit of a running gag whenever Landon lost wifi or became annoyed. Once we got back to the motel, it was back to the pool! 

Zoom in to see the snake that is right in front of Eliza's feet!

We saw this sign on the private road. Note the (hard to see) colon. Eliza asked, "What does 'Slow Deaf Dog' mean?" She thought deaf and death were the same word for a minute. Mike responded by saying there was a slow-moving deaf dog nearby. Lnndon then interpreted the sign to mean that a dog that causes death slowly was nearby. Meanwhile, Hallie (our driver) sensibly started driving more slowly. 

At the rebuilt cairn at Mountain Meadow

Pine Valley Chapel

At Great-Grandma's grave

Poor Fergus has wondered where we have gone. Our neighbors kindly looked out for him while we were out. He made himself a bed in the side yard. 

We let ourselves have a bit of a later start on Tuesday, as we were just going back to St. George. As it was the first of June, we of course had to make a Dutch Bros. run for stickers. We went by Great-Grandma and Grandma L.’s graves before going to Brigham Young’s winter home and office and then to Jacob Hamblin’s home in Santa Clara before doing a little shopping and returning to St. George for lunch at Farmstead Bakery. Mike found a funny video on YouTube from Conan O’Brien back in 2007 where he interviewed bread expert Steven Kaplan. It was a bit, um, suggestive. Anyway, Landon watched it too, and when we got to the bakery, one of the owners (?) gifted us a loaf of bread because he was from Michigan and saw Mike’s Detroit Tigers hat. We laughed our way through a critique of the loaf’s “attributes.”  From the bakery, we went to Dixie Nutrition (which, sadly, was closed on Monday) for frozen yogurt. It doesn’t have the same smell it used to. We returned from the blistering heat back to the relatively lower heat of Cedar City and the motel, where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing in the pool. Eliza got this plastic beach ball in an Arctic Circle kids meal, and we put it to great use playing games like monkey in the middle. 

There were many little bees (and some wasps) going about pollinating the abundant local flowers.

The aforementioned bread

And the fun beach ball

Mike had an online work meeting on Wednesday, so we again got a later start out the door (but more morning pool time!). We started at the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum and the Cedar City visitors center. We ran by Wal-Mart so Claire’s could finish the job Eliza started with piercing her ears before we returned home for some pool time and then a visit to Cedar Breaks in the afternoon and evening. After a windy drive up to Cedar Breaks, we saw the amphitheater and then went up to Brian Head Peak before parking in a dark place to stargaze. Mike and Eliza even saw a shooting star!  

While our trip to Zion was a bit of a bust, our Thursday trip to Bryce Canyon was full of beautiful vistas. We essentially spent the whole day driving there, taking in the views and hiking around, then driving back to the motel. We ended up retracing some of our trip and up to and past Cedar Breaks. Then it was back to the pool for rest for Dad’s legs and play time for the kiddos. 

Alas, after a week on the road, on Friday we had to head back home. Along the way, we stopped by Cove Fort and the Territorial Statehouse State Park Museum, both places where Mike’s side of the family has a bit of history. In Beaver, we stopped at the Creamery, and then in Santaquin Landon got his second COVID-19 shot. We got back to a Springville about as hot as St. George was earlier in the week. In early June. No bueno. 

This honey locust in bloom was particularly fragrant. 

The kids with a picture of some ancestors

Saturday was mostly spent at home. The kids played with friends in the morning and early afternoon (Landon online and Eliza with neighbor kids), and Hallie got her hair done. In the evening Eliza and Hallie went to Creekside for a picnic and some horseback riding. What started as a seemingly small fall from May, a horse Eliza has ridden many a time, became a big scare when about an hour later Eliza started complaining of pain in her side. Hallie took her over to the ER, where she received an IV, X-ray, and CT scan due to the doctor’s concern that she may have injured her spleen. Fortunately, she came back with a clean bill of health, some late-night In-N-Out Burger, and a story to tell.