My Dad's House

A little over a week ago now, we headed south for a great roadtrip to a dear friend's wedding in Sante Fe. On the way we stopped by my dad's house. My dad lives in Glendale, UT just outside of Zion, on the east side with his wife Peggy and all of their animals. They've lived there for about 5 years now, ever since my pops retired. They have a cute little fixer-up on a small piece of property. They have rabits and chickens and 3 gardens... great little spot for them. Peggy works for Best Friends Animal Rescue/Shelter. What a gig! Best Friends has like 300,000 acres dedicated to all sorts of animals. She brings home animals all the time... ducks, tons of miniature dogs, birds, etc. My dad still drives life-sized tonka trucks to keep himself busy during the week.

It was a great time. I haven't seen my dad in over 3 years... before I went to Germany... a sad truth. Daniel only remembers my dad from the days of our high school love hiatus, and since I didn't live with my dad back then, it was a lot of fun for them to actually meet and hang out as "men." We got there SUPER late on Day 1 of our trip... around 12:30am. Stayed up til about 2:30am having some beers and shooting the breeze while watching one amazing lightening storm.

Day 2- we had a hearty breakfast (that's what you do when you're at my dad's, you eat A LOT) then packed up the cooler, grabbed some guns, and loaded the dogs up. Peggy and my dad took the dogs in the LandCruiser, while Daniel and I followed on the 4-wheelers. We were out in the sparse (and HOT) southern Utah wilderness for most of the day looking for arrowheads, shooting guns, and having beers. On the way back, the good ol' LandCruiser had a little trouble with the heat so Daniel had to pull with his wheeler while I pushed with mine...

Pics- we came across some horses on the open range... then Daniel trying to teach Timber to ride on the back of his 4-wheeler... then I had to take a break to get the towing picture...

After we finally made it back, Will & Jess showed up shortly thereafter. Quite the family reunion, since I haven't seen them for about 4 years... They live in Fargo (yup, Fargo...). They're both in the final stretch of their PhD's (nerds!). Willy in Zoology and Jess in History.

Day 3- again, we ate a ton of food to start the day, then we headed into Zion NP. I haven't hiked in the park since I was in 8th grade, so it was so fun to see it all again up close. Daniel had never been to Zion, and since I'm a National Park NERD, I was so excited for him to see Zion. It's one of my favorites. We didn't do the hike that I really wanted to do (Angels Landing), which was probably a good thing since it was 100+ degrees out. We did an easy hike that we were able to just enjoy and take a lot of pics on. After the park, we spent some time with the extended family... grandma, uncles, cousins, etc. Again, none of us ever see each other and do a VERY POOR job at staying in touch, so it was fun to catch up. Exhausting day... so headed back for some shut eye before packing up and getting out early for Sante Fe... a 9+ hour drive southeast...

Pics- Will is a nerd with a big camera... Daniel and I with some beautiful red cliffs in the background (can't wait to go back and EXPLORE more)... the canyon sections were so beautiful, and everything was so green, very unusual for southern Utah... and the gang...