Memorial Day

Our Memorial day was filled with visiting loved ones who had passed, and enjoying the beauty of nature.

We took a trip to Cedar City with Ryan's parents and started our day off right by going to Ron's favorite store, Walmart, (I should have taken a picture) to buy flowers.


The Cedar City Cemetery was our first official stop. This was a special stop for us and the kids because Tamra's sister and parents are buried there. Joseph and Grandpa McArthur had a special bond before he passed and Joseph still calls him his best buddy.

After we finished cleaning and decorating the graves we headed up Cedar Canyon on our way to Orderville. Tamra informed Ron (the driver) that she wanted to take pictures of stuff so she could try to get one in her company calender next year. So if she saw a "Money Shot" she would let him know and he was to pull over immediately. Since we were stopping anyway I decided to grab a few "Money Shots" of my own. By the end of the day Ron was so tired of back seat driving that I think he parked in the stickers on purpose. (We did get some good pictures)

The weather was starting to turn, but we were hoping to maybe hike the Bristle cone pine trail. Unfortunately when we got up there it was covered in snow and snow was still falling from the sky. So we headed on our way (after Tamra got a couple of Money Shots). By the time we got to duck creek the snow had stopped for a few minutes and we decided this would be a good place for the kids to get out. They had fun throwing the pine cones in the water and Joe kept saying what a fun hike we were on, even though we could still see the road.

Our next stop was pretty cool it is called Hidden Lake. When Ron was eight his church building had been torn down and the new building was not finished yet, so he was baptized in Hidden Lake.

Ron Grew up in Orderville and both of his parents are buried there. The Cemetery was really neat because they had put flag poles by all of the War Veteran's headstones. I don't think that Joseph realized that he had been named after Ron's dad, because he wasn't sure what to think of seeing his name on a headstone. Especially since he knew that meant you were dead. But after we explained it to him he was OK. This was a smaller cemetery and a very old one. It was neat to see headstones of pioneers. Some were so worn you could barley read them and you could tell that a lot of the older ones were homemade.

We stopped for lunch at a Cafe at Mt Carmel Junction, and then headed into Zion. Where we went on the Overlook Hike. It wasn't very long but you walked on the edge of some pretty steep cliffs. They had put up some nice railings so it wasn't too dangerous for the kids. On the way up Grandpa pointed out an Indian Paint Brush flower to Joe. Joe turned to Grandpa and said "this isn't a hike it's an adventure!" It was a pretty hike all the way up and I got quite a few Money Shots on it.

Emily loves the out doors and the whole trip she kept suggesting that someone should take her camping. She had also brought her camera and was having fun getting money shots. Josh enjoyed the hike but he was carried 90% of the time. More for safety reasons than anything else.



We ended our day with a stop at the Toquerville Cemetery to put some flowers on Ron's Brother Grave.


It was a nice day and we all had a good time, but the next morning it wasn't hard to see that the boys were ready to go home. After breakfast they got comfortable in the car and waited for someone to drive them home.