Well I think it's safe to say that the last month has been hectic and stressful enough to justify me not writing for a few weeks...... or not? Sorry in advance - this is going to be an extremely long post!!!
Post 9 - After my Grandmas funeral, we had about a week and then it was off to Utah and Arizona with my parents and sister Mary (Poor Andrew was still in school so he had to stay behind!). We drove down to Cardston Friday night and got in around 10-10:30ish. We decided Grandpa would probably already be in bed, so we went to bed too. Saturday we drove the rest of the way to Cedar Hills where we would be staying with my aunt and uncle. We got there pretty late (due to the amount of shopping that was done on the way!) and heard from uncle Jim that Grandpa had been admitted into the hospital for an x-ray and checkup. He hadn't been eating well the past few days, and they thought he might be getting pneumonia. We all thought it wasn't serious. Sunday after church we were driving over to see the family (the Mackys) Amy stayed with during her last transfer, when we got a phone call that Grandpa had passed away peacefully just moments before. What a shock! We drove up to the families house (they knew of Grandmas passing, since my mom and sister Macky are friends on facebook) and sister Macky is already crying on the front step just going on about how much she loved Amy and how she is such a great missionary! We go inside and sister Macky decides to call Amy, and asks if we'd like to talk to her - my mom says "actually we just got the phone call that my Dad passed away on the drive over here!" So then we all pretty much started crying, and Amy didn't answer. So a few minutes later Sister Macky tries again and this time she hands the phone to my mom and Amy had left sacrament meeting to answer the phone - she said "oh it's you! I thought someone had died!" She was a little bit surprised when mom said that actually, Grandpa had! We all had a chance to talk to her on the phone, and it was nice to her her voice! She told us that the next day her and her companion had to go to the Target in Jordan Landing, and that they would be there around 12pm..... good to know! That night it was all stressful for my mom and her siblings to try and decide when the funeral would be. We wanted it the Friday after the coming Friday so we could still have our holiday, but no one else was on board with that. My poor mom got steamrollered and the funeral was to be in less than a week. Our holiday plans were to spend Monday shopping, drive down to Arizona Tuesday, hike down to the Supai Indian Reservation (on the borders of the Grand Canyon) Wednesday (we had reservations for the Havasu Lodge for Wednesday and Thursday nights, which are really hard to come by and it was a miracle we even got those ones - my mom called for days hoping for cancellation!), spend Thursday hiking to the different falls, and the hike out (or fly out by helicopter) Friday. Then drive to Phoenix and relax! I was supposed to be flying home from Phoenix earlier and my parents and Mary would have the rest of the week to do mission stuff, etc. Luckily my moms cousin is the accountant for the tribe and he was able to pull some strings and get us in to the lodge early, as well as getting us out on the helicopter so that we could still do the hike and make it to the funeral.
Post 10 - Monday morning was when we found out all this was going to be possible. Up until then we thought we were just going to have to scrap the whole trip! Even though we were supposed to be driving down to Arizona that day, we still had some things to do like drop off a package for Amy at the mission home and go shopping at the Target at Jordan Landing! We somehow managed to run into Amy and her comp there - completely out of the blue! We took them to Kneaders (a soup, salad and sandwich place) and it was really fun to see her! Her comp that she has now is her favourite (unlike some crazies she has had in the past!) so she is doing really well and is really happy.
We drove down to Arizona that night and stayed in a hotel a few hours away from the start of the hike. Bright and early Tuesday morning we drove to the edge of the canyon and started our hike down. It was nice to be headed down when we were passing all the really tired people on their way up! It was a fairly long hike - 8 miles down but the scenery was gorgeous!!
We got down to the town and it was seriously like some of the third world country towns I've been to in my travels. Everything was pieced together and the roads dirt and full of ruts with animal pens everywhere. Then you look off to the right and there is this pristine white LDS church set nicely against the red rock - what a surprise! We checked into the lodge, then decided to hike down to the first falls another mile down the trail, The Navajo Falls. They were gorgeous!!!
There is a first set of larger falls, then smaller falls that fall down to another larger falls. That's a bad description I know, just look at the pictures and you'll wee what I mean! After exploring a bit we hiked back up to the town and got some snacks from the little shop there for dinner (it was a sad dinner, but the cafe isn't open very late and we missed it!)
The next morning we ate at the cafe, and because everything has to be either hauled down by mules or on the helicopter, it was ridiculously expensive and very deep fried. Deep fried pancakes do not make you feel good... We started down to the falls (I wasn't very clear with my "falls explanation" so here it is - there are 4 falls starting a mile down from Supai town - Navajo Falls (1 mile away), Havasu Falls (1 1/2 miles), Mooney Falls (2 1/2 miles) and Beaver Falls (6 miles - we didn't go all the way to these ones) before Havasu creek enters into the Colorado river. The water is this really nice teal colour from the minerals in the water and it provides a really beautiful setting with the red rock in the background. We wanted to get to the furthest falls first and then work our way backwards, so to Mooney Falls we went! As it turns out, to get to Mooney Falls you had to crawl through caves and hang onto cables - and I've done this before on hikes, but this was something special!
I chickened out going right down to the falls. It was just Mary and I at this point anyways, my parents having chickened out before getting to the cave, but it was just freaky! Mary was quite upset that I wouldn't go further, but I think secretly she was scared too because I encouraged her to go all the way down and she wouldn't! She claimed it was because she didn't want to go alone, but I know better! You could still get a really nice view of the falls from above, so I don't feel too bad about not going all the way down to the bottom! We headed back up to Havasu Falls where we ate lunch and went "swimming" in the falls. The water was freezing and the spray from the falls made it not too tempting to stay in long!
We hiked a little ways up a side canyon to a quartz mine some people told us about and it was really neat! We only had one flashlight, but you could see the old cart rails and the wooden beams holding up the rock. Then it was up again to Navajo falls. I'm not going to lie - these ones were my favourite! The water was so clear and Mary convinced me to go swimming in the upper falls - it was WAY nicer than swimming at Havasu Falls! If you ever go there, swim at Navajo.
We were once again too late to eat at the cafe, so we tried to rush to another little restaurant on the other side of the town, but it was closed too (they close at like 6pm!) So we ended up eating frozen food from the convenience store that we almost didn't get because they closed at 7! No late nights down in that canyon! Unless you want to stay up to see the full moon! It was very bright and reflected off the canyon walls.
Thursday morning we went out to wait for the helicopter with the hoards of other people trying to get out on the heli. Lucky for us cousin Jim hooked us up and we got out on the first flight (and for free! It usually costs like $80!)
My first helicopter ride - it only lasted about 3 minutes, but it was still exciting!
My first helicopter ride - it only lasted about 3 minutes, but it was still exciting! We drove up to Utah that night and got in pretty late. Friday morning we squeezed in some last minute shopping before heading back up to Canada.
Saturday was my Grandpas funeral. It was a great service and he was an amazing man! It was commented many times "I didn't know Zelma had so much pull in heaven to bring Bob up there so quickly!" And I really think she had a lot to do with it - Grandpa wasn't really sick at all before he died. He'll do a lot more good up there than down here.
Post 11 - There isn't much to say in this week, the only exciting thing that happened was that I had my first ultrasound! What? What's that - you're probably asking? Is she pregnant? Why yes! Yes I am! It was a dating ultrasound, and we saw the little bean. As of tomorrow (April 21, 2013) I'll be 14 weeks, which is (I've heard) second trimester and the "safe zone" to start telling people. So now you know! It was also General Conference, which is always nice to listen to, and my mom, Mary and I went to my friend Shannons U of A mixed choral concert, which was good.
Post 12 - This week consisted mostly of me doing whatever Mary wanted. It involved a lot of me helping her pick out clothes to take and which ones from there she wanted to wear at the MTC. Fashion is very important for sister missionaries. The Friday before she left we spent the whole day together, I took her to IHOP for breakfast and we ran errands and all that fun stuff. Later that night we went to Andrews friends Daniels house to play games and eat yummy food. Daniel sure knows how to feed us! Sunday was Marys farewell talk, and she did a really good job! We had a bunch of relatives over for lunch and visiting afterwards, which is always a good time!
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| Texas cake Shannon made - San Antonio! |
Post 13 - Monday I helped Mary pack (She was understandably a stress case!) and she got set apart that night. Andrew and I stayed over at my parents that night and we all went over to the airport the next morning at 5:40am to see her off. We stayed until her little blonde head disappeared through to customs. And she's gone for the next 18 months! I'm kinda sad, and miss her. Andrew and I did our April date just today (Friday). Now I have a little bit of explaining to do, we DIDN'T do our date last month! I'm quite sad about it, but everything last month was just a gong show and I was gone literally every weekend. We did sort of manage a makeshift date where we met at the mall and got special chips and dippin dots (which I had a groupon for that was about to expire).... so that counts right? Anyways, back to today - we went to the Rutherford house for Tea and Scones! Its this old historic house right down by the University that has a little restaraunt in it, so since Andrew was over there studying for his last final, we thought it would be a perfect break for him! (And yes, I planned that when I made April the Tea House month!) It was great! For once I was glad it was snowing in April (gorgeous, huge, fat flakes) because it made it seem all cozy and perfect tea drinking weather. We got the Pear Cream Herbal Tea with scones. They came with the most delicious raspberry butter - so good! We got to use cute teacups and a cute little teapot - it was a great date and very relaxing!
And there we have it! All caught up!
(You're probably thinking "well it's about time!" But there was a lot to catch up on!)
