Sunrise at Grand Canyon - Bryce Canyon - Reunion Arrival

Mister crawls out of bed early in the morning to sit and watch the sun come up along with his trusty camera.  I am sure I am missing out, but this bed feels too nice and I roll over and fall back asleep.

Here is what Mister sees while I am snoozing away.  It is a reversal of last night and he watches the sun creep back down into the canyon.  It is a beautiful morning and he is in his element and able to play without worrying about taking too much time and boring me.  It would never happen, but he is always on alert when I am around and I know this is a much better moment for him.  I am so thankful for everything his dad taught him about photography -- I get to reap the benefits from it all.

A unique viewing area.

Yep, this is my Mister.  Kicking back with coffee and enjoying nature's show.  Can anyone fault him for that?

The sun is up.  Time to wake up Lady and get rolling down the road.  Still more fun to come today and we meet up with family later this afternoon for the start of the reunion.  Yay.

As we leave the Canyon, we drop down into flats in almost no time at all.  It is quite the descent.

About three hours later, we arrive at Bryce Canyon, which is evident by the start of rock formations along the highway.

As we drop down into the canyon, I realize that we have once again gained elevation without knowing it.  The walls of the canyon are deep and the most vivid array of reds and pinks that I have ever seen.

Oh -- this is just too cool.

After observing from various overlooks, I want to go down into one of the areas and see what this all looks like from below.  Let's go.

Yep, I was right.  This is incredible.  See the little path through the crevice in the picture on the right?  That is where we are going.  Well, at least that is where we are going to try and go.   I feel like the children in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."  Everything just keeps getting larger around me.

We don't quite make it to the bottom as I realize that I still need to hike back out and we need to get to the cabin for the reunion still.  The day is rapidly passing.  Drat.  Back up the hills we go.

This has been gorgeous to see and experience.  A memory that I will never forget.

Once we are at the top again, it is time to drive.  We take a back route through Utah, passing through Manti, which is in the middle of a huge pageant celebration and traffic around the temple is nuts.  I had wanted to stop and take a picture of it as it is a beautiful temple, but no luck.  The route takes us through many small towns and Mister is amazed that he has not seen a single bar along the way and the number of churches that dot the land is astounding.

We arrive at the cabin just in time for dinner and are so excited to meet up with everyone.  I have not been here for a couple of years, but it is just the way I remember it.  What a great setting for a family gathering.


We are the last to arrive and so our welcoming committee is in full force.  Yay!  Number one on the agenda for Mister is to meet his newest granddaughter and it doesn't take him long to have Miss Zyra in his arms.  He then moves on to Miss Elena and the bond that they have is evident.  What is it about little girls and Grandpas?

I am starving and it is time to eat.  Let's get this gang together and get the reunion started.  I mean, after all, it IS about the food right?  Before we eat though, Scott's Day, P.A., whose friend is loaning us the cabin, gives us a welcome talk and sets the rules.  Cool -- at least we are all now on the same page.  Let's eat.

Once dinner is over and kids are ready for bed, Gammy brings out a bedtime story book that she brought along and gathers her brood around her to read to them.

What a fun special moment for me and the boys.  I cannot believe how big they are all getting.  I certainly don't understand it -- I mean I am not getting any older, how is it they are?

I catch Mister and Elena playing a short time later.  Oh, I love this shot as it truly shows how much they like each other.

The kids are soon all in bed and for a brief moment, I catch most of my "big" boys together chatting.  Somewhere in there I hear Matt telling Louis that he has the "dream job" and then a ton of laughter.  This is the reason we have reunions -- moments like this.

It's been a long day -- time to get some rest.  We are sharing a room with Kyle, Rhiana, and Elena.  Guess Grandpa and I need to watch our snoring so the little one gets a chance to sleep.  Night.