Birthday Getaway

This handsome man's birthday was last weekend and it felt like a good time to get away. We missed out on going to St. George the weekend before, we weren't feeling up to it then, so this time we took the chance to go. We kept it in Utah and on the opposite side of St. George...Bluff, Utah! 

What a place to pick you say! I know, I know, but we both had never been there and we have some great friends who are currently living there for a little while. We thought we'd take the opportunity to see some of the Southern Utah sites.

 Here's the group, minus Stewart who's taking the picture, on top of San Juan Hill.

 Kristi and Stewart are serving a service mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They've been called to be support for the Hole In the Rock Association, which includes the Bluff Visitor Center and organizing a youth Pioneer Trek. San Juan Hill was the last hurdle the Saints had to pass before they could arrive to where they needed to be. This is where they want the youth to experience a small, but extremely challenging portion of that journey. 

It's unbelievable to think that they did make it over this in wagons!!  

 Strikin' a pose while hiking up San Juan Hill

Eleanor was a trooper! It felt good to be out and moving our bodies.

 It was a bit chilly, but amazingly beautiful! That is Mule's Ear in the distance with the San Juan river.

 To get to San Juan Hill, you get to do some off-roading! It brought back to many, many fond memories of my childhood and jeeping in Moab. Whit was in heaven!! 

It was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER he said...and that was just the beginning!

 A little ways away from San Juan Hill, is a ruin called River House. Always neat to see ancient ruins.

 Onto Goosenecks State Park...you won't see me going that close to the edge!

 Freaks me out! 

 Whit trying to experience what it's like to have a big baby belly and squeeze through tight spaces.

On our way to a place called Wolfman Panel.  A Petroglyph site.

 Grammie doing the Logan pose...I didn't take a picture of the panel...

 How did Eleanor do on her first trip....amazing!! She slept the best she ever had!

I feel pretty safe in saying that the highlight to Whit's birthday evening was at a fabulous and only restaurant in Bluff, being sung to by a group of Italian tourists!! It was memorable!

When we left, it was as if we were leaving a family dinner...Ciao's all over and kisses blown. 

Before heading home the next day, we had a couple more spots to hit.

Hovenweep National Monument and Four Corners

Awkward picture of the year!!!! And that's the only one we took together! 

#whatwasithinking

 Hovenweep Castle...what you can't really see is that they built this, and all of their other homes, right on the edge of the cliff.????

 We shared the path with a tarantula!!! Once in a lifetime!

 Still having a good time

 This picture doesn't do it justice, but this was a huge and beautiful and quickest rising full moon I've seen in a long time. Had to get out on the side of the road and document that... and my amazing hairdo!

Oh it's nice to get away. I think we should just live on the go. We both thought of Maggie everywhere we were. Thinking how much we miss her by our side, how difficult it would have been to get her to those places, but how I would have done it. 

Feeling that she was undoubtedly there with us, enjoying the beauty of this earth, in everything we saw.