Fun Times in Utah

I thought I'd write a quick blog post to share with you why my blog was so quiet last week. The reason was that my husband and I traveled to Utah to attend our son-in-law's graduation from BYU-Provo. He graduated with a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Accounting. We're so proud of him!

On our way home, we visited Zion National Park. We'd never been there before. Wow! What a stunningly beautiful place!

We spent part of Monday, April 27th and most of Tuesday, April 28th in the park. We didn't even see all there is to see though. We'll definitely need to go back some day.

The shuttle service within the park was wonderful and very well-run. The shuttles travel along the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. Including the Visitor Center, there are nine shuttle stops along the Drive.

I took this photo at the Court of the Patriarchs shuttle stop.

This informational plaque tells visitors about these stunning sandstone cliffs.

In case it's difficult to read this plaque, here's what it says:

"Named for three towering figures of the Old Testament, these sandstone cliffs hold court over Birch Creek Canyon and this section of the Virgin River. In 1916 Frederick Vining Fisher, a Methodist minister, gave the religious names to the peaks. Today it is not hard to imagine how the grandeur of this view could inspire such reverence."

At the Zion Lodge stop, we hiked on the Emerald Pools Trail.

Here are a couple of photos I took while walking along this gorgeous trail.

I took so many photos during our visit to Zion National Park that I filled up two memory cards and part of a third card! Don't worry, I won't be sharing all of the pictures here though. I will be sharing more photos from our trip on my Jana's Place blog in the future.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

 
 © 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Crazy Icicles

In a previous post, I shared some photos from our vacation in Utah. We were there the week after Christmas.

During the week we spent in Utah, the temperatures never rose above freezing. And it snowed at the beginning of our week-long visit.

As we drove around town, I saw lots of icicles. Even some cars had icicles hanging from them. Our car was no different.

See what I mean? Here are two photos of our car.



This isn't a sight I'm used to seeing every day since I live in a warmer climate. So, of course I had to take pictures.



I don't know who owns this car, but it looks like it had been sitting there for a while. Lots of snow and icicles.



There were some crazy long icicles hanging from buildings too.



And check out this row of icicles on this house and those snow-covered bikes and that car.



There were even icicles hanging from bushes.



We spent our vacation week in a beautiful winter wonderland and had a great time with our family. I'll share more photos from our trip in a future post.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

 
© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Family Vacation in Utah

After Christmas, we spent about a week in Utah. We had so much fun spending time together as a family. Creating family memories is so very important.

It turned out to be a very cold week. And when I say cold, I mean freezing. The temperatures were usually in the teens and twenties during the days. Yes. It was frigid. The air felt like refrigerator air.

I live in an area that doesn't get snow. And our high temperatures in winter are pretty mild compared with Utah. So, it was quite novel for us to see it snowing and to spend a week somewhere with snow on the ground. We arrived on a Saturday and it snowed on Sunday and Monday. This is what we woke up to on Monday morning.



This is my husband scraping our car…while it was snowing. He was heading out to a store. Brave man!



Did I mention that we're not used to snow? Of course, I had to take pictures of the cold fluffy stuff.



It's really pretty.



Especially from inside a warm house. Haha!



The temperatures never rose above freezing that week, so there was plenty of time for ice to form on the ground. Unfortunately, at the end of the week, I slipped and fell on the ice. Yep. I did. Thankfully, it wasn't a hard fall. I was a bit sore, but I'm fine. And I'm so grateful for that.

I'll be sharing more pictures from our trip to Utah in a future post.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

 
© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Christmas Lights on Temple Square ~ Part 2

In a previous post, I shared some photos I took while our family visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City on November 29, 2013. That was the night the Christmas lights were turned on for the first time this Christmas season. What a beautiful sight!

Today, I'm sharing more pictures from our visit. I hope you enjoy them.

A photo of the Salt Lake Temple through the trees.



Lovely luminaries.



A beautiful nativity scene in the center of the reflecting pool.



Here's a different viewing angle of the nativity scene in the photo above. The magnificent building behind the nativity scene is the The Salt Lake Temple.



A close-up view of the nativity scene.



The Salt Lake Temple.



Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2012 - 2013 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Christmas Lights on Temple Square ~ Part 1

In my Fab Finds post on November 22, I mentioned that I would be taking the following week off from blogging. Instead of spending time writing about my ancestors on this blog, I was spending time with living family members.

Last week, our family spent the Thanksgiving holiday together in Utah. We had a wonderful time.

On Friday, November 29, we all traveled to Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square.

For those who've never been to Temple Square, the magnificent building in these pictures is the Salt Lake Temple. Construction of this temple took 40 years to complete. The groundbreaking took place on February 14, 1853 and the dedication was held in April of 1893.

The Salt Lake Temple is the largest temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



My husband and I had been to Temple Square before, but never at Christmas time.



These pictures will hopefully give you an idea of just how beautiful Temple Square is during the Christmas season.



But, being there is so much better. These photos simply can't compare with the experience of seeing the amazing beauty of Temple Square at Christmas time in person.



I'll be sharing more photos from our visit to Tempe Square in a future post.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2013 Copyright by Jana Last

I’m Back!!

My awesome regular readers may have noticed that my blog was a bit quiet last week.  I didn’t post my weekly Fab Finds List or my regular Sepia Saturday post, let alone any other posts during the week.

The reason?  My family and I were on a week-long vacation in Utah.  We had a lovely time visiting with our immediate and extended family, and with a 3rd cousin of mine.

We not only enjoyed each other’s company, but we also enjoyed

the magnificent beauty of Utah,

Bridal Veil Falls at Provo Canyon Utah

View from Bridal Veil Falls at Provo Canyon Utah

shopping at the new City Creek Center Mall in Salt Lake City

City Creek Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

City Creek Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

visiting Park City’s Historic Main Street

Historic Main Street, Park City, Utah

Family Tree Center on Historic Main Street, Park City, Utah

visiting the Utah Olympic Park at Park City (so cool!).  Do you see the skier about to go into the water?

Amazing Training Facility at Utah Olympic Park - Park City, Utah

Training Facility at Utah Olympic Park - Park City, Utah

eating delicious food at various restaurants including Cafe Zupas, Kneaders Bakery and Café, Maxwell's East Coast Eatery, Cafe Rio Mexican Grill, Nick's Greek Café, The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Café, and Chunga’s Mexican Food in Salt Lake City.  Oh, and how could I forget the BYU Creamery?  YUM!

We also took a tour of the beautiful LDS Temple Square Conference Center.  We have done this tour before on past visits to Utah, but it was still fun to take the tour again.

Conference Center at Temple Square - Salt Lake City, Utah

View of the Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square

from Conference Center Roof at Salt Lake City, Utah

And of course, the genealogist in me made sure we spent some time visiting a couple cemeteries.  More on those visits in future posts.

All in all, it was a very fun vacation with family, food, fun and laughter as we spent time together.

Now it’s time to get back into the regular swing of things.

Thanks for reading!

Jana


Copyright © Jana Last 2012

Those Places Thursday - Speaking of Camping….

For those of you who follow my Fab Finds posts, you will know that my family and I went camping last week.  We spent several days at Shaver Lake enjoying time with our immediate and extended family.

We had fun kayaking…

swimming and jumping off the “jumping rock”…

and cooking in our Dutch Oven.

And for the first time in the 10 years we’ve camped at Shaver Lake, we saw cows meandering out of the forest to walk through the meadow.

So, what does all this have to do with my ancestors or genealogy?

Well, it turns out my grandpa and grandma, Arthur and Ingrid Iverson, spent time camping too.

Here’s what Grandma Ingrid said about her camping experiences:

“I know for every vacation it seemed like we would go to Yosemite.  It was just a beautiful place.  To get away and to be alone, but I of course, was frightened of the bears because it was always a little frightening to go where the wild animals were.  Where they were able to roam at ease.  And they would come around your tent and sniff and the fearful thought of the children in the tent, hoping they wouldn’t crash in.”  (Vocal History of Ingrid Gilberg Iverson Crawford)

Yikes!  I would not want to go camping where bears were sniffing at the tent!  No thank you!  I'll take cows in the meadow over bears around my tent any day!

Here are some photos of my brave grandparents from a few of their camping trips.

I love this picture of Arthur at home in his camping gear.

Arthur at Home in his Camping Gear
circa 1934

Ingrid in Front of Yosemite Falls
1933

Ingrid and Arthur at Yosemite

Ingrid at Yosemite

Ingrid at Yosemite

I think I see a box of Kellogg’s cereal sitting on the table behind Ingrid.  Do you see it?

Ingrid at Yosemite

Don’t you just love that old car in this photo?

Ingrid at her Campsite

This photo of Arthur is fun too.

Arthur Needs a Shave After Camping

What about you?  Do you enjoy camping?  Do you have a favorite place to go camping?  Share your camping stories in the comments below or on your own blog.  And if you’d like to, you can include a link to your blog post in the comments section below.

If you don't have any camping stories, I'd still love to hear your comments.  Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading!

Jana
Copyright © Jana Last 2012