This weekend we had a lot of activities planned with the Ellison side of our family. Tyler and Mindy were in town from Alaska, so we were able to do things as a whole family. First of all, we went flying on Thursday. A friend of Monty and Linda let them use their plane for the day. It was a great time. After Nathan and his family flew, they landed back at Ogden Airport and we switched. Mindy took off and flew first with Monty in the co-pilots seat of course. She did a pretty good job. We flew up past Brigham City, and over the mountain to Logan. We came back over sardine canyon and Monty landed. The next time up I was able to go with Cambria. She has had a lot of flying experience before. So, I taxied out and stayed on the line pretty well. Then, after pre-flight checks, went out onto he runway and went full power. It was really hard to stay straight while on the runway since you have to steer with your feet and I didn't do too well with it. We did get off the ground though, and headed out to the practice area.
I practiced a 30 degree turn and practiced a stall,
which was a really weird feeling. It doesn't seem normal to intentionally put the airplane in that position. Cambria and I switched seats and she did a turn as well. She then headed down to Salt Lake where she did a great job at landing. It was a little shaky but I thought it was good for not having flown for quite a while. A lot of us were a little nauseous after the flight, but nothing too bad. I didn't feel sick at all while flying, but once I switched with Cambria and got in the back, I immediately felt a bit nauseous That night we had a wonderful spaghetti dinner that Linda prepared.
Friday morning we got up really early and left at 2:00 for Zions National Park to go canyoneering. It was very early but Tyler was nice enough to drive down while we all slept. We arrived and got ready to do the first of our two planned canyons, Keyhole. It's a very short, but fun canyon. It only takes about an hour or so. There was a lot of water in the canyon from the snow runoff, and was quite cold. Cambria, Sharlyn, and Mindy had wetsuits which helped them a lot. Me, Monty, Tyler and Nathan didn't. I was feeling pretty dizzy but wasn't worried since it was a short canyon. I was cold but once we got over the first
two rappels we were able to go almost at our own pace. I had a blast, especially after a part where we had to do about a minute swim. After getting out of the water, everything felt so warm. It felt good to be out of the water, but getting back in the water wasn't bad either. I couldn't feel my skin much. The best part was after the swim where you meander back and forth through the rest of the slot canyon, through pools of water, over rocks, and down a few small drops, all the while being able to almost hold on to both sides of the canyon wall. we got out and into the sun, which was a very nice treat. Once back to the car, we froze still while drying off and getting ready for the next trip through Spry Canyon. It would be a much longer and difficult canyon. Since I was feeling quite dizzy and a bit weak, I decided to sit that canyon out. There was only a permit for six people in that canyon and Cambria was planning on sitting it out. So she went in my place. We drove to the drop off point, they got their gear, and headed out.
I took the opportunity to hike a few short trails, the first of which was up to an amazing lookout over a big portion of the park. I took Tyler and Mindy's camera and had such a great time alone out in nature, taking photos. I drove down to the bottom of the park and took the shuttle up to another hike. The hike was nice, but the emerald pools that were at the end were nothing special. I took pictures as I went, and decided to hurry back since four hours had passed and they were expecting to get back in five hours. I waited at the drop off point for a while, then hiked up the trail they were supposed to come out on. I found a great spot on some rocks to sit next to a running stream. I was all alone, listening to the water, staring up at the towering rusty red cliffs. I couldn't help but say a prayer or two in gratitude for the life I had and the beautiful day I was able to take to relax and go hiking.
I then saw on the far cliff that they were finally to the last rappel. I drove up the switchbacks to a good viewpoint and took some photos with the zoom lense, then headed back down to the pick up spot. I then heard a story about what happened to Cambria while in the canyon. She was trying to get down a steep incline when she slipped in some moss and slid down the hill. She flew off a 15 foot ledge and into a two foot deep pool of water. Directly after the pool was a 100 foot cliff. The rest of the family was behind her and couldn't see that there was even a pool of water to land in till they heard her splash, and she yelled that she was ok. There are usually not pools of water before large cliffs, and this one saved her life. Monty put it very well in his journal entry when he said that someone knew thousands of years ago that there needed to be a pool of water there and that someday it would save my sweetheart's life. I am very grateful to have her. If anything happened to her I would feel very guilty since she went in my place. I can't express how much I love Cambria. She is my everything.
Well, I drove back a ways till it got dark. I don't do well driving in the dark and this time I did even worse. I believe my vision was messed up while in Texas since they wouldn't let us wear sun glasses. I feel like an old man sometimes. So, Monty took over and drive the rest of the way home. I was grateful but he was tired too. I felt really bad that I couldn't help as much, and that I wasn't as much of a help on the trip as I had wanted to be. We got home at 1:00.
The next night we went out to Rodizio Grill with Tyler, Mindy, Nathan, Sharlyn, and Mindy's brother Derek and his wife Kristin. It was great but I ate too much as I usually do there. Afterwards, Cambria and I came home and crashed for the night. We got to spend time with the family, and get to know them better. I was able to talk with both Tyler and Mindy more than before since they live in Alaska. I enjoy getting to know them better every time we're with them. All in all we had a great weekend.
