Monthly Archives: July 2018

You Know You’re Traveling Like Us When

by Wendy
Your sisters are always up for drinks over evening card or Scrabble games
Your parents can easily out-hike you, any day of the week
Your niece and nephew think of the funniest Would You Rather questions on a car trip
There is a great variety of snacks and everyone is willing to share
There is always quality coffee around Continue reading

Meanwhile Back At The Ranch

During our family trip out West, Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort was home base. This 4,000 acre ranch next to Zion National Park is about a 90 minute drive from St. George airport and 3 hour drive from Las Vegas. So yes, it is remote, but that’s part of the beauty. We stayed in a cabin, though there are many different lodging options, including camping, glamping or even Conestoga Wagon! This is a special place. Here are some of our favorite things about the ranch. Continue reading

Utah is Unique

by Joe
There is no place on earth, let alone the USA, that looks and feels like Southern Utah. It’s extremely hot and dry in summer and cold and snowy in the winter. But the warm breezes in the summer and cooler mornings keeps everything in balance for an enjoyable summer experience. The sky during the day ranges from turquoise to navy blue and as black as coal at night which allows the stars to pop like top grade diamonds. The green trees against the dark blue skies and red rocks paints a picture like no other place. The dryness of the warm mid-day breezes and the cool ones in the evening wrap around you and embrace you. It’s almost spiritual in nature and in this vast piece of nature you can see, smell, and feel the wonder of the west as so many have before us. But it is at times, stark. It is dry and the land in many places dies of thirst. It is rocky and at times desolate. It can be brutally hot in the summer and I wondered how did so many people, for thousands of years, come to inhabit and thrive in this land. But humans have lived in this area for over 10,000 years. Even if you look back only a couple of hundred years ago, how did they do it? Continue reading

Clearwater Marine Aquarium

by Sunny

Most 8 year old girls are easily won over by the following: mermaids, kittens, dolphins, and unicorns.  MJ recently discovered the movie Dolphin Tale, which tells the true story of a young dolphin named Winter who was found caught in a crab trap and rescued. Her tail was later amputated due to the amount of damage from being tangled in the trap.  She learns to swim without it and is also given a prosthetic tail so she could once again swim like a dolphin. MJ has seen it at least 20 times. And counting.  I had remembered seeing it years ago when it was first released, but hadn’t really sat down to watch it with MJ, yet.

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