One Day Road Trip

Yesterday we took a road trip up to Panguitch Lake, UT. My Dad is looking for a nice cabin in the woods and he heard about Brian Head and Panguitch Lake. So we all got in the car and drove up to Utah to get out of the heat and see a new place.

Nevada Desert

Driving into the Virgin River Gorge

The Virgin River Gorge is always a cool drive. But the river seemed to be completely dried up. We made pretty good time and found ourselves in Cedar City around 10:00am. Then we turned east and up into the mountains.

 

 

It was a very pretty drive. The higher we got up the more breathtaking the view was.

At one point we stopped to enjoy an over look:

At the tops of the mountains were these beautiful meadows full of wildflowers.

Finally we reached the lake. It reminded me of the Alpine lake towns I saw in Switzerland. Very pretty and peaceful.

I think my parents liked it up there the only down point was no cell service. But it was very pretty.

We came back down the mountain through Panguitch. I used to meet in Panguitch every Thursday for District Meeting when I was serving my mission in Beaver, UT. It was cool seeing the chapel again.

And driving on the same roads I drove on my mission. Nice bit of nostalgia. With our goal reached we headed back down south.

We stopped for ice cream in St. George, UT. And took a look around the St George Temple.

 

 

 It was beautiful day and the temple glowed.

It was great to get out of the desert and see some green. It was a fun day trip and hope to do it again sometime.

Independence Day 2014

I had a nice relaxing Independence Day this year. I spent it with my parents and brother. It's become a tradition here in Vegas for us to enjoy a early breakfast with my parents Ward and then walk down the street to the Summerlin Parade, the biggest parade in Vegas. So bright and early at 7:30am I made my way over to their chapel for a flag raising ceremony and some breakfast.

 

It was a light breakfast. But yummy. The weather was cooler than usual for Vegas in July and there was talk of thunder showers but in the morning it was a beautiful day out. After eating and helping to clean up, Mom, Dad and I made our way to the road with the parade. Doug didn't join us he thought it was too hot.

We found a nice shady spot on the opposite side of the street. And watched the Pre-Parade. Crowds filled in the gaps, a nice couple from California joined us. It was their first time at the parade and were going to be moving to Vegas so they were checking it out. It was fun watching it with first timers. Here are some pictures from the parade:

The Crowds gathering

Dad and Mom, Dad sporting his ASEA shirt.

 If curious about what ASEA is see http://sepperson.teamasea.com/

Me and Mom. My Disney hat worked perfectly for my Red, White and Blue outfit.

Of course there would be one of these in the Vegas parade

Color Guard. Attention!

 

Biggest Flag I've ever seen

 

We waited to see the Dino Float and then decided we had seen enough...one of these times we might actually make it through to the end. As we were walking back to the church, we saw the rest of the floats lining up and of course there was this:

And so we had the "Let it Go" song stuck in our heads all the way back to our cars.

After cooling down, I did some grocery shopping. Bad idea...everyone was at the store buying picnic supplies. It was quite the mad house. But we made it out alive and went back to my parents for a good ol' fashion hot dog picnic lunch.

 

Mom made a hot dog sauce out of a new recipe so it was kind of a chili dog, just not as spicy. With a yummy fruit salad. Doug picked up these new Pringles. They taste just like Doritos.

To fill our afternoon we went out to the movies. We went and saw the new Tom Cruise movie: Edge of Tomorrow. It was very good. Right amount of humor, action and good storyline.

The only negative thing about our trip to the movies was meeting a really really grumpy old man that kept blocking us in the parking garage....lot of crazy people out there. But movie was great and we got out of the theatre in time before the firework crowds showed up.

We didn't want to try and find a place to watch fireworks so we came home and relaxed. And had some pizza for dinner.

After dark the thunder storms came and so there were firecrackers and thunder booms going on outside. When I finally made my way home, I was able to see some of the shows from the balcony of my apartment.

 

It was a fun, quiet Independence Day and I'm glad I got to spend it with my family.