Spring Break with DSU - Geology of Utah's National Parks Lab - GEO 1055

I was reading the paper and came across an article about the university "offering members of the  community the opportunity to be fully immersed in Utah's parks while learning about the area's geology from physical science professors" from DSU.  It offered an "eight-day trip stopping at all of Utah's national parks and a selection of national monuments and state parks while focusing on the geologic processes that have shaped Utah's landscape and environment."  I told Paul about it and we found that the professor leading the trip was someone he had just recently done stonework for.  When we e-mailed to try to reserve a spot she offered us one!  It turned out to be a super fun vacation/educational experience for us.  We went with students from the university and a few other adults.  We went as non-degree seeking students.   What a blast!  It felt like we were just spending more time with people from a YSA ward.  Paul was fine with just going along and enjoying it, but I wanted to do the class assignments and drug him into it with me.  I think it made us feel more a part of things with the kids and also more of a learning experience.  I loved it as a chance to try to learn something new. The bus and the outdoors were our classrooms.  Here are the places we went/learned about.

 Day 1:  DSU to Ruby's Inn via Zion NP with stops at Bloomington Hills, Quail Lake State Park, Zion Park, White Mountain Trading Post. Spent the night at Ruby's Inn.

One assignment we had every day was to write a couple of Haikus about what we learned/saw that day.  We enjoyed doing it even if we weren't always great at it 

Zion Haikus 

Flowing green waters

Cutting carving eroding

Shaping Zion Park

Peaceful calm serene

Angelic lands stone temples

Uplifting Zion

Day 2: Ruby's Inn to Escalante via Bryce Canyon NP with stops at Bryce Canyon, Hole in the Rock Monument, Escalane Petrified Forest State Park.  Spent the night in Escalante at Prospector Inn with best dinner and breakfast of the trip.  

Bryce Canyon Haikus

Poetry in stone

Kaleidoscope of color

Rocks ablaze hoodoos

Carved stone sentinels

Here today gone tomorrow

Freeze thaw erode crumble clay

Flash flood freeze and thaw

Labyrinth of rock chimneys

Hell's place for lost cows

Hole in the Rock Haiku

Undaunted fathers

Pioneering call from God

Through Hole in the Rock

Day 3:  Escalante to Torrey via Grand Staircase Escalante NM and Anasazi SP with stops at GSEM Visitor's Center, Calf Creek Falls, Anasazi State Park, Larb Point Overlook - Boulder Mountain.  Spent the night in Torrey.  

Haiku:  Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Stony steps through time

Rocky historic chapters

Grand staircase story

Anasazi State Park Haiku:

Ancient one's footprints

Pot shards, pictographs, flint points

Traces of lives past

Day 4:  Torrey to Torrey via Capitol Reef NP with stops at Capitol Reef Grand Wash hike, Petroglyphs Panel, Visitor's Center, Gifford House.  Spent the night in Torrey again.  

Capital Reef Haikus

Wrinkle in the earth

Rugged remote changing cliffs

Waterpocket fold

(Petroglyphs/Pictographs)

Shadows from the past

Stone canvas of pecked varnish

Carved painted stories

Day 5:  Torrey to Moab via Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Bear Ears National Monument, Natural Bridges National Monument. Stops in Hanksville (for cinnamon rolls), Natural Bridges NM, Edges of Cedars SP. Spent the night at Super 8 in Moab.

Natural Bridges Haiku

Meandering streams

Carving, scouring through the stone

Eroding bridges

Day 6:  Moab to Moab via Arches National Park with stops at Arches NP Visitor's center, hike Park Avenue, Balanced Rock, Landscape Arch, Sand Dune Arch, Windows Section, Delicate Arch, rock art site.  Spent another night at Super 8 in Moab.  Went to dinner on our own both nights.

Arches Haikus

Rise and fall of salts

Crinkly red Dewey Bridge stone

Slickrock arch makers

Delicate arches

Chiseled by natures forces

Ribbons soon to fall

Flowing expanding

Creating carving shaping

Arches in the sky

Day 7:  Moab to Green River via Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park, Upheaval Dome, Mesa Arch, Green River Overlook and Grand View Point Trail,  Sego /Barrier Canyon pictographs/petroglyphs.  Spent the night at Holiday Inn Express in Green River.

Upheaval Dome Haiku

The mystery hole

Salt dome or meteorite

What the heck is it?

Canyonlands Haiku by Casey

Headward erosion

Waters playing in the canyon

Water always wins

Biological soil crusts Haiku

Fragile living earth

Knobby blackened micro soil

Please don't bust the crust!

Day 8:  Green River to St. George via John Wesley Powell Museum, Fremont Indian State Park.

I loved this trip in so many ways.  I loved being with Paul.  I loved being in beautiful places.  I loved being taught about how and why of these beautiful places by a skilled and entertaining teacher.  I loved laughing and enjoying the company of the people we were with. I loved not having the plan the trip!  

Stories found in stone

Geology of our lands

History of earth

Happy Easter from Mom and with Mom!

This may be the last Easter we have my mom here to celebrate with, and that makes Easter even more magnificent.  I don't like the idea of losing her, but I do know that it won't be forever.  Oh what peace it has brought me to know that the same holds true for Weed.  And it brings me such peace knowing that Bean's trials won't be a permanent thing either.  I enjoy so very many blessings as a result of Easter,  more than I even can imagine.  As President Hinckley said:  "God be thanked for the gift of His Son, the Redeemer of the world..."

Here's my mom's Easter letter for this year.

Now I can add to this post since Paul and I got to fly up and visit Mom for Easter!  It was a lovely trip.  Marilynne and Lynn visited too, so we had 3 of the 4 living siblings there for the the occasion.  Denny is in very poor health and couldn't make it.  His wife, Sandee, and daughter, Ariel, did drive over and visit which was very nice.  Besides being Easter it was Genernal Conference and it was a pretty special one.  We sustained a new President of the church, Russell M. Nelson, and also two new apostles to fill vacancies left in the 12.  Elder Gerrit W. Gong and Elder Ulisses Soares were sustained as apostles.  Through crazy circumstances (the cable company messed up and broadcast the Saturday morning session in Spanish only) we didn't actually get to participate in the solemn assembly they held before/at the beginning of that session.  Pres. Nelson also announced 7 new temples to be built and big changes were made to Visiting/Home Teaching and to the Elder's/High Priest quorums.  One of the 7 new temples will be somewhere in Russia!  That's so exciting.  One will also be in India!  

We had a good visit with everyone including Mom.  She got pretty tired and had to rest as needed, but other than being tired and more weak than I have seen her before, she was doing pretty well still.  I felt pretty good about it until it was time to say goodbye for the flight home.  It really hit me that the next time I see her she may be in pretty bad shape...or even gone.  She's such a wonderful lady and tries to be upbeat and happy even when I know it must be hard and things hurt and don't work how they should anymore.  Such a hard thing to see her heading down that final path.  We did take some pictures and we did have a very good time visiting.  It was a good memory making time.  So here's our pictures.  

The top picture has Ariel and Sandee in it too.  It was a long drive for them to come over, but it was so nice to have them there.  I wish Denny could have come.  I think he's almost in worse health than Mom in a lot of ways.  

The bottom left picture is kind of funny...with Mom looking a little crabby getting ready to put on her glasses, Marilynne laughing and Janet really the only one looking good!  What's special about this picture is that it has the old lunchbox full of flowers in front of us.  That's Dad's old lunchbox and if you look close you can see his shaving brush is one of the flowers.  I like to think of him sort of being there with us and maybe laughing along. The top picture shows Mom with all of her son-in-laws.  They all love her and she loves them.  It's so nice to have that type of relationship instead of the kind you usually hear about.  

Andrew and Careina hosted a really nice Easter feast/gathering at their house on Sunday afternoon.  It was fun to get together with those that were in the area.  

The March Birthday start to finish...Ferf, Sarai, Joel

Ferf's birthday started things rolling for March.  This year was one of those milestone birthdays - #40!  Ryan planned up a nice Borrowman/Lillywhite adults party for her.  It was good food and good fun to get together and just eat, visit and celebrate!  Ferf is an awesome, beautiful lady and we are so proud of her and love her so much.  She has accomplished so much in her life personally as well as with her wonderful family...and it is hard to believe our little Ferfie can be 40!  Happy Birthday Ferf!  We love you! One thing we so appreciate about Ferf is her tender care of Grandma Kurtz.  Weed was trying to be helpful to her and then there was a big void for Grandma when she left us.  Ferf has added caring for Grandma to her already busy life with 6 children, a busy husband and big church calling.  I don't know how Grandma would get along without her. What a blessing she is in that way as well as in so many others.  

It was nice to have 6 of the 8 siblings at the party!  Who knows, maybe Weed was checking it out too!

Kai got to come because he's a baby too attached to leave much.  He entertained himself and us with his bow antics!


Next up in March was Sweet 7-year-old Sarai!  We went to her dinner/birthday party and enjoyed the evening with her very much!  She was so excited and so cute!  We love our Sweet Sarai!  

It was fun to see how she loved every present...from mouthwash to fruit roll-ups to fancy shoes and frilly shirts to dolls!  Everything was WONDERFUL! 

Now it was Joel's turn...finally!  His birthday was actually 3 months ago on December 26, 2017, but saved for March to have it be more of a treat instead of a left over from Christmas.  He was also excited and happy to have his #4 party, pig cake and presents at last!  Lou made another masterpiece cake since he loves pigs right now!  We love our Joelly poelly!

 Afton tricked him pretty good by putting a candy bar into the box his bike was shipped in.  When he opened hit he looked and looked and then found the little candy bar and knew he'd been had!