Week Before Last

Family.  That's mostly what we did for a week plus.  And it was GREAT!  I don't get to see much of my kindred (my Mom and siblings and all the attendant family members therein) on much more than a yearly basis.  So it was very nice to get to hang out with various family members and eat with them!  (Eating is always good.)  And we told stories.  Fun, silly stuff we remembered from when we were all ages younger.  It was a good time.

I loved the scenery as we drove to and from Utah.  And the cooler, dryer temperatures that were further out west.  Past Texas.  In Texas it was H-O-T, hot!  And the wind blew.  Gales.  It seemed.  In Childress, Texas, it was H-O-T, hot AND the wind blew hot, too.  Whew.  (Now we're back home and just melting in the near 100 degrees during the day and 80 degrees something right now--just before midnight.)

In contrast, I was absolutely SHOCKED by the lush green in Price Canyon Utah.  In all my 60+ years, I don't remember EVER seeing such lush green vegetation in June in that canyon!!!!!!!!! Usually there's lots of brown, dry grass, bushes, stuff!   It was green, beautiful green everywhere!  Everywhere except where the rocks were bare.  Of course.  And I'm sure I've mentioned once or a jillion times how much I LOVE to see the Rockies.  Something in my very blood just swells at the beauty of those mountains and valleys, the rivers, the ancient lava cracks and flows here and there beside the road.

Nature just fascinates me.  One of these days I got to take some geology classes--in the Rockies, naturally.  There is such variety in types of rocks . . . the color of rocks, solid rocks, smooth rocks, crumbly rocks, cool layers of sedimentary rocks with what looks like veins of black coal, or green oxidized copper, or red sandstone, and on and on.  It's overwhelming.  And yet, I remember hearing someone say to me after her second trip to the mountains out west:  "I don't know what the big deal is.  If you've seen one rock, you've seen them all."  Ouch!  My perspective is so very different! 

I have a picture of the clan, or a small portion thereof, that my SIL took one evening as we gathered. (That's all of us that were together that evening.)

Mom's hair is its natural color with just a little white close to her face.  Just so you know.  She's very proud of that fact.  She's the oldest of 5 and ALL her siblings were solid white years ago.  In fact, her baby sister began going white at 17 years of age, and was solid white by 35.  My older sister and I are the only girls that let our "white hair" be white.  I'm not sayin' if either of the other sisters is white or not.  I don't know for sure.  I think some of the brothers are showing a little white here and there, however.

My Sister-In-Law was so sweet to take such good care of us while we stayed at their house and she organized and took all the fun fotos!

This one includes my Mom, me, my Oldest Younger Sis, one of her grandsons, and that's our Baby Sis hiding behind her hair.

We are a silly bunch, as you can see.  On the sofa you see Baby Sister, Next Older Sister, Mom and Me--I'm the shortest of us all, in case you're wondering, #2 in birth order and Sisters.  Oldest Brother and Youngest Brother (Baby of the Family--which he loudly and consistently disclaims) are behind we women folk. There are 2 more brothers missing and the Oldest Sister, not to mention all the Step-siblings and the vast array, i.e. multitude of offspring related to all of us!  I've lost count of how many of us there are.  It's well over 100 and includes 5 generations.  Aren't we a good looking lot, though. ; P  Family is great!