Babymoon and a Graveyard

Whoa whoa whoa!  We're not expecting!  Don't rush off to call and congratulate my mother!  I can see that getting out of hand real fast.

Actually, we went with our friends {Carson and Shellena} on their babymoon.  They are expecting a little girl on or around March 15th.  We're so excited for them!  We've been having baby showers, researching cloth diapers, and I've been saving all of the Babies R Us coupons that we always get in the mail.  Yay for baby Tietjen!

 As you can see, we are all quite in love with her already.

 And trust me, Shellena is much bigger now.  These pictures are a little old.  BUT- she makes for a really cute little pregnant woman.

Although we're all excited for baby's arrival, her birth will also close a chapter in Carson and Shellena's lives.  No more spontaneous vacations, or Roy and I randomly showing up on their doorstep with a movie.  Things will be different.  Good, but different.

SO- Carson and Shellena have a relative who owns a cabin near St. George.  Kenny, Andrea, and Roy and I were all invited on the trip. 

 Woohoo!  We're going to close this chapter with a BANG!  It's so much warmer down there.  I know you see snow- but it was warm enough to shed our jackets.  In fact, I'm just going to jump right to my favorite part of the trip.  No chronological order this time guys!

SUNSHINE!

Oh wow!  Every morning after breakfast Andrea and I would camp out on the back porch with our sweats rolled up, soaking in every ray!  The rest of the crew finally experienced the glory on the last day.  We were out there the whole morning, playing cards etc.  


But we didn't just sit on our butts the whole trip.  {Although, sitting on your butt in the warm sunshine in the middle of winter is hEaVeN!}  We went on some hikes, took out the quad {or as they say in Utah, the "four-wheeler"} and hit up a few different parks.  As long as it was outside, we were happy.

  Oops, we're on our butts again.  ☺

 Frisbee golf!

Don't let my incredibly intense action shot fool you.  I actually found out that I'm very very bad at Frisbee.  And Roy was worried that I was going to cost him the championship.

 So we changed it up and made up a game where you take a running start, jump, and then as you're in the air the three Frisbees are held up (or thrown) and you have to knock them down.  Pretty funny.

 But I didn't get a very good one of Roy.  And mine is just dumb- haha! 

Obviously Shellena wasn't doing a lot of jumping.  And when the guys started playing games a little too intense for even us non-pregnant girls, we made up our own game.  It's called, "Walk Up to Random Strangers At the Park, Point Out Your Husbands, and Ask Them To Guess Which Girl Is With Which Guy, Based Solely On Looks"

We really only asked teenagers that were hanging out at some picnic tables.  They made a competition out of it.  Apparently I look like I belong with Carson, Shellena looks like she belongs with Kenny, and Andrea looks like she belongs with Roy.  They were fun kids.  Wow- am I calling high schoolers kids now?  Weird.

One day, while Carson and Shellena took out the "four-wheeler", the rest of us piled into a car to see if we could find the lake that was supposed to be nearby.  There wasn't any cell reception, so we couldn't look it up.  We had to search the old fashioned way.

After practically disemboweling their poor little car on the treacherous dirt roads, we discovered a different sort of treasure.  Okay- it's a treasure to me.  I'm sure the rest really would have preferred a lake.  But you know how I am with graveyards.

We immediately started a contest of who could find the oldest headstone.  Kenny meandered to the back of the cemetery and soon started shouting out numbers from the 1800s!  That's really early for American standards!  We rushed back quickly to find a whole stretch of the cemetery with little gold plaques on the stone, signifying that they were early Mormon pioneers.

Most of them had arrived in the early 1850s, escaping persecution in the east.  And many of them died before the turn of the century.  This part of the cemetery was so weather beaten, we were picking up knocked over headstones and trying to put some together that were completely in pieces. 

It was fascinating.  Roy told me that the oldest Mormon chapel still in use was in Pineview just a few streets away from where we were.  I resolved right then and there to go for part of the Sunday meetings, just to be in the same place as these pioneers were.  Just because I'm a history nerd like that.

It was starting to get dark and so I was leaning in close to a headstone, studying the inscription, when a dark, bulky something came galloping toward me.  I almost screamed, but realized just in time that it was a dog.  Not so scary, but still not welcome.  You have to realize... dogs and I don't always get along.  I like them better from a distance.  And I prefer that they don't sneak up on me in a dark, enclosed graveyard.

But even I have to say, this was a cool dog.  It was well-groomed, friendly, just hanging out with us.  Andrea wondered how it got in and I made a random {and maybe dramatic} guess that maybe he was the gravekeeper's dog.  You know, made sure that nobody dug up the old pioneer bodies and stuff.  Andrea asked, "Well what does he eat?"

"Probably just chews on the bones from the coffins," Kenny joked.  And at that exact moment, the dog reached behind a little headstone and picked up...

A BONE!

Can you see it there, wedged between her front paws? 

WHAT is creepier than a mysterious dog in a graveyard chewing on a bone?  Yikes! 

Before we left, all feeling the creeps, I made sure to take a picture of the Snow family grave.  The headstone said that William Snow was a personal friend of Joseph Smith, and was the first Bishop of the Pineview chapel that was down the street.  Cool!  But you know what's really interesting?  He was also a polygamist. 

The guy had six wives and I count 26 kids?  Six of which had the same name as another.  How confusing would that be?
"William, can you come here please?  No, the other William!"
Though the Mormon church no longer practices polygamy {and anyone who does practice polygamy is excommunicated from the church} it was definitely once practiced.  It was also a common practice a in the Bible etc., but how often do you come across the headstone of someone from the Bible?  Never!  Seeing the familial relationship all listed out on a headstone like this was so crazy interesting.

After Roy finally dragged me out of the cemetery, the dog thought he was going with us.  He jumped into the car and we had to shoo him out.  I was almost sad to leave him behind.

Sunday:

We went to this chapel, which was constructed in 1868 by a ship builder.  I guess he did a pretty good job since it's not only still standing, but it's being used!  As we sat in the wooden pew I thought back to all the people back at the cemetery.  Had any of them sat in the same pew?  Probably.  I kept an eye out for any initials or anything carved into the wood, but it was kept spotless.

Most of the people in this ward were elderly.  After all, this cabin area is where the retirees go.  All week the six of us had been picking out cabins for ourselves when we all reach that stage.  Then we can come back and have these spontaneous vacations together whenever we want! 

Of course we were all sad to leave the warmth and go back to the cold, the classes, and the work.  But I only have seven weeks of my undergraduate career ahead of me.  Only SEVEN!  I'm going to find every way possible to enjoy them. 

Starting with studying for my Enlightenment Era exam... yay.