It is gorgeous there! I can’t think of a more beautiful place.

I had a fabulous weekend in southern Utah. The funeral was emotional and difficult, but sweet. He was a multiple-ly decorated bomber pilot in WW2, so there was a lineup of servicemen in uniform at the cemetery.

They shot their guns three times, and folded a flag over his casket before presenting it to my grandma. I know there are official names for these ceremonies, but I don’t know what they are called. I’d never seen it before. It was really cool. Very formal and respectful.

The reunion was fantastic. A tremendous party. I hadn’t seen one of my cousins and aunts in 15 years. Most of the rest of them I hadn’t seen in 8 years. We all decided that it was unacceptable to wait that long, so we’re going to try to get together every few years. Some of us (not me) are musicians, and so it was a sort of improv rock concert.

I got to sing Sweet Child of Mine. My mom tried her hand at bass guitar.

Upstairs, there was dancing

People in St. George must be really nice, because we were incredibly loud at my uncle’s house, which is in a neighborhood, and didn’t leave ’til after midnight. Nobody gave us any trouble.

Backing up a little bit, my sister and I arrived in Vegas within 30 minutes of each other, so she was waiting for me at the gate as I got off the plane. We rented a Prius (a surprisingly nice car) and drove north to Utah, stopping once to eat at a diner in the middle of nowhere, and once to tramp through the brush to photograph ourselves with a joshua tree.

When we arrived, we visited awhile and practiced the musical numbers for the service (I ended up in an unexpected duet) before heading to our accommodations. My uncle had arranged for my mom, sister and I to stay in a fantastic house on a golf course.

This is a view from the back.

When we arrived, I walked into the first bedroom door I found and called, “dibs!”

I heard my sister gasp and frantically hurry through the entryway of the house. She opened a bathroom door, through which she could see the bed of the room I was standing in (though she couldn’t see me), and yelled, “DIBS!” while sprinting through the bathroom, at which point she launched herself into the air, flying through the bedroom onto the bed in front of me. We bantered a little bit ’til mom came in, laid claim, and threw us both out. I could hear my sister arguing with her for several minutes as I hauled my stuff downstairs to investigate the remaining rooms.

I got down there first, but somehow ended up getting the only room without a connecting bathroom, which contained metal framed bunkbeds. Not that there was anything wrong with the room, I’m totally not complaining. I even still had my own bathroom… it was just so funny, the way the whole thing happened. I’m clearly the most accommodating of the three of us :-).

So Anne and I were downstairs together, and we ended up both sleeping in the king-sized bed in her room. It was so much fun, rooming together.

I tried to knit over the weekend. It didn’t really work out. I had brought my dark green Frog Tree alpaca that I bought last year for legwarmers, some stitch pattern books, and a stitch pattern I’ve wanted to try. Star Stitch from the Stitch Calendar (August 28th I think). Well, it was too dark/fuzzy/something to see any stars, so I ditched it, and spent the airplane time reading New Moon again.

(While I am still devoted to Edward, I’m really starting to dig Jacob. Like Bella, there’s the Jacob I like, and the one that totally bugs me. But in New Moon, he’s great. I like that Jacob a lot).

So there’s a brief rundown of my weekend.

I’m still tired.

Oh, and one final thing… Grandma has the BEST gray hair! I’ve been eyeing gray heads for a few months, now that I’m getting more silver hairs myself, and have seen some truly lovely shades. I was pleased as could be to see her hair. I sincerely hope that mine will gray like hers, but at least I now know it’s in my genes. So it’s possible.