Closing this Chapter

So as it turns out, I'm out of space on this blog and I'm way too cheap to pay for it, so I guess it's time to use a different blog to record the next chapter of our lives.  This blog started with our adoption of Diamond and Florence, which means that it spans the last five years of our lives.  I suppose this is a good time for this blog to transition to the next one, as this is a time in our lives when we are now once again moving.  Some time in the next six weeks we will be going from Korea to San Antonio.

Much has happened in the five years of this blog.  Besides our world traveling adventures, my children have grown from being small and wild little things to being tall, skinny wild things.  Their personalities are developing into full-fledged people with wit, intelligence and spirituality.  We have had heartache through deployments and growing pains with expanding our family and our horizons.  We have had miracles and life-altering experiences. 

I would hope that the last five years that have been recorded on this blog are a testament to how life can change people for the best.  While the only physical changes I may have had in the past five years have been a few extra wrinkles and some grey hair--I would like to think that I have grown immensely in my understanding of life, love and the world as a whole.

In the five years to come, my three oldest will most likely move out my house and go away to college.  My youngest children will enter junior high and high school.  Brian will likely retire from the Army.  Hopefully, he and I will both earn our doctorate degrees.  And, more than anything I hope that we get to continue to have incredible, life-changing, jet-setting adventures. 

Stay tuned. . . the best is yet to come!

The new blog will be The Next Chapter in the Simons' Adventures (feel free to visit us there!)

Simons Family and Southern Utah

 I have seen the world--not as much as I would like--but still, I've been in jungles, tundras, majestic mountains, oceans, temples. . . I could go on. . . but, the one thing I decided this summer is that even after all that I have seen and experienced, Southern Utah still is in my top three of most beautiful places on this earth. 

Brian's older brother, Steve, planned a four day, three night getaway to a cabin located halfway between Zion's National Park and Bryce Canyon.  There was not a dull moment the entire time we were there.

 These pictures are chronologically out of order, but you'll still be able to see what an amazing adventure this was for our family.

 The first full day we all toured Zion's National Park.  I LOVE this place.  This is the place where I decided that I wanted to marry Brian.  Seventeen years ago, almost to the month, Brian and I and some college friends hiked Zion's during a flash flood.  Only, we didn't know it was a flash flood until it was a bit late.  To make a long story short, Brian was washed down around one of the cliffs, and in my terror, I prayed, "God if you save him, I'll marry him" (he'd been begging me for quite sometime).  When we got down around the corner of the canyon, there he was standing there looking like the swamp thing--and the rest is history!

 It was really exciting to be able to take the kids back there.  They had never been, so they were in awe of the majesty of the place.  Because we no longer have babies (yay me!), we got to take our children and the older cousins on some serious adventures.  We hiked through a couple slot canyons and then hiked a couple miles up the Narrows from the mouth.  We found several swimming holes where the kids would jump off the boulders and swim.  By the time we got down we were completely waterlogged and freezing cold--but it was so worth it.

 One of the best parts of traveling with the Simons family is the way meals and responsibilities are divided up.  Every family takes a meal and is in charge of cleaning up afterward.  It's no small thing to cook for a crowd of about 40 people every meal--but somehow, not only does it work out very smoothly, we get fed some fabulous food. 

 We had the kids each design a brightly colored t-shirt to wear for the vacation.  They came in incredibly handy in locating our children in sage brush, dirt hills and crowds of people.  That's important when there are a heck of a lot of little munchkins running in every direction.

 The cabin was fully loaded with about a 200 yard zipline, a ropes course, tree swings and a hot tub.  There really was no time for the kids to get bored, whine or even bother the adults.  They were all very dirty at the end of each day.

 The best part of family vacations for us adults comes after we put the kids to bed and we all play games and laugh for hours.  This time, while we had some good bonding time, we were almost as worn out as the kids by the end of each day.

 One of the days we all went to Bryce Canyon to hike and picnic.  Not only was it a great time, with that many little cousins running all over the place, I was just really pleased that we didn't lose any over the sides of the cliffs. 

 Jarold is Brian's dad.  He has been suffering with multiple sclerosis for forty years.  He still gets around very well all things considering, but time is taking is toll on his mobility.  It was really important for us to let our kids spend valuable time with their Grandpa this summer.  I know Jarold couldn't keep up with everyone else, but I noticed he spent a lot of time with a giant smile on his face as he watched all of his grandchildren enjoying themselves. 

Right before we left the house the final day, Jarold asked me to call the entire family in.  Usually this job is given to Steve or me because we are the loudest and bossiest in the family.  I gathered the troops and Jarold said to his children and grandchildren, "I want you to know how blessed we all are.  I want you to all make good choices and do good things in life. I want you to always remember to pray--God hears your prayers and he will answer them.  And I want to let you all know how much I love each of you."  I don't know if the kids will remember that moment exactly, but someday they will look back and realize what an incredible man their grandfather was and will be thankful for the time they were able to spend with him.

We had an interesting experience happen the last evening.  We had brought lots of stuff for s'mores, but all the previous nights we had been too exhausted to light the fire.  The last night, several of the aunts felt very strongly that we should do a fire as our final activity at the house.  The men grumbled, but finally agreed.  After the kids filled up on gooey chocolate messiness and headed in to shower, the guys began putting out the fire.  Suddenly they heard a screech of tires and watched across the gulley as car headlights spun around and around and then slid off the road into a ditch. No one emerged from the car and no one seemed willing to stop to help.  Brian and Mike headed out immediately to go see if they could help.  When they arrived, they found two teenage girls who were terrified to get out in the dark and they couldn't reach anyone on their cellphones.  Turns out, the guys showed up just as the girls had been praying for help. 

This vacation will probably be one of those family memories that is recalled on a regular basis to reminisce about how awesome it was and how we really should do that again!