God's Country

Some of you may know what these pictures are. Well, one of you will know, since, Ambs, you're the only member of our family that visits Resplendent. To the other members of our family, you make me sad by not frequenting the blog. :( See? Sad face.

For those of you who don't know what the above pictures represent, I will tell a short tale. My uncles love playing jokes. One day, 20 years ago, one of my dad's brothers told him (my dad) that he simply must go to Blanding, UT, because "it's the greatest place in Utah." My dad, being the gullible, little man that he was believed every word. So on our family vacation to four corners, we stopped in Blanding. Due to a terrible experience there, consisting of staying at a negative-five-star motel and eating at a burger joint that shot somewhere under par, we, meaning my sister and I, vowed ne'er to return. I've never been able to drink Sprite from a fountain without thinking about the gross burger place with gross chicken nuggets and gross Sprite that is now a loan place. Ugh. We even used Blanding in the prediction-game MASH as the bad-luck-future-place-of-residence. Little did you know, Danny, you were right. I take back every bad thing I ever said about the town AKA God's Country. Eat your heart out, Moab. You will never be as cool as Blanding.

As can most likely be assumed from the preliminary, this post is about my trip to Blanding, Kendall's hometown. We drove down Friday, spent all day Saturday driving four-wheelers, hiking, and eating cookies, steak, potatoes, and cookies. We reluctantly, yet very swiftly, drove back on Sunday. It was a wonderful vacation. Here are some pictures of the beauty that can be found in God's Country.

We walked off that cliff on the left. I'm serious.

See?

I almost fell off the rock next to Kendall.

Looking straight up from...

...the edge of this cliff.

This wasn't a posed picture. You could see forever out there.

A kiva. I wonder who the Anasazi dudes worshipped? I took

this shot by holding the camera up to my face with one hand,

holding on to a rock with the other hand, feet planted on the

edge of the cliff of doom and leaning back. A small risk

for an OK shot. :)

I wanted to make climb to the tree on the left. I was

told I would die. PS the shadow looks like

Alfred Hitchcock.

If you look closely, you can see some people in the middle

of that crack. That's where we were.

A cool looking tree and proof that you can see forever.

Just another exhilarating view.

Kendall getting birthed.

I was about to get smashed by the large boulder up there.

A double-decker ruin, not unlike the double decker

from Taco Hell. It will ruin you.

These horse trails were made before the rock solidified. Around

400 A.D. or something. Evidence that there were

horses on this continent pre-Columbus.

A beautiful view.

Favorite shot of the day. This flower was growing out

of the rock with the horse trails.

It was a pretty sweet time. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Thanks Kendall, Kelly and Terri for such a great weekend!

Peace.