Grandma Henke

It was over 103 degrees in Ivins so we went to Pine Valley … just me and my man.   It was at least fifteen degrees cooler up in the shade of the pines as we sat by this bubbling creek reading our books and chatting.    This is one of probably ninety times we’ve gone up there to refresh our minds and bodies.

Peaceful feelings come almost unbidden in this type of setting.   It’s not hard to kick back and relax.      We’ve changed a lot since we first started taking our children up there on camping trips … One of the camp sights we used to try to get each year reminds me of the setting I thought of for a poem I wrote called “Empty Nest“.      We used to jump over these logs with our arms full of camping supplies and kids and now we have to carefully make our way around them.

Above is Ryan in 1982 helping Kimberly get down from a giant rock she managed to climb.    Below (1989) Kimberly is wrapped up in her dad’s hammock refusing to speak to any of the rest of us for some infraction that I can’t remember.

.

Above is a picture of the old tent all seven of us used to sleep in before the addition of a second, smaller tent that Lynn and I shared.   Below we hang out on the rocks in 1989.

I would say that we love Pine Valley as much today as we did back in 1989, but that’s not exactly true.    We love it more because it is filled with 31 years of golden memories of wonderful times spent with our family and friends.    No wonder it feels so good.