Feeling a little nostalgic today.....

.....as I just heard of the passing of my cousin, Doug Cannon (second son of my mom's sister Ruth and Arnold Cannon). Joyce and I will be heading out to Moab for his funeral in a few hours and all afternoon I have been thinking about why I need to be there. Doug was a big part of my teenage life. He was goodlooking, funny, teased a lot and I basically really liked being around him. He was older than me, but after his mission, the girls my age didn't seem so young and I would line him up with my friends and he'd line me up with his. Once we even went on a group date to Branham's Ranch and I remember feeling sooooo grown-up in the presence of all of the cool Hurricane guys. Doug found the finest of fine when he married Joan. They have raised an amazing family and they live in Moab, Utah where he was the Business Manager for the school district there. He was a good man and taken way too soon as they still have two sons on missions right now. His passing got me to thinking about the outings and good times we'd have with our cousins and I found some fun pictures of one of our trips to Zion. Even though Doug isn't in these pictures, I'm sure there were times his family joined us and many times I had the opportunity to join them on their camping trips. Doug always had a nick-name for everyone and in his teasing frenzies, you got called "Crunchy Orvil". He was good through and through, lived a good life, faught a valiant fight. I'll post more when I return from Moab.

These pictures are from a trip to Zion we must have taken when Aunt Beulah and Uncle Emeron's family were visiting from California because Cousin Craig has joined me, Joyce (what's that on your shirt?), Bruce (is that Seth?) and Clark with the talking Indian.


Anyone out there remember this talking Indian statue? When I was a kid I was totally amazed at all this Indian knew about me. He'd really talk to me and call me by name. I think there was a part of me that thought he was real (kinda like when I thought my dolls could grow hair). The technology of the day allowed a microphone hooked up so my dad could go inside the store and tell the old Indian what to say.....but what the hay.....let the little girl think the Indian's really talking to her, okay.....

...then there was the old swinging bridge. Made Zion seem like Disneyland and this thing was the subject of many of my nightmares. We always HAD to try it though.....just one of those things the folks made us do to conquer our fears.....

....and then the mighty Mile-long Zion Tunnel....(click HERE to read about it) and just last Wednesday, 300 lucky people got to walk through it again. I'm so sad I wasn't one of them because I remember so vividly when you could park your car and hang over the edge of one of the big windows. I didn't know what an amazing thing that was then but I do now 'cause whenever I drive through now, I try to snap a picture with my camera as I drive by. It's just not the same but those 300 lucky people got to do just that the other day. Go to Karen's (Mason's dental assistant) blog HERE and see what a great time she had and you too will be very jealous that you weren't there. I get jealous when people go to Disneyland without me but dang, this made me ten times more jealous. The people in her pictures are my cousins from Hurricane.....and I just should have been there. (Get over it Jillyn.....move on....let it go.....). Okay, I feel better now but I just need you to know how much I love Zion National Park. I've been there about 5 times already since I bought my pass and hope to go a gazillion more times before I die and maybe, just maybe (probably not) I'll get to walk through it one day. We used to go up at night and run through it in the dark and hide in the crevices in the walls when we would see car lights (very stupid, I know but it's just what we did back then). Oh, well.....this has been a long blog. If you read it to here, let me know and I'll send you a souvenir from Zion next time I go there. Appreciate the good times, people.....then you'll have good memories to get you by when you get old. Peace out....and a hip, hip hooray for our beautiful land of America and especially Zion National Park and especially, goodbye to my Cousin Doug.....a good example of a life well-lived.