We had a wonderful sunny Thanksgiving Day in St. George. And best of all we had all of our children, their spouses and grand kids with us! As usual, Eric, Marty and I spent several hours this morning putting up Christmas lights on the outside of the house. We got a lot done but I still have a fair amount to do to finish the job. The meal was delicious with lots of turkey and pies. Some fun basketball shooting out back and a good game of Pounce. Tomorrow we plan to drive over to Zion and do our annual hike. It may be a little more challenging now with Marty's twins and Sheri's newborn girl.
A few days ago I teamed up with Ranger Andrew for a climb up the East Temple in Zion. This buttress is one of the highest peaks in Zion and rarely climbed. It has lots of scrambling on steep slickrock and several pitches of roped up climbing. We gathered as much information about previous ascents from friends. Only one friend, Bo, had actually climbed the route. He was helpful in verbally describing the route. It was a balmy day in November with brief periods of sunshine. The climb took us 7 hours and we did put on our climbing gear and use ropes on 6 pitches. The top was vegetated and had only signs of bighorn sheep. Our descent was fortunately efficient as we arrived back to my truck right at dark. Another great day in Zion.
Monday night (11-11-13) a few minutes before midnight Sheri had our sixth grandchild! Iva was born without incidence at the hospital in St. George. Debbie was in attendance as was Angie. Peter of course was there to help give support to Sheri. I was home with Siena and Cara. I had read them a bedtime story and tucked them into bed in the "granddaughter room". It was a warm beautiful day in Southern Utah with lots of sunshine. They have decided to name her Iva Matilda Romney.