Weekend of the Dead - the good part.

For the weekend of my grandmother's funeral, Kenny and I had planned to be in Utah anyway - to visit Kenny's Dad, Ken, and his wife Kristee. Fortunately we were still able to spend a day with them - and had a great time!  Good food, good company, a beautiful drive up Snow Canyon, and some fun with Ken's new automated lift.  I've mentioned before that Kenny's dad has ALS and is steadily losing muscle control...this contraption will help lift him out of bed when he is no longer able to do it himself.  (I have to add that I was amazed at Kristee's strength! Helping Ken get in and out of cars and chairs these last few months has left her looking pretty fit!) Anyway, Kenny and Steven built the Lift while we there - and I got to test it out. FUN!  

I felt a little like a beached whale...in a good way (whatever that means).  Below, Kristee figures out how to control the machine.  Thankfully she gave me a pretty smooth ride.
Kenny and his Dad hamming it up and enjoying themselves.  And, in case you're wondering, the boys did a good job building this - we didn't drop anyone.
As a side note, we really made this trip a Weekend of the Dead (and dying), albeit unintentionally.  While on our scenic drive we passed a memorial and stopped to get a closer look. The memorial was honoring those killed at the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  It was pretty humbling to say the least.  The reverence of the visit was broken only by Kenny's urgent need to relieve his bladder...don't worry - we didn't deface any graves (he held it like a good boy). Unfortunately some other human-scum took care of that already by scratching several choice words into the memorial.  Awesome.  Once again, humanity makes me proud. (Insert disgusted sigh here. Moving on.)

Thanks again Ken and Kristee for the fun day.  It was great to see you - hopefully next time we'll be able to stay longer!