66th Stop - Utah Part 2: Gpa's Funeral

Blog Post #77 - Written August 24, 2026

Stay: November 7-11, 2025

It was a beautiful time to spend together celebrating Gary's Grumps.  The service was wonderful, full of cousins, friends, and cherished memories.  


Grandpa's plot was quite a ways north, so after the service we drove a couple hours north to the graveside service.  Our GPS apparently thought that we needed some more adventure in our life, so we found ourselves down some random farm path.  Gary had to get out and open a few cattle gates along the way.  Eventually, we found the freeway again, but instead of merging onto it, Google Maps took us under it, through a tiny little service tunnel that was barely wide enough to fit our car.  


We returned back to Orem to again celebrate Grumps' life with dinner and friends.  He was an incredible friend, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.  It was an honor to hear stories about how he had touched the lives of so many.  We are truly grateful for the knowledge that families can be together forever.  

With the bitter comes the sweet.  This time brought cousins and family together.  We enjoyed evenings playing games and gathering together for more stories.  

 



I even had my own nieces come up from BYU to visit for a couple of hours.  It was so much fun seeing them as adults forging their own paths.

On our way back to the trailer in NM, Gary and I took the kids to the Fifth Water Hot Springs in Spanish Fork Canyon.  It was a cold trek out (and an even colder trek back), but the springs are beautiful! And hot!  The day was pretty chilly, so we tried the different pools, slowly working our way towards warmer, and warmer, and hotter water and a gorgeous waterfall.  We managed to make our way back without freezing (being cold definitely incentivized the kids to move faster haha).  



It was time again to return to Albuquerque and our travels.  We made one last pit stop at Newspaper Rock, an enormous collection of petroglyphs.  We drove some of the loop that overlooks the Needles District of Canyonland .  We found a fun hike and a small pond for the kids to play around.  They were catching tons of crawdads with sticks! It was pretty incredible.  











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