Every year for the past 18 years (EIGHTEEN years, people!!!!), in February or March, a huge chunk of the old Lifferth clan heads down to Southern Utah for a weekend reunion to Bryce Canyon. We stay at a hotel there that's called Ruby's Inn...which, you know, is why the trip is called the Lifferth Ruby's Inn Retreat.
To be completely 100% honest, Ruby's Inn is kind of like getting a taste of heaven.
Ruby's Inn is a do-what-you want kind of weekend. Aunts pull out their sewing machines and get to work chatting and crafting. Lots of Uncles and cousins head out to go shooting. The kids spend an absolutely unhealthy amount of time in the over-chlorinated pool. Basically, it's heaven because you just get to do what you want with the people you love.
Not to mention, the obscene amounts of delicious treats that are hanging around don't hurt either.
When I was younger, I spent my Ruby's Inn weekend rotating between the pool and the hotel room, since it was always a treat to have cable TV for once. But I gradually got to the place where I loved hiking the most and that is where I've stayed.
This year, Ben and I headed down on Thursday morning for an early weekend. We spent most our time with my siblings and their spouses-Heather, Matt, Eric and Linda.
Our motto for the weekend was a No Regrets weekend. And we totally rocked it. We also had a goal to do as many new things as possible. As you can imagine, after going to the same spot year after year for 18 years, you see the same hike again and again. It was a bit of a challenge to come up with new hikes, but we totally succeeded.
Most of the weekend, we pretty much just flew with the wind, doing whatever sounded fun.
Our first hike was in the Petrified Forest.
(This post has five million pictures. Sorry...not sorry:)
To be completely 100% honest, Ruby's Inn is kind of like getting a taste of heaven.
Ruby's Inn is a do-what-you want kind of weekend. Aunts pull out their sewing machines and get to work chatting and crafting. Lots of Uncles and cousins head out to go shooting. The kids spend an absolutely unhealthy amount of time in the over-chlorinated pool. Basically, it's heaven because you just get to do what you want with the people you love.
Not to mention, the obscene amounts of delicious treats that are hanging around don't hurt either.
When I was younger, I spent my Ruby's Inn weekend rotating between the pool and the hotel room, since it was always a treat to have cable TV for once. But I gradually got to the place where I loved hiking the most and that is where I've stayed.
This year, Ben and I headed down on Thursday morning for an early weekend. We spent most our time with my siblings and their spouses-Heather, Matt, Eric and Linda.
Our motto for the weekend was a No Regrets weekend. And we totally rocked it. We also had a goal to do as many new things as possible. As you can imagine, after going to the same spot year after year for 18 years, you see the same hike again and again. It was a bit of a challenge to come up with new hikes, but we totally succeeded.
Most of the weekend, we pretty much just flew with the wind, doing whatever sounded fun.
Our first hike was in the Petrified Forest.
(This post has five million pictures. Sorry...not sorry:)
Check out that log! It seriously had so many colors! It was incredible. It was fun to keep your eye out for all the petrified wood. It was a little hard to spot!
While we were driving, we stopped to take in the scenery.
Hooray for timed photos! I could actually be in a couple :)
We dropped pennies down this tiny crack, canyon, crevasse, whatever you want to call it. The penny would ricochet back and forth across the walls the whole way down. It kind of reminded me of Plinko on The Price is Right.
Sun's out, guns out.
At least that's what Eric kept saying ;)
At least that's what Eric kept saying ;)
Friday and Saturday we spent in Kodachrome Basin State Park. They have a ton of hikes. The one below was called Angel's Palace.
Oh man, my pregnant sister is so dat gum cute!
Next was a hike called the Panorama Trail. It was so fun! We hiked around and saw a beautiful panorama, but the trail had little stopping points like the ones below.
There were a couple of times on the trail where you could choose to take a little bit longer of a trail to see an interesting point. We followed a sign that was titled "Cool Cave" for awhile before deciding it was too far out of the way. We never saw "Cool Cave" but we did find this, and we decided it was pretty cool too (okay, really, it was lame...but it made us feel a little better about the extra hiking).
Kodachrome basin. It's like Nature's Ombre.
One thing I voted to do was hike to Fairyland. It's just outside of Bryce. You can normally drive to it, but the road was snowed in and closed. So we put on our boots and hiked up the road a ways.
(P.S....Ben made his own shirt for this occasion. He's very crafty...)
(P.S....Ben made his own shirt for this occasion. He's very crafty...)
Oh my. Totally worth the snow.
Before we went down, my younger sister, Leslie, asked me if I would take her Senior Pictures. I am in no way a professional photographer, but I sure had a blast doing this! I learned a ton and can't wait until I have a chance to do something like this again! I know that practice will only make me better. Here are a couple pictures from our little shoot.
Anyway, our trip was totally wonderful. I'm so grateful that we have an excuse every year, to go experience what Heavenly Father has created for us. I love spending time with family and being outside.
If you made it this far, good for you! Internet high five! :)