Visit with Nielson Cousins

The day after the funeral, the Neilson cousins went to Pine Valley.  Our grandmother had been born in Pine Valley and Mom always took out-of-town relatives to see the place of our ancestry.  I believe all of us have been there before but it is a nice place to see again and again.  "If wishes were fishes," I'd love to own a place there and visit all the time!  :o)

Here we are at the grave stone of our ancestor grandfather.  There are seventeen of us Nielson cousins (not counting one who is deceased) and at the funeral, there were only four of us not in attendance.  What is the likelihood of that happening again any time soon?  Not likely.

A few had to leave before the Pine Valley trip but we in this picture represent some posterity from all five Nielson girls who married.  The gal in the orange coat is a relative but not one of my first cousins.  She was our good tour guide.

This is the house of another wife of our ancestor grandfather--the house of our ancestor grandmother does not exist anymore--and this house is pretty much the same house plan as our ancestor's so it was interesting to see.  This house had been moved down the street from its original place, kitty-corner to our ancestor grandmother's house.

It was a great day and we (I can speak for all, right?) thoroughly enjoyed our visiting.  Thanks to T for being our guide, relative and friend!

The next day, most of the cousins were heading back to their homes but two of my cousins and I went to Zion National Park.  What a beautiful time of year to go to Zion!  I need to remember that when it is "cold" (relative term), there are not as many tourists!  Zion is being loved to death and, in the prime tourist time, it is totally overrun.  But this time, it was a lot like I remembered from my youth--not a lot of cars, plenty of parking, and the feeling you have the park to yourself.   In my youth, we would go to Zion a lot for community, school, church and family events and now I go years without ever entering the park at all. I need to don my winter gear and visit more often before the shuttles run.  Anyway, the three of us had a nice time driving through the park and seeing the beauty that is Zion.

We had a nice lunch and visit at the lodge before these cousins had to leave, too.

Hopefully we can see one another in the not-to-distant future, along with the other cousins who could not make it this time.  It puts me in mind of our Pine Valley ancestor grandmother whose brother went to the gold mines.  She said she lost track of him because she did not have money for postage for letters to him.  It is too bad that we're "far enough flung" that it costs real money for travel.  Always that darn money problem.  Then if it isn't money, it is time or health or some other demand.  Bis aufs Wiedersehen.