Pine Valley

There is a little valley just north of St. George called Pine Valley.  I grew up going there with my family.  I remember family reunions and walking down the "lane" to the small creek bed.  I remember standing in an ant pile feeding horses and having them climb all over me (that was a one time occurrence) and spotlighting for deer at night.  I always like it, but wouldn't say I LOVED it....not the way dad did anyways.  I know how much this place means to him for so many, many reasons.  He has a lot of memories there from his youth.  It is the place where my Grandma and Grandpa Snow first lived when they were married.  There is a lot of history there with our family.  My dad knows so much about it because he either experienced it or his parents or grandparents did.  I love going on a tour of the Pine Valley chapel with my dad, because, without fail, he knows more than the tour guides, and gives them some additional information during the tour (he always does it so nicely, but it is still really funny as I watch them try to teach my dad about something he is literally an expert on and they have only read the binder they were given).  He reminisces about planting the trees outside the church.  There are pictures of many of our ancestors in the room upstairs in the church.

Last year my dad and all of my siblings went down to Pine Valley.  I can't even remember the last time that happened, but it was before any of us had kids.  We went near the end of June; so before we "knew" about Eli.  I felt such a draw there.  I had never felt it like that before.  There were certain things I wanted to do there including go to the cemetery.  That was definitely a first for me as I had not been a frequenter of cemeteries up to that point in my life.  I especially felt drawn to my Grandpa Snow, who died when I was almost two.  I felt something and I knew it meant something, but I didn't know what.  I wasn't overly concerned about figuring it out.  I knew more would come.  I just felt a draw to my ancestors.  The ones that I'm sure I had heard a lot about, but never seemed to remember much.  I don't actual remember any of the people buried there, so hearing about them didn't evoke an earlier memory.   It felt more like a story.  A nice story that I liked; but a story nonetheless.  Last year it didn't feel like a story anymore.  I couldn't figure out why it had changed.  I chalked it up to me just getting older and more mature.

As the next year has unfolded, I knew there was more to my feelings than getting older and more mature (although I'm sure that didn't hurt).  I felt like I needed to go back and experience this place with the knowledge I now had.  I wanted to see through my new eyes and feel with the part of me that had been enlightened and drawn to them.  I now feel a kinship to this place that I never really have.  I can say I love this place now.  I know that will make you happy dad.  It makes me happy.

We went to church in the historic chapel and I realized (from reading some tour guide info on the wall), that Jeffrey R. Holland rededicated the chapel in 2005.  Actually, it was the Sunday after Katelyn was born, May 15th.  I just thought that was interesting.  In fact, I saw a lot of interesting dates as I was down there, but I'm not going to share all of that.   I wanted to have the spirit teach me more while I was down there.  I left with new insights and was so grateful for the trip.

Here are some pics of our trip:

Pine Valley Chapel

We found this big tunnel that went under the road.  I wanted to walk through it despite the bugs I guessed would be lurking.  We told Katelyn and Ethan they couldn't do it because they didn't have water shoes on.  They begged and begged until we finally let them.  Ethan was bawling as he walked through which was funny because he had begged to walk through.  

Katelyn and Ethan loving each other (and being themselves)...

We saw a lot of baby trees growing in the middle of the bigger, more mature trees.  Just a beautiful sight.

Grandma and Grandpa Snow's first house

Fishing for crawdads

If you have been to Pine Valley, you know that these blue bowls are there.  I remember using them growing up and thought it was fun to see my kids use them.