Utah for Grandad’s funeral

Grandad Hurst took a turn right before Labor Day and died August 31. He had taken a turn when we were all visiting in Lake Tahoe and hadn’t quite been the same, but still his death came about very quickly. Our little Family was in a very up in the air with what to do about maybe moving into the Hursts’s house, what to do for Hunter’s schooling, getting pregnant, where to travel for our fall family trip. When we heard grandad died we knew that we would go forward with a plan we had always envisioned- taking a good amount of time to see southeastern Utah and connect with that heritage. We had always liked the idea of taking the kids to red rock but the logistics and time of getting there we had a hard time justifying (it’s like flying to Europe the time it takes to travel there!). But grandad’s death and the reunion it would be with the family we knew we had to be a part of.

 don’t often instagram often, but when I do it’s to shamelessly plug my genius husband 👏🏻Will you go to the link in my profile and vote for this @pshurst photo? Thanks! Now the back story if you want to keep reading: we camped in Monument Valley as an homage to Philip’s grandad who we had just laid to rest in his nearby hometown. Our kids were literally the only 2 children I saw on this trip (MV is really a gem in the middle of absolute nowhere) we had seriously the best red dirt day and even walked up to campsites with no reservation! And We happened to show up on one of the 2 days of the year that the west mitten shadow is perfectly cast on the east mitten. surreal. We then enjoyed the moonrise while the kids enjoyed ice cream....Then Philip (not me) was up every hour of the night with our kids (like 22/12 hours stand goal on his Apple Watch) trying to calm them in their tent and THEN woke up to his alarm to get this sunrise picture. Do you see how I married the absolute best man ever? He deserves all the votes! Also, unbiasedly This photo is the best of the 4 in the HippyTree contest. But what about that legit backstory amirite?