We’ve returned from our short but action-packed weekend in Utah; David’s parents were also there as a surprise for my mom and in fact are still there. They’ll return tomorrow, full of tales of excitement and thrills. Sunday, for example, the 4 of us went up to my cousin’s cabin in Lamb’s Canyon just to look around, then a few miles “around the corner” to Park City for lunch and window-shopping. On a whim, we all rode the “Town Chair” ski lift up the mountain, took pictures, wandered around in a featureless and stony wasteland devoid of shopping opportunities, and came down the mountain. Well, it was a pretty day for it and it was quite fun and a little scary when the lift would go from “loading” speed to “haul ass” speed when no one was waiting to board or hop off. That was just David’s parents and us, as my mom wasn’t up to any adventure the day after her big party at my sister Timmy’s house.

The party was really fun and there were a lot of people there who were surprises – cousins we hadn’t seen in nearly 30 years and old neighbors and friends of my mom’s from 5 decades or more ago. Timmy put on a great party and one that Mom will be talking about for some time to come.

Sunday was the day when everyone in town for the party kind of broke up into smaller groups and did different things; my other sister Tudy took our family friend Raymond around for a bit and met us in Park City, while Timmy took my niece Raeanne and the grandkids (Hi Collin! Hi Paige!) up to Snowbird for Oktoberfest. Then yesterday Ranny and the kids took off for Idaho in the morning, and we had breakfast with my mom and David’s parents before we took off. Then Timmy, my in-laws, and maybe Raymond and a few others were going to go to Heber to ride the steam train excursion and get robbed by desperadoes and donate the takings to charity. It sounded like fun, but unfortunately we were locked into our return schedule so no choo-choo fun for us.

Still, we had a lot of great food – Saturday in particular included breakfast with the whole fam-damily, then dropping Paige off at her grandma’s, then lunch up Big Cottonwood Canyon at the Silver Fork Lodge with Jim, then back to Timmy’s house for the party, more eating, etc. Sunday after we returned from Park City, we got pulled together again and went out to dinner with Mom and David’s parents.

It didn’t seem that exhausting at the time, but we really packed a lot of activities into it, and of course we had to spend as much time in the mountains as possible.

My only grouses were on myself – for not taking Friday off (I assumed I wouldn’t be able to get it, but I probably could have if I’d asked) and for not carrying sunscreen and a hat with me, along with my phone and iPod charges. All of the later items were left behind, infuriatingly at hand for packing, but inexplicably left out for reasons of pre-travel insanity.

It was a great weekend, and the only other thing undone was that I forgot to call my cousin Bill to thank him for lending me the cabin keys and to tell him they’re hanging on Mom’s mantel. That’s a reminder to me more than anything.

More later. I’m still catching up on the hurricane news and wondering just how much worse it might get before it gets better. In the midst of these musings, I was struck by a thought – there are probably people who are already figuring out how to celebrate Mardi Gras this year, no matter where they are.