Family Time

We have been in Canon City for nearly a week, waiting for the funeral of our sister-in-law Diane. John will officiate at that service tomorrow. In the mean time, we have a lot of quality family time.

We have been with John's brother Tim as he grieves his wife's death and John and he went to breakfast one morning. We have visited with our nieces and nephews who are grandchildren. One of John's sisters also lives here and we have had quality time with Kendal and John.

Tim and Diane have 11 grandchildren. Nine of them have been here. Add in one granddaughter-in-law and there have been 10 teenagers waiting with us. Friday it was time to find something interesting for all of them to do. Canon City is on the edge of the Royal Gorge, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas River. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about the bridge.

We went to the Gorge with the whole crew. Here is just part of our group, waiting to enter the visitor center.

We walked out to the bridge, then crossed the gorge. Below is a view down to the Arkansas River.

The gorge complex included a big swing that the rider takes out over the gorge, a gondola that goes across and a zip line. John and I and our niece Megan took the zip line and several others rode the gondola. We were all able to do this at no cost because one nephew works there and has a nice boss who gave us all complementary entrance.

Here is a picture of John coming to the end of the zip line and me starting my ride starting. The view from up there was wonderful and the ride wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It was a first for all of us.

After our outing to the Royal Gorge, we all visited the funeral home to view Diane's body. (Both John and Tim and their father were funeral directors.)  Then the local Evangelical Free Church provided a dinner for all of us. There was lots of good food and good conversation.

When families are spread out all over the country, funerals and weddings are where people come back together for mutual support and love. It has been a full week of that here.