Reece

 

While I usually don't blog about the hard parts of life, it just seemed impossible to continue blogging about events, holidays and life without acknowledging the heartache we have experienced and are carrying with us through everything we do. On November 25, 2020, Reece passed away. We were all devastated and heartbroken and this is a loss we will carry in our hearts forever. Reece brought happiness and smiles  to all our lives, his loud, hardy laugh, his large, excited hellos and his big, tight bear hugs will be forever missed. He was so full of knowledge and was fascinating to talk with about any subject, he was always so willing to help us all with our computer problems, he was amazing at researching and he was always able to find the best products, hotels, travel options etc., and his knowledge of music and 80s movies was unmatched. Vienne refers to him as the joke master as he was always ready with a fun, silly joke, he could befriend anyone and everyone and he loved to sing, he was always singing or humming.

 I have so many fond memories of Reece as I was lucky enough to be able to travel with him and Beth often, we refereed to our little group as the tripod. Some of those memories are, Reece playing tour guide as we drove through the gardens of Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte in a golf cart. He spoke in a silly french accent and made up the most hilarious facts about everything we were seeing. Reece and I spending a whole day exploring New York together while Bethy was at work at her photography internship. Playing the card game Scum with Beth, Reece, and Lisa in our cabin while on an Alaskan cruise, we talked in British accents the entire time we were playing. Reece saving the day on my 30th birthday trip to New York, we were walking to lunch and it was absolutely freezing, we turned a corner and found Reece as he had gone off to run an errand and we were going to meet up with him at the restaurant. He was always so prepared and he had warm items of clothing for all of us, an extra coat, a scarf, gloves, and I swear he even had ear muffs or something, he always had anything you could ever need. On our last trip together, we had only gotten home 3 days before he passed away, I'll always remember how happy he was on our day at Victoria Beach. Reece always felt so at home at the beach, he was a true California boy. As we were driving and were getting closer to the beach, I remember him saying "can you smell that? can you feel that? we are getting close to the ocean!" Beth and I could not smell or feel the ocean yet, it was like his beach "spidey sense" was kicking in. Reece was kind enough to let me sleep in a sleeping bag, next to his and Beth's bed for two weeks while I visited them in their tiny little one room apartment in Switzerland when he was doing his internship with Cern, not a lot of brother-in-laws would agree to that. We also shared many fun times at concerts, movies, and local events. These are just a handful of the fun times I got to share with Reece, he was always so kind, warm and welcoming to his little sister-in-law.

Reece's funeral was on December 13, 2020, it was beautiful. It was a small, graveside service due to covid. Beth did an amazing job at planning every single detail. She wrote him a poem about their wonderful life together, Reece was a brilliant poet and would often write her poems, so it was such a perfect way to honor him. She created a  stunning piece of nautical and love knots out of ropes to hang on his casket, as he loved to sail.  The picture on this post is the picture Vienne drew of Reece for the front of the programs. The flowers were all done in red and yellow, yellow being his favorite color and he would always send Beth red roses. And there was a basket of Reese's peanut butter cups for all the guests, since it was his favorite candy.

It is still hard for me to comprehend that this is real, and this post was very difficult for me to write, thus it  may seem a little scattered. It was a place for me to write all my favorite memories and things about Reece, in my own way. We are still processing and healing and will be for a very long time. We miss Reece every single day, so as I continue to post about events and holidays, it won't represent the underlining current of grief and heartbreak we are all carrying. 

Reece we love you so much, and miss you with all of our hearts.

Cave Paintings

Our last excursion of the trip was seeing some cave paintings that are located on the outskirts of Zion National Park.

Finding the caves is a little tricky, there isn't a parking lot or a marked trail. We found the instructions online for where to park and how to find the caves, so we started walking in what we hoped was the right direction. 

We had to walk through a sandy dessert and some sage brush. We came upon an area where cattle very obviously come to rest or something, Vienne referred to it as the poo garden, which still makes me giggle.

After walking for quite some time, we finally found some gorgeous red rock, we were getting closer to the caves!

And there it was! The first cave!

This first cave has the most cave paintings, they are really clear and easy to see. We had fun discussing what we thought they were depicting.

All the different colors, designs and lines in the red rock were so gorgeous.

After spending a nice, long time admiring the paintings in the first cave, we began the short walk to the second cave. We were the only people in this entire area, we didn't have to worry about passing anyone on the trail or sharing the small cave spaces with others, it was such a great covid safe adventure.

This is one of my most favorite pictures from the entire trip, yet another adorable photo Monty gave us.

The second cave isn't as well known for cave paintings, it has an alter and supposedly some arrowheads, which we never found, but the alter was cool.

I found it fascinating these lush, green plants could be growing and thriving out of sand! Nature is amazing.

Then we began the walk back to the car, making sure to steer clear of the poo garden.