2 Samuel 12:3:  “But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.” 

I awoke about 3:00 a.m. the night Esther came to live with us and stood at the top of the stairs listening for her bleating.  At the time, Esther was a day-old, orphaned lamb.    Bum lambs, as they are called, have only a 50-50 chance of living through their first night and, hearing nothing but silence from the basement, I grew anxious.   “Oh no.  OH NO!,” I thought.  “Grace will be devastated.”   Though she was new in our home, Esther was already very established in Grace’s heart.  

I quickly descended the stairs, hoping for the best and fearing the worse.   Trepidatiously, I approached the enclosure Grace built for Esther on our basement’s cement floor.  There, nestled in the straw, sleeping peacefully with baby Esther was teenage Grace.   No wonder the lamb was not bleating; she had found a mama. 

Grace and Esther slept together for the next month.  They moved from straw on the floor to sheets on the bed (which Grace washed daily).   Grace convinced her teacher to let Esther come to school and her parents to let Esther go with the family to Las Vegas for Spring Break.   Odd things are the norm in Las Vegas but seeing baby Esther strolling on a Las Vegas boulevard caused more than one person to stop and ask for a photo.

Esther, genetically a Merino sheep, identified as a human.   Grace’s human to be exact.   She entered our house at will, jumping through an open window if no one was gracious enough to open the door for her.   She was Grace’s little shadow…and echo.    When Grace left her (heaven forbid!) and then returned, all Grace had to do was “Baaaaa” and Esther would come running, "baaaa-ing"her response.

Little Esther grew and became big Esther though she was always Grace’s “baby”.  Once Grace adorned her with a red cloak and took her trick or treating as Little Red Riding Hood.    The neighbors invited Grace and Esther into their living room where Esther (that’s Queen Esther to you…!) nibbled on their indoor geraniums and head-butted their Standard Poodle.    Grace and Esther were a not-uncommon site walking the streets of Roy….and the halls of Roy High.

Actually, Esther never walked the halls of Roy High as an adult, but she did make appearances on Roy High’s stage several times.   The first time was as Grace’s Homecoming Royalty escort.   Most Homecoming Queen candidates choose boyfriends, brothers, or fathers to escort them.  Grace chose Esther.   And, as if bringing a wooly friend into the auditorium was not risky enough, Grace left Esther with a student body officer on one side of the stage, walked to the other side of the stage and told the officer to let Esther go.   A sheep loose on a stage in front of 600 high school students…..  What could possibly go wrong?    Esther performed like the queen she was.    Grace “baaaa-ed” at Esther.  Esther baaaa-ed back and the two (Grace and Esther) met happily on center stage. 

Mature Esther became Mama Esther…and what a Mama she was!   Tough and tender, she was not afraid to knock any non-sheep thing that came too near though she was “as gentle as a lamb” when she softly nuzzled her babies.   During her second pregnancy we almost lost her to pregnancy toxemia, but she rebounded the next year and had triplets: three black babies Grace named Sam, Sarah, and Sariah.

Grace moved to SLC to attend the University of Utah.   Esther may have been out of her sight, but she was not out of her heart.   Many times Grace said to me, “I came to Roy last night but I did not go in the house.  I needed an Esther fix, so I went to the pasture and hung out with her for an hour.”  I say that Esther was not in her sight but that is only partially correct.   Every room in Grace’s apartment, with the possible exception of the bathroom, sports at least one photo, painting, or stuffed animal likeness of Esther.

“Ewe complete me” was the headline (above the fold!) of the local paper on Monday, 24 August 2020. Below the headline was a full color photo of Grace and Esther and below the photo was an article that began “This is the heartwarming story of Grace and Esther, two unlikely friends who have been virtually inseparable for the last 4 ½ years.”   Still, not matter where Esther was in the pasture and no matter how long it had been since Grace had come home, when Grace “baaaa-ed”, Esther “baaaa-ed” back and came running.

Theirs was a love affair to remember.    And, on February 23, it became just that….an affair to remember.  Their love changed from an active, hands and hugs-on relationship to a thing to remember when Esther, sweet Esther, died of complications related to childbirth. 

Grace was devastated.  “There are also no words to describe the pain I feel now,” she posted on Facebook.  “I am so grateful for what she has been for me and am completely heartbroken from her loss.”
Indeed, Grace had one little ewe lamb that she bought and nourished up.  And that little ewe lamb, the one we know as Esther, grew up with her and ate from her hands and drank from her cup and lay in her bosom, and was unto Grace as a daughter.    

Families are forever and Esther, as a daughter, is family.   She is waiting for Grace on the other side of the veil that separates this life from the one to come.    When Grace passes through that veil she will “baaaaa” and Esther will “baaaaa” and they will run to each other, meeting happily in the middle.

Hard to believe that only a week before we were trekking across a desert to hike in a narrow canyon.  Seven days later we paddled up a huge river in a giant gorge….    And it was glorious!!!

This summer, while waiting for our childrens’ turn to show their hogs, Eric Wilkinson invited Lance and I to go kayaking with him and Shannon.    Being a “never say no” kind of gal, I instantly agreed.   Lance slightly hesitantly and somewhat reluctantly agreed to accompany me.   Things with school (figuratively drowning) and at home (house a disaster, needy children, baskets and baskets of peaches needed processing) being the way they are I was very tempted to bail out but could not bring myself to make the call…..so we went...and we (BOTH of us) were so glad we did.   Glorious, glorious, glorious!

One would think that kayaking 3.5 miles upstream would be physically taxing...but one would be wrong if the “stream” one was kayaking was the stretch of the Snake River that runs past Twin Falls, ID.   The river is wide, slow, and very user friendly. The day was also very user friendly: overcast, warm but not too hot, and slightly (VERY slightly) breezy.  Perfect.

The day was perfect.  So were the people.  Eric is Mr. Congeniality in a long, tall body.   Shannon is short and sassy in every good sense of the phrase.   Karen is everyone’s favorite aunt, whether they are related to her or not.  John’s sense of adventure matches his red hair and Natalie’s graciousness matches her friendly smile.   Lance and I were the newcomers….and we hope to become frequent comers.

Speaking of comers….Kayaking rapidly came to be my newest addiction.   With minimal physical effort, we maximized our outdoor enjoyment.   The Snake River Canyon is truly amazing….500 feet deep and a quarter mile wide, it cuts through ancient basalt lava flows as it winds for 50 miles through southern Idaho.   

A huge stone outcropping interrupts the river about half way between the kayak input and Shoshone Falls.   One has to portage the kayaks about 200 m.   We found that one also has to explore the rock outcroppings.   Shannon, Eric and Karen had to jump into the pools and John had to try kayaking a couple of the rapids.   We all had to admire the scenery.

The island/outcroppings were amazing; Shoshone Falls was outright stunning.   Known as the “Niagara of the West”, it is 212 feet (65 m) high—45 feet (14 m) higher than Niagara Falls—and flows over a rim nearly 1,000 feet (300 m) wide.  It is amazing to see from above.  It is even more amazing to see from below.  We kayaked close to the falls, so close that our faces were misted by the spray and our kayaks were rocked by the cascading water’s wake.   So cool!!!!  SO COOL!!

And then we did it in reverse, this time kayaking 3.5 miles downstream.   The difference between kayaking downstream and upstream was barely noticeable.  The magic of kayaking, though, was very noticeable.   I am hooked.   Kayaks are now on my wish list.   Anyone know where I can get six?

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Three a day….  The National Dairy Council suggests 3 daily servings of milk products, a “major study” suggests that 3 a day servings of fruits and veggies is sufficient, that there not need to have 5 daily servings of fruits and veggies, and 3 a day workouts are suggested by some as a healthy way to lose weight….   I did not find any published research on the health effects of 3 a day slot canyons but I do have some personal experiences I can share….

Over Labor Day weekend, I, along with most of my family and some of my favorite nieces and nephews (and another young adult who is not-yet-family but who is already a favorite), hiked three slot canyons in one day and it was a very healthy experience.  [What does not kill you makes you stronger, right?!?!?!]

The Escalante part of the weekend started, for Miles, Lance and I, just before midnight when we arrived at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park.   There we joined Romney, Aliza, Olivia and Grace and Romney’s crippled car--- which mercifully broke down right in front of our campsite.   The night was clear and warm and the people (all of us) were tired so we did not put up tents, choosing instead to sleep under the stars.

Saturday dawned, in Lance’s words, “a bright and glorious morning”, partially because it really was a beautiful morning, partially because Tanah joined us, and partially because we were able to get Romney’s car running long enough to deliver it to Escalante’s only auto repair shop.   After dropping Romney’s car off at the local repair shop--which Google said was not open but actually was...kind-of….there was a young man in the parking lot who said he worked there who took Romney’s keys--we drove down Hole-in-the-Rock road to the Peek-a-Boo and Spooky slot canyons trail head. Let the good times begin!   Slot canyons carry their own special magic and that magic was magnified by the fabulousness of the people with whom we hiked.   Honestly!

Lance charged the entrance to Peek-a-Boo.   To enter Peek-a-boo, one has to scale a 10 foot cliff, enhanced by only a few footholds that are much taller than waist high.    A blog commenter said he waited for over an hour at the entrance, hoping someone would arrive and help him up the wall.   Lance did it by himself.  (Romney helped me.)    Once inside, Peek-a-Boo was all beauty--twists, turns, and intricately shaped rock surfaces.   Spooky was narrower, tighter, darker, and much more challenging.   There were times Lance had to drop to crawl because the wider part of the canyon was lower; other times he had to shimmy up because the wider part of the canyon was higher.   He scratched holes in his shirt and some skin off his tummy and got an idea for a new, extreme, belly-scraping weight loss program..    

Zebra was our third slot canyon of the day.  My purpose for planning a Labor Day adventure to the Escalante area was to explore Zebra slot canyon; to check it out as a possible hike for future field trips.   Nope.  Not suitable.

It is an out and back hike, a short slot canyon at the end of a long hike.    The hike was good.   Again, it is hard to go wrong when hiking with such fabulous people.  The slot canyon was good too.   Fabulous in fact.  But I feel no need to ever do it again.

The visitor’s center guide told me there were 3 feet of water in Zebra.  Given the extremely dry summer we’ve had, I expected 12-18 inches.   Nope.  There were 3 feet of water in Zebra.   She warned me about the water.   No one told me about the slot.  

It was a narrow canyon--much more narrow than Spooky.   And the footing was tricky.   There were times--several times--when I was wedged tightly both at my chest and at my ankle.   I would struggle to wiggle/drag/push my foot forward a couple inches and then work to push/pull my torso forward, then return to trying to move my foot.   Intense.  At one point I tried to shimmy/spider along the wall by putting a foot on each side of the narrow crevice.   Nope.  Not enough traction on my Chacos.   A slip would mean a wedged ankle if I were lucky and a shattered one if I weren’t.   I also tried to shimmy up the canyon with my feet against one wall and my back against the other.   In many places it was too narrow to do that; the canyon walls were so close that my knees were in my teeth which made it hard to move them--teeth or knees or anything else for that matter…..  Intense.  YEP.  

And beautiful!   Amazing, awesome, outstanding.  Super cool, literally (the water) and figuratively (the experience).  The stripes, for which the canyon is named, were magnificent.  The tadpoles, tadpoles-transitioning-to-frogs, and the frogs were awesome too.  The “I-might-be-stuck-but-I-refuse-to-panic” feeling was great too….after I got out of the narrow spot.

The whole experience, start to finish, was awesome.   We did end up pitching a tent but only to house our bags when we were gone for the day; we put it aside at night and again slept under the stars.  Lance fished past dark and enjoyed watching and, after dark, feeling the tug of bats playing with his fishing line.    Tanah did not so much enjoy seeing the skunk that visited our garbage can while most of us slept.   Olivia entertained us with her guitar (a little) and fun campfire games (a lot).  Aliza was even more gracious and beautiful and helpful than I remembered (which was hard to do).  Miles fished for bass and Grace caught one--on Miles’ line.  Before the trip Miles had never caught a bass.  He still has not caught a bass.  And Romney lived up to the Noel boys’ reputation.  “Never go adventuring without a Noel boy” has become a Hislop adage.   For my part, I tried to fix lots of yummy food, hoping to lure/bait everyone into accepting my next adventuring invitation.  

Yep, yep, yep…..for me, 3 a day slot canyons was a healthy experience...once!   Though I do not plan on exploring 3 slot canyons in one day anytime soon, I hope to adventure again with these people really soon.   

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