Flashback time. I got a notice in Slack congratulating me on my 11th anniversary working at Automattic. Wow! How time flies! That was a crazy era in life. I remember that after a super intense trial that lasted over a month, I had a final four-hour interview with Matt Mullenweg. That was a Thursday. I was put on a plane that Saturday to meet a few hundred co-workers for a company meetup. If I remember correctly, I think I was somewhere around the 270th employee hired. My life has never been the same.

Now working with close to 2,000 other colleagues, I’ve traveled to many countries, met amazing people and live in a constant state of learning from brilliant people and pushing my own boundaries of knowledge so I can better help people. I’ve worked in WordPress.com support, mobile support, Jetpack support and WooCommerce support. Each role helping me grow and increased my love for tech.

I had traveled a bunch in my past and pride myself in feeling home anywhere I rest my head. But that first trip was different. The 2014 meetup was in Park City, Utah. As I stood in the airport ready to fly east at the end of the week I remember looking out the windows and feeling like I was home. An odd reaction for me. So a few years later when all three of our sons moved west to Utah, I sincerely got it and respected their choices.

Over the years I became acquainted with the beauties of Utah — from slopes to canyons.

This year as we headed out to visit family and such, I had another amazing Utah experience. We went to Cedar Breaks — at the southern end of the state. It’s like a mini Grand Canyon. Exquisite! And I learned that they offer Night Sky Tours.

Although this treasure of a place is in the south, it still gets a ton of snowfall due to its high altitude. Check out their snow stick! We’re talking packed snow here….

We were warned to dress warmly, even though it was summer.

Basically, you show up at a designated spot after 6pm and get to look through a telescope that lets one safely look at the sun. It was wild! You could even see sunspots!

Some brilliant people were taking pics through the telescopes. I was too shaky or something. My images just were not coming out. A kind young woman shared her images with me and said I could use them on my site.

After an incredible sunset we were able to look at another telescope and watch the stars. The sky darkened, and the Milky Way began to show its opalescent path over our heads.

The image on the left is the sun with its sunspots. The one on the right is the moon. I think that the ranger in charge of that telescope was saying that we were looking at where Apollo landed.

Photocredit to: Galilee Thompson, U of U
Ig: thompsongalilee

I did a quick timelapse of the sunset over the canyons. Amazing, right?

I used apps to name the mountains in the area and to view the night sky. If you read my aunt’s blog you know her son $ is an avid outdoorsman. He recommended the PeakFinder app, and I’m not disappointed.

After it got dark, I got a really good look at Alberio — a double star. One gold and one is blue. So fun!

If you are ever in the Cedar Breaks area in southern Utah, I encourage you to give this a go. Wonderful!

Anyway. All great experiences. Who knew 11 years ago that my world would change so radically? Life, travel, tech, sunrises, sunsets, stars, kids, grandkids. East has merged with west, and it’s all so beautiful and amazing. I’m so extremely grateful for it all.