Utah, Day 6

After lots of late nights and early mornings, people were slow to get going this Saturday morning.  I, however, had gotten up to check on the kids outside (who were ready to come in and watch some cartoons), and my legs were restless after hiking Timp the day before, so I headed out for a walk.  I went by my parents' old home, and also headed over to the Orem Cemetery to find my grandparents' graves.  I had been there when my grandma was buried, and thought I had a good idea of where they were, but I just couldn't find them.  So I looked up the cemetery website, which had a searchable database for grave locations:

Then I found the map of the cemetery on the office wall, took a picture of what I needed, and headed out to find them at B30.

It was a little trickier than it seemed it should be, but I found them (next to a stubby pine tree, for those who want to look).

I was so happy to find them.  I was really touched by their epithets.  For Jesse it says, "He loved his God, his family, his country."  For Helen it says, "She loved us all."  I don't know who wrote those, but they sum up my grandparents perfectly.  I miss them.

Here's another view of their location, so I can find it again.  (That's the A section ahead, with the I section to the left and the C section to the right.)

Once everyone was up and ready, we went over to a free splash park recently opened in Orem.  It's definitely for littler kids, but the bigger ones had some fun, too.

While we were there, I got a phone call, releasing me from being the Stake Primary President.  They said they'd wait until I got home to announce it in my ward, but they announced it everywhere else that next day, and called the new president.  It's the end of an era, and it was a good era, and it was a good time to end.  (PS--I had already gotten a new calling in my ward: the Webelos leader!  Wa hoo!)

That night Ben and Scott went with the other menfolk to a soccer game.  The Salt Lake Real were playing FC Dallas, so that made it extra fun for the Texas boys (even though Dallas lost).  I took the other kids and we went to MY mom and dad's new house for dinner and a sleepover!  Carl, Jennie, Evie, and Kaylix were there for dinner, and it was so great to visit with them.  The kids got to sleep in the "bunk bed room," which they still talk about.  (How did I walk away from that evening with no pictures???  We'll just have to go back again.)

Utah, Day 5

Timpanogos, Mighty Timpanogos!

Timpanogos, mountain that we love!

Mountain with the trail so long,

Mountain with the trail so looooooooong…..

Trail so long, Trail so long...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh--

We made it!  Hooray!

Cave bacon...mmmm.

The natural amphitheater

Cool stuff growing on the ceiling

The best tour guide ever

Tall guys really have to duck when they say the ceiling is low.  Ben's head dent proves this.

Stalactite, stalagmite...what do you call 'em when they join?

They need to give the tall guys a teensy bit more space...

Ponder where exactly we are in the mountain at this point.  No earthquakes now, please.

We made it all the way through--hooray!

(Tessa went through with Ava and Sophie.)

The hike down brings a different sort of pain.

We had a big family dinner at The Brick Oven that night.  Ben and I went on our first date here, and we try to visit every time we're in the area, and bring more and more people along with us each time!  Our kids always look forward to the frosty brown cows.  (At the last minute, Gracie went for a frozen mango drink instead.)

Remy, Benson, and Naaman had so much fun together during our reunion!

More family; more food

Even more family; even more food!

Tessa's right in the middle of these two sisters: Sophie is 10, Tessa's 9, and Ava's 8.  They had SO much fun together.

After the dinner, we all headed over to the Eyring Science Center for some lobby exploration, before we all went to the planetarium show (which had several technical difficulties, but seemed like it was probably usually good).  We only lost one child once.

Tessa, Benson, Sophie, Ava, and Lucy decided to sleep outside that night.  I went to check on them at 10:30 pm, and they were all still so wound up!

(I told them to pretend they were asleep for the picture.)

I stayed out until they finally really did go to sleep, and amazingly, they all stayed out all night.  Benson said it was scary, but they did it.  At least until about 6:30 am...

Utah, Day 4

We had another early start the next day, but it was worth it again.  Ben and I took our kids and met up with some cousins at the Provo City Center Temple so they could do baptisms.  That is such a beautiful temple!

There's a little pavilion on the grounds with the Christus statue, and with stairs that leads to the basement, where the font is.

With some of the cousins:  Gracie, Ayden, Scott, Shaelyn, Amelia, Claire, Zady, and Emma

They had a great morning, and thought it was pretty special that Scott got to baptize them.  (He had done it for the first time in Nauvoo.)  I had an interesting moment when I was watching Scott baptize one of his cousins, and I was thinking about the person whose name they were doing, and I wondered if there are ever mistakes, when a person gets baptized more than once.  As soon as that baptism was done, the officiator looked at the card, and said, "Oh, this one had already been done in Vernal!"  Somehow the card had been put in the wrong pile, and she had been baptized again.

We were pleased when Shaelyn took us to her "usual" spot for after-baptism breakfast: a kolache place just a few blocks away.  I had only seen them in Texas before!  So yummy.  Here's Carley, Amelia, Drew, Ayden, Scott, Emma, Zady, Shaelyn, Gracie, Madison, Claire, and Katelyn:

I took a few of the girls with me over to a baby shower breakfast for Jessica that the other women in the family were attending.  Then we all spent the afternoon at the Provo City Rec Center pools (indoor and out), which are pretty awesome, but of which I took no pictures.

That evening we had some delicious tacos and a birthday celebration for Grandpa.  This was the cake for the kids.  The adults were treated to an amazing carrot cake. ☺

❤

Utah, Day 3--the 4th

Scott, Emma, Grandma, Grandpa, and a couple more cousins woke up EARLY on the 4th of July to see the balloon launch in Provo.  Scott took lots of great pictures:

The rest of us woke up a little less early and went to the parade route, hoping for a spot for lots of people.  We found a decent one, with grass and shade (with the view only partially obstructed by the canopy of those in front of us and the port-a-potty to the side of us).  We settled in and waited for the parade to begin!

COSMO!

There were long gaps in the parade this year, and Scott filled the time with Sudoku.  He learned he's no match for Grandma in a race...

Grandma (and Grandpa) gave him a chance to catch up, though, during their apparently annual parade nap.

I decided Ben and I don't have enough pictures together.  We're practicing.

Tessa and Sophie had a great time with the poppers.

Benson liked this parrot float:

Scott loved the Elmo balloon: ☺

At the end they brought out good old George Q, and fired it off not far from us.

Cousins!  Starting at the bottom right, going around the circle, there's Naaman, Emma, Scott, Caytie, Shaelyn, Gracie, Benson, Ayden, Sophie, Tessa, and Brydger.

I needed a picture of these two friends, because...

...look at them from 2010! ❤

After the parade, those that wanted to headed to the colonial fair, which was huge and full of reenactments of what life was like when the country was forming.

(Learning about hair and makeup!)

Then most of us met at the park for lunch!

Then back to Grandma and Grandpa's house for naps, playing, and digging...

...and swinging and jumping...

...and then cooking crepes for EVERYONE!  Mmmmmmmmm.

And then...fireworks!

This is how Benson was during our late, late family prayer.  Yes, he was asleep.

Happy birthday, America!  We're glad we could be with family while we celebrated!