Looking through the window at "our" airplane
On the plane
We'er going to see Grandpa & Grandma soon! 
Paula, Amy, Annette
At BYU
Bean Museum--come on in!
Sleeping Seth
Boys will be boys!
Beautiful new Alumni House
Former major hang out spot!
That's my name!
Ice Cream--yum!!
Salt Lake Temple
Scott, Seth, Tanner
Conference Center
It's huge!
Hall of the Prophets
Touching the temple
Church History Museum
See what I built?
Hide & Seek
Jared wedged in the Tree of Life
Seth
Tanner
Another Perspective of the Tree of Life
Watching the "digger"
Throwing rocks in the pond
St. George Temple
Sitting on the temple steps
Love the palm trees!
Beautiful Arizona rock formations (much more vivid colors in real life!)
Made by water and wind
AT the Las Vegas Temple (Seth is asleep)
The sun behind Moroni
More palm trees!
Las Vegas Temple
The Strip, as the sun goes down
The strip at night, from our hotel room
Seth enjoys the huge aquarium
At Caesar's Palace
The Becks in front of our hotel. (Ethan didn't like the sun in his eyes.)
Aunt Betty
Erika & Uncle Lee
Buck & Anna; Aunt Dianne
Seth & cousins enjoy the Dinosaur Museum
Ninja Destruction!
Zane & Seth
An Andrew, Zane, Seth, and Micah hug!
Ammon & Seth look a lot alike!
Zane
Seth\
Tanner & Madalyn made it to the waterfall!
The prize, after a long uphill hike.
Jessie & Emily at the cabins
Dee & Ben
Daniel & dinner
Curtis grilling burgers (with Texas BBQ sauce)
Ultimate Frisbee
Seth
Cousin sword fight in the loft
Shellie makes ice cream
Juan
Erin and Anna jet skiing
Jared ready to ride (with Hans & Griffin)
Frank , Seth & Annette are off!
Enjoying the rubber raft
Jonathan plays in the gravel
Buck & Anna
Zane
Micah makes Seth laugh
Jordanelle Reservior
Griffin
Seth rides the Zebra
Jared doing trampoline tricks
One of Tim's unique faces
One, two, three...whee!!!
Leaving Park City
Parley's Canyon
Beautiful mountains
Happy Family at the Mt. Timp Temple
Seth gives Sam's cake a "thumbs up"
Waiting for our delayed flight at the SLC airport
Seth likes the chairs at the airport
Good-bye, Utah!
We were up early on Saturday. Our hotel had a pretty nice complimentary breakfast buffet, which we enjoyed. Our purpose in visiting Las Vegas was not really to see the sights, it was to see our good friends, the Becks. They used to live in Maryland, but moved to Arizona (Gilbert) last fall. We couldn't drive all the way to their home in Arizona, and they couldn't drive all the way to Utah, so we decided to "meet in the middle", and Las Vegas worked out to be the best place to do that. We did think it would be fun to see a few things, as long as we were there, so the Becks met us at our hotel that morning and we headed into the city. Our hotel had a free shuttle bus to Mandalay Bay Hotel; from there we took a tram to MGM Grand. We discovered that the distance from one hotel to another was a lot farther than it looked. We decided to go all the way down to Caesar's Palace and then work our way backwards to our hotel, stopping to see things that interested us on the way. It didn't work out quite the way we planned because it took a lot longer to walk than we had expected. We really wore ourselves out walking down to Caesar's Palace. (We enjoyed talking as we walked, though.) We got there in time to see a water show that was pretty good although it scared Seth and McKenna (the show included loud noises and lots of flames, as well as water). We also enjoyed seeing a large aquarium with lots of tropical fish and sting rays. By the time the show ended, we were all starving, so we ate at a nearby restaurant--The Cheesecake Factory. The food was really good, but it took a long time to be served and to eat, so by the time we got done it was time to head back to our hotel! We laughed at ourselves--if we'd known how it was going to turn out, we would have found a restaurant near our hotel to eat & visit instead of doing all that walking! It was interesting, though, to see all the huge hotels and other sights we saw along the way. I can't imagine how much money went into building all those opulent monstrosities! Everything was so elaborate. We found a monorail to take back to the place where we could meet the hotel shuttle. Even so, we got back later than we planned, so we had to head north immediately. We bid farewell to the Becks--it was great to see them; hopefully next time we'll get to spend more time together--and hit the road. The trip home went much quicker--we only made 2 brief stops. There is a lot of construction on I-15 right now and we barely made it through Spanish Fork before they closed I-15 down for the night, thankfully! We arrived at my sister Amy's house about the same time that Curtis & Julia arrived; we stayed up later than we should have, visiting. Frank, Seth and I stayed at Amy's house the rest of our visit. The oldest three boys stayed at my brother Tim's house, where they had a great time hanging out with cousins.
Our family reunion officially began on Sunday, the 20th, with all of us attending Mom & Dad's ward together. Most of my siblings and families had arrived on Friday or Saturday, so everyone was there except for my brother Ben and family (they arrived that afternoon). The Primary was innundated with lots of visiting children (mostly boys), but Mom was gracious enough to warn them several weeks in advance! Sunday evening we all returned to Mom & Dad's house for an open house; we enjoyed visiting with lots of extended family who came to see us. It was nice to spend Father's Day with my dad for once, too! As usual, we got back to Amy's house late. Late nights and not enough sleep seemed to predominate throughout our visit, but we were having too much fun and enjoying family too much to waste too much time sleeping!
Monday morning we had a talent show, which mostly featured musical numbers of various sorts. I am very impressed with how talented all my nieces and newphews are! Monday afternoon a lot of the teen age cousins went to a space camp place where they participated in a Star Trek-like space mission. I wasn't there, but from what I heard, they all had a great time. Apparently, Jared put one of their "attackers" in a headlock--I have no idea how he learned to do that! A lot of the younger cousins went to visit the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Frank took Seth to do that, and he had a great time with all the "hands on" exhibits. I stayed at Amy's so we could go shopping for food--we were in charge of one of the joint meals at the cabins, so we had to get ready. That evening we all congregated again to take family pictures. I was feeling pretty frazzled that night because Seth was at his worst--running away every chance he got, right for the large pond. We ended up moving from that location to another park where the light was better; there was a stream there, so I still had to keep a close eye on Seth. Luckily, the photographer took our family photo pretty early on. By the time we got the the large group family photo, Seth was very tired--he was done!! The older kids seemed to have a fun time, though. They (along with many of the adults) played a game called "ninja destruction" while they waited their turns to have their pictures taken. I followed Seth around and kept him from falling into the stream.
Frank and the older boys went on a hike Tuesday morning. It was supposed to be a fairly easy hike, mostly level, to a waterfall, but everyone who went (many of the cousins and aunts and uncles went also) agreed that it was much harder than they expected--mostly uphill the whole way! I stayed behind with Seth, which turned out to be a good thing. Amy and I made a couple of big trays of brownies to take up to the cabins, as part of our dinner.
Wednesday morning started our with breakfast prepared by the young adult grandkids. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, milk, and juice--delicious! After breakfast was cleaned up, we all headed to the Jordanelle Resevoir (except for Grandpa & Grandma, who stayed behind and rested). We all went in together to rent some jet skis (thanks to Erick & Liz, who didn't give up!) so we all took turns riding on those. I enjoyed my second ride better than my first; Seth rode with Frank and I the first time and I was nervous about him falling off, although Seth had a great time and wasn't scared at all! The water at the resevoir was very cold, which is to be expected since it's mostly snow run off. Someone said it was about 65 degrees, but it felt more like 35 to me! I repeatedly and very obnoxiously kept urging everyone to come visit us in Maryland, where the lakes are warm in the summer! Before the day was over, we all managed to get in most of the way, though--even me! We enjoyed playing in the water and taking turns rowing the two inflatable boats that Tim & Rachelle brought. After we got back from the lake, we finished making dinner, which was taco salads. We had some chicken to go on those that had been cooking in the crock pot all day. After dinner we had a brief family meeting with all the adults, took some more photographs, and then had a family testimony meeting, which was awesome! After the meeting, Frank and I discovered that the large bunch of bananas we'd left on our cabin's porch had been plundered by racoons--all that was left was the ripped up plastic wrapper and the peels! I should have known better than to leave food out like that.
Thursday morning we all packed up and checked out of the cabins. Some people headed to the zoo in Salt Lake City; our family decided to go to Park City. Tim, Amy, Erick, and families also chose that option, so we enjoyed hanging out with them. Our whole family took a ride on the alpine slide; the ride up to the top of the mountain on the ski lift was beautiful! Scott and Tanner also road on the coaster. Seth had a ride on the Carousel (he wanted to ride on the "weza"--zebra) and Jared went on a thing where he could jump on a trampoline wearing a big harness, which allowed him to do flips and other tricks. We drove home through Parley's Canyon; another beautiful drive.
Friday morning most of the grandkids between 12 and 18 went to the Draper Temple to do baptisms. Frank and Tim went with them. After they got back, Frank and I did some shopping--we went to the Lehi Roller Mills and Deseret Book, as well as to Wal-Mart and Costco. I would have liked to spend more time at Deseret Book, but we didn't have a lot of time to spend. That afternoon, all the adults went to the Mt. Timpanogous Temple to do sealings together. Julia had provided some family names, which made it extra nice. We were divided up into 3 different groups to do the sealings, so afterwards we all met in the Celestial Room. It was really great to all be there together. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a restaurant called the Blue Lemon. I liked the food a lot, but got too full! Frank's meat wasn't cooked enough, though. After we all went home and changed, we met at the park at the end of Amy's street to have cake and ice cream in honor of my nephew Sam's birthday.
Frank was busy Saturday helping my niece Anna move to a new apartment. Amy and I went that afternoon to a rehearsal for a choir concert that night. The concert was put on by the current and alumni choirs of Orem High School. They've had this event every year for the past 5 years or so, but this is the first time I've had a chance to participate. I purchased all the music ahead of time, but since I don't have a piano I didn't get a chance to learn it at all so we were both pretty much sight reading for the rehearsal--but then, so was everyone else, mostly. And it still sounded pretty good! The old Orem High school building just got torn down in June. The new building is located where the old parking lot used to be. The concert was in the new building, but it isn't quite finished yet, so the concert had to be held in one of the gyms instead of the new auditorium. Not the best aucoustics, but it turned out ok. The new building is going to be very nice; it was fun to see it. There is still a huge pile of rubble where the old building used to be. It was kind of sad to see that, but mostly it's a good thing--that building was old and beat up when I went to school there over 20 years ago! I'm sure the kids are really going to enjoy that new building. Anyway, I think the concert turned out nice. The theme was "Christmas in June" so we did all Christmas music. I would have liked to have learned the arrangements better; they all sounded beautiful to me. But it was really fun to sing with so many talented singers again--just like the old days! Later that evening, we all congregated at Tim's house to watch fireworks--their city of Cedar Hills had a show that evening. The fireworks were really nice--much better than the 4th of July fireworks show we saw last year in Frederick!
On Sunday morning we went to a missionary homecoming for my cousin's daughter, Alyse. We enjoyed seeing Alyse again and hearing her speak. We were hoping to see my cousin Laurel and her family, as well as "Elder Moody" (a missionary who served here in Frederick and then married my cousin's daughter Kirsten after he got home) but none of them made it to the meeting. "Elder Moody" had to work and Laurel got the time of the meeting mixed up. We didn't make it over to my cousin Lane's house to see her later, either, because we were at church with Amy. We wish we could have had more time to visit with our extended family! I enjoyed meeting some of Amy's friends in her ward, though. I was supposed to help her with her YW lesson, but she didn't end up teaching at all because they had so much to talk about and do to prepare for their girls' camp, which starts on Monday. After we had dinner, we all met at Tim's house again for one last family get together. A bunch of people played a crazy game called "signs"; I couldn't even keep track of what was going on, and I was only watching!
Monday morning we got packed up and went to pick up the older 3 boys from Tim's house. We said our farewells to Tim's family and then went back to Amy's so that the boys could tell Amy's family good bye. Then we all went to Mom & Dad's house where we hung out for about an hour until it was time for us to drive to the airport. We got to see most of Curtis's family one more time while there, as well as Erick & Liz. I managed not to cry too much while saying good bye. It was a wonderful reunion, and I really hope we'll get to see everybody again soon!
We got to the airport, where they confiscated our applesauce cups at security--I guess they were a little over the weight limit of 3.4 ounces. The "fry sauce" we packed in our checked baggage made it though, though, which made Frank especially happy! Maybe someday they'll sell that stuff somewher other than Utah. When we go to our gate, we discovered that our flight was delayed a half hour; then it changed to an hour. We wished we could have had that extra hour to spend with family! The cause for the delay was an air traffic control hold going into Baltimore; one of the run ways was under construction so they couldn't handle their typical volume of flights coming in. We did make good time going home, though, so we landed only about 30 minutes after originally scheduled. The flight was pretty uneventful again (although the flight attendants were really funny); Seth slept for almost the entire flight, which was nice. After we landed, we had to wait on the tarmack about 10-15 minutes for our gate to open up. By then it was after 10:00, but the airport was a mob scene! I guess the air traffic hold messed a lot of people up. We were able to get our luggage fairly quickly, but then we had to wait quite a while for our friend who was picking us up to make it through the crazy traffic outside to get to us. We walked outside and were immediately hit by that good ol' Maryland heat and humidity--yuck!!
We made it home by about 11:30, stopping on the way to get some food at Taco Bell and Burger King--just before they both closed down for the night. Frank had to be at work the next morning, so we all went to bed!
Since getting home, we've been busy getting our lives back to normal. I spent the first few days getting through the mountains of laundry and restocking the refrigerator. I've also been busy trying to get up to speed on Primary happenings. Within two days of getting home, I was asked to accompany the sister missionaries to an appointment (fell through, unfortunately), speak at the stake baptism (held today--it went well), and speak in sacrament meeting next Sunday (the 11th)! Welcome home, indeed! At least I feel needed.
We are all still trying to adjust to Maryland time. I haven't been sleeping very well at night since getting home and all of us have had a hard time getting up in the mornings. The second day home I slept until 9:44--I couldn't believe it! Frank has been getting up, though--poor guy has to work, and he has been working hard. He is working today, also--he got up early to go help cook food for a 4th of July breakfast, and now he is helping cook food for a wedding. The boys have been enjoying sleep overs with friends and all the freedom that comes with summer. (I still make them do chores, though!) Jared spent the night with his friend Sage last night, and their friend Brian (from the ward) slept over here on Thursday night and stayed most of the day Friday. This afternoon we are going to be busy getting Scott and Tanner packed & ready for scout camp, which begins on Monday--very early!
I fully expected to be feeling really depressed at this point, but thankfully, I've been ok. (An answer to prayers, I'm sure.) It's been a lot nicer to be home than I expected. The first day home I really felt the humidity, but on Wednesday the weather changed and it's been wonderfully warm and dry--perfect, sparkling summer weather! Being the parent of teen agers has helped me to appreciate summer more than I have in years. No "did you do your homework?", no schedules, less stress, just lots of time to relax and enjoy ourselves! I find myself really embracing the joys of summer! Like yesterday when I went to the grocery store--I came home with peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, blueberries, strawberries and watermelon! Yum!!! On Thursday night we had our first outdoor dinner. Last night we celebrated July 4th a little early with hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob chips, watermelon, and our traditional flag cake. I love summer! I miss my family, but it is hard to be sad when there is so much to enjoy. I find myself, instead, just feeling very grateful to have such a wonderful family and so many great memories from the last couple of weeks that I will treasure forever.
Tanner & Madalyn made it to the waterfall!
The prize, after a long uphill hike.
Jessie & Emily at the cabins
Dee & Ben
Daniel & dinner
Curtis grilling burgers (with Texas BBQ sauce)
Ultimate Frisbee
Seth
Cousin sword fight in the loft
Shellie makes ice cream
Juan
Erin and Anna jet skiing
Jared ready to ride (with Hans & Griffin)
Frank , Seth & Annette are off!
Enjoying the rubber raft
Jonathan plays in the gravel
Buck & Anna
Zane
Micah makes Seth laugh
Jordanelle Reservior
Griffin
Seth rides the Zebra 
Jared doing trampoline tricks
One of Tim's unique faces
One, two, three...whee!!!
Leaving Park City
Parley's Canyon
Beautiful mountains
Happy Family at the Mt. Timp Temple
Seth gives Sam's cake a "thumbs up"
Waiting for our delayed flight at the SLC airport
Seth likes the chairs at the airport
Good-bye, Utah!Before I even start, I should mention that I haven't had time to catch up on everyone else's blog yet, so don't be offended that I haven't commented in weeks. I'm looking forward to getting updated on everyone's lives! First I need to update all of you on what we've been doing (although a fair share of you already know, since you've been doing the same things!) I'm really going to try to keep this concise, since I have 3 weeks to cover. But as you all are well aware, I don't have a gift when it comes to being concise. I'll do my best!
We flew to Utah on Saturday, the 12th. It was a pretty uneventful flight. This was Seth's first time flying, but he totally took it in stride. He had a window seat and enjoyed looking at the sights; he didn't seem a bit perturbed at the idea of being so high up in the air. He continued his little trick of running away throughout our trip, though, which caused me a lot of worry and frustration. For example, he tried to get on the plane without us!! We kept him strapped into his stroller most of the time, but whenever we had to take him out of the stroller for any reason, he tried to escape. Anyway, we got to Salt Lake City safe and sound, picked up our rental van, and drove to Mom & Dad's house, where Mom had a yummy roast beef dinner waiting in the crock pot for us. Amy and her two daughters came to visit us briefly that evening.
Sunday we attended church with Mom & Dad. I was glad I followed that last minute impulse to throw my tights in my suitcase, because it was pretty nippy! After church, Frank baked chocolate chip cookie bars; I had a nap! That evening we went to dinner at my friend Paula's house. Amy's family came also. Paula is a good friend from high school; we were also room mates one year in college. It was great to see her and her family--last time we visited Utah her family was living in Germany, so we hadn't seen them in a long time (although Paula and her husband Scott did visit me in Maryland shortly after Seth was born.) Our kids really didn't remember each other, but they warmed up to each other after a while and started playing games and seemed to have a good time. (My kids said afterwards that her kids are "cool"--doesn't get much better than that!) We had a delicious mexican-themed dinner and enjoyed visiting. Paula told me some things I said back in my college days that I can't remember saying at all! What a memory!
Monday the 14th we hung out at Mom & Dad's for the morning, playing horseshoes. It was warmer than the day before, although still much cooler than we are accustomed to being in June. I forgot how quickly I burn in Utah's much higher altitude, so I got a pretty nasty sunburn on the back of my neck and upper back. (Now I have a very deep "farmer's tan".) In the afternoon we drove over to walk around the BYU campus, where our boys had to put up with our endless reminiscing about our college days. The BYU campus changes quite a bit every time we visit, but it's still recognizable and it still feels like BYU! This time, we enjoyed visiting the new Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni House. We also visited the Bean Museum; Seth slept through most of that, unfortunately. We finished up with a visit to the bookstore (where we acquired cinnamon bears and various BYU paraphanalia, including a frisbee, football, pens, a keychain, and a lanyard) and then stoped at the Cougar Eat to get some BYU dairy ice cream--yum!! The boys thought the chocolate ice cream was the best in the world.
Tuesday was pretty hot, so we decided to head to Seven Peaks Water Park before the weather got cooler again. Unfortunately, just about everybody else in Utah County had the same idea. It was extremely crowded! I debated whether or not to stay home with Seth, but decided to take him, thinking he'd enjoy the kiddie pools. In retrospect, I wish I'd made the other decision because he didn't enjoy the pools like I thought he would. He was intimidated by all the spraying water and other kids splashing, and he was too scared to go on the little slides. He did enjoy the lazy river and the wave pool, but overall I didn't think it was worth the money we spent for the two of us to go. We left early (detouring on the way home to drive by some of our former "homes" in Provo) and I drove back to get Frank and the older boys later. They, at least, seemed to have a lot of fun. They went on a lot of the big slides and apparently had a blast.
We spent Wednesday visiting Salt Lake City. It was very windy that day, and a big wind / rain storm blew in that evening, but we managed to get back home before the worst of it hit. We did a tour of the Conference Center first. Last time we visited, they were holding a big competition in the main auditorium so we weren't allowed to go in there. We were very glad that there was nothing going on this time, so we were finally able to see the large auditorium--very impressive! They had the roof closed off this time, because of the wind, but since we got to see that on our last visit, we weren't too disappointed. After the Conference Center, we headed over to Temple Square and stopped by both visitor's centers briefly (the new scale model of the temple is pretty cool), and went inside the Tabernacle for a few minutes. We emerged from one of the visitor's centers just in time to see a large branch fall off one of the trees next to the Tabernacle. Thankfully, no one was nearby at the time. We left Temple Square and crossed the street to visit the Church Museum of History and Art. Everyone else did that to humor me--I'm the one that's always wanted to go there--but I think all the boys found it fairly interesting and Seth really enjoyed the "hands on" children's area on the top floor. I could have spent a lot more time there than we did, but I did get to look at least briefly at all the exhibits. I enjoyed seeing a document signed by one of my ancestors--Frederick G. Williams.
We returned to BYU campus for a few hours Thursday morning, since we hadn't made it to the back part of campus on our first visit. Frank also wanted to visit his former workplaces, which we did, but most of the people he used to work with were on vacation that week. We also went to check out the exhibits at the Eyring Science Center and played in the "Tree of Life" statue for a while. Seth was very fascinated by the "digger" that was tearing up a sidewalk near the statue (not sure what they are going to build there) and watched it for quite a while. After we got back from BYU, we went to the park with Rachelle & kids. The ducks at the pond weren't very interested in the bread Rachelle brought, but the kids had fun playing on the playground while we visited. We also got laundry done that day and otherwise prepared for our week end trip to Las Vegas. Frank had to drive up to SLC to return our 2nd rental van--the tires had a problem. (The first one started making a funny noise and the oil light came on, so we had already traded that one for the 2nd one.) Thankfully, the third time was a charm--that van lasted us the rest of our trip without any problems. And yes, the rental place gave us a discount for all our trouble.
Friday we headed south. It took us longer to get to Las Vegas than we planned because we made several stops--mostly bathroom breaks, as well as a stop for lunch, and a stop to get gas in Mesquite. We also stopped in St. George to see the temple, and spent about an hour there. I loved St. George--all the beautiful red rocks, palm trees, and the heat!! The temple grounds were peaceful and beautiful. All my boys (except Jared) thought it was way too hot. "Who would want to live in a place like this?" they asked. (Me, that's who!) It was pretty hot, though--high 90's. The drive through the corner of Arizona before entering Nevada was amazing--the road goes through lots of fabulous rock formations. It was hard to capture it on film. When we finally made it to the Las Vegas area, we decided to stop to see the temple first. It was in the low 100's and a hot wind was blowing, but I still thought the Las Vegas temple grounds were gorgeous! (Once again, the boys were unimpressed by the extreme heat.) By the time we got checked into our hotel, it was dinner time. We found a Chinese buffet; the boys thought it was fabulous, but I wasn't all that impressed. I have a friend from 4th Grade who lives in the Las Vegas area, and I was hoping to contact her that evening to see if we could meet somewhere, but we got there so much later than we planned, that I wasn't able to do that. We returned to our hotel and Frank took the older three boys swimming for a little while. We enjoyed the view of "the strip" from our hotel room's windows as the sun went down and all the lights came on.
We flew to Utah on Saturday, the 12th. It was a pretty uneventful flight. This was Seth's first time flying, but he totally took it in stride. He had a window seat and enjoyed looking at the sights; he didn't seem a bit perturbed at the idea of being so high up in the air. He continued his little trick of running away throughout our trip, though, which caused me a lot of worry and frustration. For example, he tried to get on the plane without us!! We kept him strapped into his stroller most of the time, but whenever we had to take him out of the stroller for any reason, he tried to escape. Anyway, we got to Salt Lake City safe and sound, picked up our rental van, and drove to Mom & Dad's house, where Mom had a yummy roast beef dinner waiting in the crock pot for us. Amy and her two daughters came to visit us briefly that evening.
Sunday we attended church with Mom & Dad. I was glad I followed that last minute impulse to throw my tights in my suitcase, because it was pretty nippy! After church, Frank baked chocolate chip cookie bars; I had a nap! That evening we went to dinner at my friend Paula's house. Amy's family came also. Paula is a good friend from high school; we were also room mates one year in college. It was great to see her and her family--last time we visited Utah her family was living in Germany, so we hadn't seen them in a long time (although Paula and her husband Scott did visit me in Maryland shortly after Seth was born.) Our kids really didn't remember each other, but they warmed up to each other after a while and started playing games and seemed to have a good time. (My kids said afterwards that her kids are "cool"--doesn't get much better than that!) We had a delicious mexican-themed dinner and enjoyed visiting. Paula told me some things I said back in my college days that I can't remember saying at all! What a memory!
Monday the 14th we hung out at Mom & Dad's for the morning, playing horseshoes. It was warmer than the day before, although still much cooler than we are accustomed to being in June. I forgot how quickly I burn in Utah's much higher altitude, so I got a pretty nasty sunburn on the back of my neck and upper back. (Now I have a very deep "farmer's tan".) In the afternoon we drove over to walk around the BYU campus, where our boys had to put up with our endless reminiscing about our college days. The BYU campus changes quite a bit every time we visit, but it's still recognizable and it still feels like BYU! This time, we enjoyed visiting the new Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni House. We also visited the Bean Museum; Seth slept through most of that, unfortunately. We finished up with a visit to the bookstore (where we acquired cinnamon bears and various BYU paraphanalia, including a frisbee, football, pens, a keychain, and a lanyard) and then stoped at the Cougar Eat to get some BYU dairy ice cream--yum!! The boys thought the chocolate ice cream was the best in the world.
Tuesday was pretty hot, so we decided to head to Seven Peaks Water Park before the weather got cooler again. Unfortunately, just about everybody else in Utah County had the same idea. It was extremely crowded! I debated whether or not to stay home with Seth, but decided to take him, thinking he'd enjoy the kiddie pools. In retrospect, I wish I'd made the other decision because he didn't enjoy the pools like I thought he would. He was intimidated by all the spraying water and other kids splashing, and he was too scared to go on the little slides. He did enjoy the lazy river and the wave pool, but overall I didn't think it was worth the money we spent for the two of us to go. We left early (detouring on the way home to drive by some of our former "homes" in Provo) and I drove back to get Frank and the older boys later. They, at least, seemed to have a lot of fun. They went on a lot of the big slides and apparently had a blast.
We spent Wednesday visiting Salt Lake City. It was very windy that day, and a big wind / rain storm blew in that evening, but we managed to get back home before the worst of it hit. We did a tour of the Conference Center first. Last time we visited, they were holding a big competition in the main auditorium so we weren't allowed to go in there. We were very glad that there was nothing going on this time, so we were finally able to see the large auditorium--very impressive! They had the roof closed off this time, because of the wind, but since we got to see that on our last visit, we weren't too disappointed. After the Conference Center, we headed over to Temple Square and stopped by both visitor's centers briefly (the new scale model of the temple is pretty cool), and went inside the Tabernacle for a few minutes. We emerged from one of the visitor's centers just in time to see a large branch fall off one of the trees next to the Tabernacle. Thankfully, no one was nearby at the time. We left Temple Square and crossed the street to visit the Church Museum of History and Art. Everyone else did that to humor me--I'm the one that's always wanted to go there--but I think all the boys found it fairly interesting and Seth really enjoyed the "hands on" children's area on the top floor. I could have spent a lot more time there than we did, but I did get to look at least briefly at all the exhibits. I enjoyed seeing a document signed by one of my ancestors--Frederick G. Williams.
We returned to BYU campus for a few hours Thursday morning, since we hadn't made it to the back part of campus on our first visit. Frank also wanted to visit his former workplaces, which we did, but most of the people he used to work with were on vacation that week. We also went to check out the exhibits at the Eyring Science Center and played in the "Tree of Life" statue for a while. Seth was very fascinated by the "digger" that was tearing up a sidewalk near the statue (not sure what they are going to build there) and watched it for quite a while. After we got back from BYU, we went to the park with Rachelle & kids. The ducks at the pond weren't very interested in the bread Rachelle brought, but the kids had fun playing on the playground while we visited. We also got laundry done that day and otherwise prepared for our week end trip to Las Vegas. Frank had to drive up to SLC to return our 2nd rental van--the tires had a problem. (The first one started making a funny noise and the oil light came on, so we had already traded that one for the 2nd one.) Thankfully, the third time was a charm--that van lasted us the rest of our trip without any problems. And yes, the rental place gave us a discount for all our trouble.
Friday we headed south. It took us longer to get to Las Vegas than we planned because we made several stops--mostly bathroom breaks, as well as a stop for lunch, and a stop to get gas in Mesquite. We also stopped in St. George to see the temple, and spent about an hour there. I loved St. George--all the beautiful red rocks, palm trees, and the heat!! The temple grounds were peaceful and beautiful. All my boys (except Jared) thought it was way too hot. "Who would want to live in a place like this?" they asked. (Me, that's who!) It was pretty hot, though--high 90's. The drive through the corner of Arizona before entering Nevada was amazing--the road goes through lots of fabulous rock formations. It was hard to capture it on film. When we finally made it to the Las Vegas area, we decided to stop to see the temple first. It was in the low 100's and a hot wind was blowing, but I still thought the Las Vegas temple grounds were gorgeous! (Once again, the boys were unimpressed by the extreme heat.) By the time we got checked into our hotel, it was dinner time. We found a Chinese buffet; the boys thought it was fabulous, but I wasn't all that impressed. I have a friend from 4th Grade who lives in the Las Vegas area, and I was hoping to contact her that evening to see if we could meet somewhere, but we got there so much later than we planned, that I wasn't able to do that. We returned to our hotel and Frank took the older three boys swimming for a little while. We enjoyed the view of "the strip" from our hotel room's windows as the sun went down and all the lights came on.
We were up early on Saturday. Our hotel had a pretty nice complimentary breakfast buffet, which we enjoyed. Our purpose in visiting Las Vegas was not really to see the sights, it was to see our good friends, the Becks. They used to live in Maryland, but moved to Arizona (Gilbert) last fall. We couldn't drive all the way to their home in Arizona, and they couldn't drive all the way to Utah, so we decided to "meet in the middle", and Las Vegas worked out to be the best place to do that. We did think it would be fun to see a few things, as long as we were there, so the Becks met us at our hotel that morning and we headed into the city. Our hotel had a free shuttle bus to Mandalay Bay Hotel; from there we took a tram to MGM Grand. We discovered that the distance from one hotel to another was a lot farther than it looked. We decided to go all the way down to Caesar's Palace and then work our way backwards to our hotel, stopping to see things that interested us on the way. It didn't work out quite the way we planned because it took a lot longer to walk than we had expected. We really wore ourselves out walking down to Caesar's Palace. (We enjoyed talking as we walked, though.) We got there in time to see a water show that was pretty good although it scared Seth and McKenna (the show included loud noises and lots of flames, as well as water). We also enjoyed seeing a large aquarium with lots of tropical fish and sting rays. By the time the show ended, we were all starving, so we ate at a nearby restaurant--The Cheesecake Factory. The food was really good, but it took a long time to be served and to eat, so by the time we got done it was time to head back to our hotel! We laughed at ourselves--if we'd known how it was going to turn out, we would have found a restaurant near our hotel to eat & visit instead of doing all that walking! It was interesting, though, to see all the huge hotels and other sights we saw along the way. I can't imagine how much money went into building all those opulent monstrosities! Everything was so elaborate. We found a monorail to take back to the place where we could meet the hotel shuttle. Even so, we got back later than we planned, so we had to head north immediately. We bid farewell to the Becks--it was great to see them; hopefully next time we'll get to spend more time together--and hit the road. The trip home went much quicker--we only made 2 brief stops. There is a lot of construction on I-15 right now and we barely made it through Spanish Fork before they closed I-15 down for the night, thankfully! We arrived at my sister Amy's house about the same time that Curtis & Julia arrived; we stayed up later than we should have, visiting. Frank, Seth and I stayed at Amy's house the rest of our visit. The oldest three boys stayed at my brother Tim's house, where they had a great time hanging out with cousins.
Our family reunion officially began on Sunday, the 20th, with all of us attending Mom & Dad's ward together. Most of my siblings and families had arrived on Friday or Saturday, so everyone was there except for my brother Ben and family (they arrived that afternoon). The Primary was innundated with lots of visiting children (mostly boys), but Mom was gracious enough to warn them several weeks in advance! Sunday evening we all returned to Mom & Dad's house for an open house; we enjoyed visiting with lots of extended family who came to see us. It was nice to spend Father's Day with my dad for once, too! As usual, we got back to Amy's house late. Late nights and not enough sleep seemed to predominate throughout our visit, but we were having too much fun and enjoying family too much to waste too much time sleeping!
Monday morning we had a talent show, which mostly featured musical numbers of various sorts. I am very impressed with how talented all my nieces and newphews are! Monday afternoon a lot of the teen age cousins went to a space camp place where they participated in a Star Trek-like space mission. I wasn't there, but from what I heard, they all had a great time. Apparently, Jared put one of their "attackers" in a headlock--I have no idea how he learned to do that! A lot of the younger cousins went to visit the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Frank took Seth to do that, and he had a great time with all the "hands on" exhibits. I stayed at Amy's so we could go shopping for food--we were in charge of one of the joint meals at the cabins, so we had to get ready. That evening we all congregated again to take family pictures. I was feeling pretty frazzled that night because Seth was at his worst--running away every chance he got, right for the large pond. We ended up moving from that location to another park where the light was better; there was a stream there, so I still had to keep a close eye on Seth. Luckily, the photographer took our family photo pretty early on. By the time we got the the large group family photo, Seth was very tired--he was done!! The older kids seemed to have a fun time, though. They (along with many of the adults) played a game called "ninja destruction" while they waited their turns to have their pictures taken. I followed Seth around and kept him from falling into the stream.
Frank and the older boys went on a hike Tuesday morning. It was supposed to be a fairly easy hike, mostly level, to a waterfall, but everyone who went (many of the cousins and aunts and uncles went also) agreed that it was much harder than they expected--mostly uphill the whole way! I stayed behind with Seth, which turned out to be a good thing. Amy and I made a couple of big trays of brownies to take up to the cabins, as part of our dinner.
The rest of the morning was busy with everyone packing up and getting ready to drive up to the cabins. My parents had reserved 8 cabins at a nice campground just below the Jordanelle dam for 2 nights, so that we could all spend a couple of days together. We could check in at 3:00 that day; most of us didn't get there until a little later! I enjoyed the beautiful drive up Provo Canyon to the camp site. We got settled in the cabins; the kids enjoyed playing soccer and then a big game of ultimate frisbee (including many adults) while dinner was being prepared. Curtis & Shellie's families were in charge of dinner, and we had a yummy meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, salsa, etc. We even had delicious homemade ice cream, and marshmallows to roast also. We did a little bit of singing around the camp fire, but it was getting pretty late so we couldn't sing long because it was almost "quiet time" at the campground.
Wednesday morning started our with breakfast prepared by the young adult grandkids. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, milk, and juice--delicious! After breakfast was cleaned up, we all headed to the Jordanelle Resevoir (except for Grandpa & Grandma, who stayed behind and rested). We all went in together to rent some jet skis (thanks to Erick & Liz, who didn't give up!) so we all took turns riding on those. I enjoyed my second ride better than my first; Seth rode with Frank and I the first time and I was nervous about him falling off, although Seth had a great time and wasn't scared at all! The water at the resevoir was very cold, which is to be expected since it's mostly snow run off. Someone said it was about 65 degrees, but it felt more like 35 to me! I repeatedly and very obnoxiously kept urging everyone to come visit us in Maryland, where the lakes are warm in the summer! Before the day was over, we all managed to get in most of the way, though--even me! We enjoyed playing in the water and taking turns rowing the two inflatable boats that Tim & Rachelle brought. After we got back from the lake, we finished making dinner, which was taco salads. We had some chicken to go on those that had been cooking in the crock pot all day. After dinner we had a brief family meeting with all the adults, took some more photographs, and then had a family testimony meeting, which was awesome! After the meeting, Frank and I discovered that the large bunch of bananas we'd left on our cabin's porch had been plundered by racoons--all that was left was the ripped up plastic wrapper and the peels! I should have known better than to leave food out like that.
Thursday morning we all packed up and checked out of the cabins. Some people headed to the zoo in Salt Lake City; our family decided to go to Park City. Tim, Amy, Erick, and families also chose that option, so we enjoyed hanging out with them. Our whole family took a ride on the alpine slide; the ride up to the top of the mountain on the ski lift was beautiful! Scott and Tanner also road on the coaster. Seth had a ride on the Carousel (he wanted to ride on the "weza"--zebra) and Jared went on a thing where he could jump on a trampoline wearing a big harness, which allowed him to do flips and other tricks. We drove home through Parley's Canyon; another beautiful drive.
Friday morning most of the grandkids between 12 and 18 went to the Draper Temple to do baptisms. Frank and Tim went with them. After they got back, Frank and I did some shopping--we went to the Lehi Roller Mills and Deseret Book, as well as to Wal-Mart and Costco. I would have liked to spend more time at Deseret Book, but we didn't have a lot of time to spend. That afternoon, all the adults went to the Mt. Timpanogous Temple to do sealings together. Julia had provided some family names, which made it extra nice. We were divided up into 3 different groups to do the sealings, so afterwards we all met in the Celestial Room. It was really great to all be there together. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a restaurant called the Blue Lemon. I liked the food a lot, but got too full! Frank's meat wasn't cooked enough, though. After we all went home and changed, we met at the park at the end of Amy's street to have cake and ice cream in honor of my nephew Sam's birthday.
Frank was busy Saturday helping my niece Anna move to a new apartment. Amy and I went that afternoon to a rehearsal for a choir concert that night. The concert was put on by the current and alumni choirs of Orem High School. They've had this event every year for the past 5 years or so, but this is the first time I've had a chance to participate. I purchased all the music ahead of time, but since I don't have a piano I didn't get a chance to learn it at all so we were both pretty much sight reading for the rehearsal--but then, so was everyone else, mostly. And it still sounded pretty good! The old Orem High school building just got torn down in June. The new building is located where the old parking lot used to be. The concert was in the new building, but it isn't quite finished yet, so the concert had to be held in one of the gyms instead of the new auditorium. Not the best aucoustics, but it turned out ok. The new building is going to be very nice; it was fun to see it. There is still a huge pile of rubble where the old building used to be. It was kind of sad to see that, but mostly it's a good thing--that building was old and beat up when I went to school there over 20 years ago! I'm sure the kids are really going to enjoy that new building. Anyway, I think the concert turned out nice. The theme was "Christmas in June" so we did all Christmas music. I would have liked to have learned the arrangements better; they all sounded beautiful to me. But it was really fun to sing with so many talented singers again--just like the old days! Later that evening, we all congregated at Tim's house to watch fireworks--their city of Cedar Hills had a show that evening. The fireworks were really nice--much better than the 4th of July fireworks show we saw last year in Frederick!
On Sunday morning we went to a missionary homecoming for my cousin's daughter, Alyse. We enjoyed seeing Alyse again and hearing her speak. We were hoping to see my cousin Laurel and her family, as well as "Elder Moody" (a missionary who served here in Frederick and then married my cousin's daughter Kirsten after he got home) but none of them made it to the meeting. "Elder Moody" had to work and Laurel got the time of the meeting mixed up. We didn't make it over to my cousin Lane's house to see her later, either, because we were at church with Amy. We wish we could have had more time to visit with our extended family! I enjoyed meeting some of Amy's friends in her ward, though. I was supposed to help her with her YW lesson, but she didn't end up teaching at all because they had so much to talk about and do to prepare for their girls' camp, which starts on Monday. After we had dinner, we all met at Tim's house again for one last family get together. A bunch of people played a crazy game called "signs"; I couldn't even keep track of what was going on, and I was only watching!
Monday morning we got packed up and went to pick up the older 3 boys from Tim's house. We said our farewells to Tim's family and then went back to Amy's so that the boys could tell Amy's family good bye. Then we all went to Mom & Dad's house where we hung out for about an hour until it was time for us to drive to the airport. We got to see most of Curtis's family one more time while there, as well as Erick & Liz. I managed not to cry too much while saying good bye. It was a wonderful reunion, and I really hope we'll get to see everybody again soon!
We got to the airport, where they confiscated our applesauce cups at security--I guess they were a little over the weight limit of 3.4 ounces. The "fry sauce" we packed in our checked baggage made it though, though, which made Frank especially happy! Maybe someday they'll sell that stuff somewher other than Utah. When we go to our gate, we discovered that our flight was delayed a half hour; then it changed to an hour. We wished we could have had that extra hour to spend with family! The cause for the delay was an air traffic control hold going into Baltimore; one of the run ways was under construction so they couldn't handle their typical volume of flights coming in. We did make good time going home, though, so we landed only about 30 minutes after originally scheduled. The flight was pretty uneventful again (although the flight attendants were really funny); Seth slept for almost the entire flight, which was nice. After we landed, we had to wait on the tarmack about 10-15 minutes for our gate to open up. By then it was after 10:00, but the airport was a mob scene! I guess the air traffic hold messed a lot of people up. We were able to get our luggage fairly quickly, but then we had to wait quite a while for our friend who was picking us up to make it through the crazy traffic outside to get to us. We walked outside and were immediately hit by that good ol' Maryland heat and humidity--yuck!!
We made it home by about 11:30, stopping on the way to get some food at Taco Bell and Burger King--just before they both closed down for the night. Frank had to be at work the next morning, so we all went to bed!
Since getting home, we've been busy getting our lives back to normal. I spent the first few days getting through the mountains of laundry and restocking the refrigerator. I've also been busy trying to get up to speed on Primary happenings. Within two days of getting home, I was asked to accompany the sister missionaries to an appointment (fell through, unfortunately), speak at the stake baptism (held today--it went well), and speak in sacrament meeting next Sunday (the 11th)! Welcome home, indeed! At least I feel needed.
We are all still trying to adjust to Maryland time. I haven't been sleeping very well at night since getting home and all of us have had a hard time getting up in the mornings. The second day home I slept until 9:44--I couldn't believe it! Frank has been getting up, though--poor guy has to work, and he has been working hard. He is working today, also--he got up early to go help cook food for a 4th of July breakfast, and now he is helping cook food for a wedding. The boys have been enjoying sleep overs with friends and all the freedom that comes with summer. (I still make them do chores, though!) Jared spent the night with his friend Sage last night, and their friend Brian (from the ward) slept over here on Thursday night and stayed most of the day Friday. This afternoon we are going to be busy getting Scott and Tanner packed & ready for scout camp, which begins on Monday--very early!
I fully expected to be feeling really depressed at this point, but thankfully, I've been ok. (An answer to prayers, I'm sure.) It's been a lot nicer to be home than I expected. The first day home I really felt the humidity, but on Wednesday the weather changed and it's been wonderfully warm and dry--perfect, sparkling summer weather! Being the parent of teen agers has helped me to appreciate summer more than I have in years. No "did you do your homework?", no schedules, less stress, just lots of time to relax and enjoy ourselves! I find myself really embracing the joys of summer! Like yesterday when I went to the grocery store--I came home with peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, blueberries, strawberries and watermelon! Yum!!! On Thursday night we had our first outdoor dinner. Last night we celebrated July 4th a little early with hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob chips, watermelon, and our traditional flag cake. I love summer! I miss my family, but it is hard to be sad when there is so much to enjoy. I find myself, instead, just feeling very grateful to have such a wonderful family and so many great memories from the last couple of weeks that I will treasure forever.
