Summer Utah Trip: Temple Square

We spent all day Friday in Salt Lake visiting Temple Square Visitors Centers and the Church Museum of History and Art for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Grandma, Grandpa, Emily and Baby Stephen joined us. It was a wonderful day! We loved seeing the replica of the inside of the Salt Lake Temple in the south visitor's center. The kids loved getting an idea of just how beautiful the inside of the temple is.

They also really enjoyed the church commercials and played their favorite ones over and over again.

We loved the Museum of History and Art. The kids really enjoyed the traveling exhibit, "I Am a Child of God." We spent atleast an hour if not two, in the exhibit. There were lots of fun hands-on learning activities for the kids to do. We were all very impressed. I especially loved how sweet Aaron was with his little "adopted" baby. He handled the doll with great care and when it was time to leave, he made sure to wrap the baby in a blanket and tucked him off to bed.

I absolutely loved our day at temple square. I wanted each of us to strengthen our testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to feel the spirit, and have a learning experience about the history of our church, and I also wanted the kids to see that they are part of such a big and wonderful organization. Aside from the spiritual blessings of the Gospel, I believe there is great strength in numbers and because we don't live in an area heavily populated with Latter-day Saints, I wanted them to get a feel for the worldwide multi-million person church they belong to. It was a very successful trip.

I really feel like it was a special day for all of them. After the museum, we had a delicious dinner at The Lion House Pantry where Elder Russell M. Ballard sat at the table next to us with his wife, his granddaughter and her boyfriend. I suspect it was some kind of time-to-see-if-my-grandpa-approves type of date. :) It was really neat for the girls to get to see an Apostle in real life. We all recognized his voice right away.

After dinner we toured Brigham Young's home and then went to see the Joseph Smith movie in the Legacy Theater. We were all so touched by the sacrifices of our first latter-day prophet, and also by the sacrifices made by his family.

It was a perfect day, and to top it all we picked up Joseph (Dad) at the airport to spend another wonderful few days with us.

Summer Utah Trip: Bridal Veil Falls

Joseph flew back and forth during the trip to work a few days and to attend the High Adventure Scout Camp with the Young Men from our church. We waited a couple of days for Brynn to get better and then the adventures began. Stephen and Emily invited us for a trip to Bridal Veil Falls. The temperature had cooled a bit and was very nice.

Emily and I were able to spend nearly every day of the trip together. It was so nice to have her to visit with each day. I wish everyday could be spent together doing the mom thing. She was great company.

Abby's Milestone

Abby woke up the first Monday morning of our trip and announced that she was going to get her ear's pierced that day. When Abby says she's going to do something she means business! She had to wait all day because Brynn woke up with a high fever, but before the day ended, her request was granted. She did awesome. I honestly thought she would never be interested, because of how much she hates needles, but she did it and according to her it wasn't so bad!

The Father's Day Marathon

Father's Day was literally a marathon of a day for us, it felt more like 3 days crammed into one. We started out the day with Emily and Stephen for the blessing of Stephen Vest Covey and then we had a luncheon over in Provo at Stephen's parent's home. After visiting for a couple of hours we went back to my parent's home to celebrate Father's Day and my Mom's 60th birthday. It was a great family day! Grandpa spoiled the kids with hot breakfasts in the morning. Isaac thinks it's pretty cool stuff!

Aaron telling everyone to "shhhh" so he could hear the tribute to Grandma.

Josh stopped by with his family for another quick hello. He wore one of his Dad's huge hawaiian shirts in his memory. It was hilarious to see it pulled out, it was so big.

Summer Trip to Utah: BBQ with the Lee's

We had originally planned to stay in St. George on our way to Utah, but we reached St. George at 8:30 on Friday night and made the decision to go all the way. We arrived late, and then stayed up another hour visiting with Grandma Rowene and Grandpa Billy. By the time we got everyone settled into bed it was 1:30 a.m.

We enjoyed a BBQ at Joseph's mom's house on Saturday with most of his siblings and their families. The kids jumped right in and had a blast playing with all of their cousins. It was the best! Utah is greener right now than I ever remember it being. It was beautiful! It always feels so good to be there surrounded by family.

Ferry Ride to Coronado

We took Emily and Stephen to downtown San Diego to see the big ships in the Harbor and to ride the ferry to Coronado. Aaron was fascinated by the U.S.S. Midway and loved the ride to Coronado. Stephen had to hold onto his shirt to make sure he didn't go overboard. Aaron in turn helped Isaac stay aboard ship as well. It was cute to see him with his arm wrapped around his little brother in such a protective way. Aaron was full of chatter the whole day. I'm not sure which was better for him, the ferry ride, or the ride in Emily and Stephen's car at the end of the day. He seemed pretty enthusiastic about both.

I have loved living in such a military hub. The presence of the military is all around us. We live right outside the gate of the Camp Pendleton Marine base and many of our neighbors are current or retired military officers. There are many opportunities to really feel a sense of gratitude and patriotism. We have met so many wonderful people who have sacrificed so much of themselves for our country. We are grateful to associate with them.

Because there are so many military families in our school, they have an extra emphasis on the hymns of the armed forces. As we walked from the monument to the cruise ship, it was fun to hear the girls recall the hymns they have learned, some of them I'm not very familiar with so was impressed with their memory. I love going to the Monday morning assemblies because they always sing the songs and every time I get lump in my throat.

From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles,
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.