Hi all! I wanted to share the posting joy and tell you about our eventful week.
Backing up a bit... on July 22nd we had a grandma playdate. We hiked to Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City to raise our banner stating our promise to honor our family name. We all signed the banner, and you can too sometime.
What a view!
Then on the 24th of July, we went with Grandma and Grandpa to the Spanish Fork parade. Dad likes to see the high school alumni on the floats because he recognizes them and tries to shout to them. For example, "Hey, Gus! That's Gus. He can't hear me. None of those guys can hear anymore." There were pageant queens, horses, bagpipes, tractors, army vehicles and candy. Everything a parade should be.
After that we went to Bridal Veil Falls for a picnic and a splash in the mountain stream.
Moving on, Isaac and I went with our friends down the street on a little trip across the country. My friend Kristie flies cheap, so she wanted to take her son Jacob to the Sacred Grove before his baptism. Jacob wanted a buddy, so Isaac and I were invited. It was an adventure since flying standby means you can't count on everything working out. But Kristie is an ace at the travel game, so things worked out great.
Airport shuttle, feeling great.
Long Beach airport, CA - on our way (sort of) to NYC
We took a red-eye flight to JFK, then flew over to Rochester, so we were pretty tired when we started our sightseeing.
Began at the Palmyra Temple
Joseph Smith Farm home. How did they fit so many people into such a small space? Now people have garages bigger than this house.
EB Grandin Print Shop - It took a lot of hard work to publish the Book of Mormon
Isaac led us straight up the Hill Cumorah.
We thought a lot about Moroni. His earth life was pretty bleak, but his post mortal life has been better.
The Peter Whitmer farm where the church was organized. It's a special place.
We got a good deal on a hotel room where we could relax for the night. We swam the next morning in the pool until check out time.
The Rochester airport had this cool kids section with foam toys. The boys had a great time.
Following along with the safety instructions.
In NYC we got a slice of pizza pie. It was delicious--best airport pizza.
We headed back west. We flew to Las Vegas, spent the night at a little hotel there, then left early to go to Long Beach, and then back home to Salt Lake.
Playing cards in Las Vegas. Go fish.
In Long Beach we rented a car for a few hours so we could go to the beach. It was too cold to really swim, but we splashed in tide pools, found sea critters, and played on the rocks. Isaac and I felt so happy to be in the Pacific ocean again.
We made it home in time for his baptism on Saturday.
Ephraim did the baptism, Dad did the confirmation. It was a sweet experience. We wish you all could have been there.
And then on Tuesday I got ankle surgery. So now I'm just laying around in bed popping pain pills. I'll be off my feet for two weeks and then they'll give me a cast and I'll be on crutches for about a month. So we've been having lots of fun around here!
