Driving to Canada (Trip Day 5)

Saturday morning we woke up early and loaded up the car for our road trip. We made the trip  in good time, driving from Pleasant Grove, UT to Taber, AB in 12 hours (just under 800 miles). We snacked in the car, and made quick stops for bathroom breaks and refueling. It helped that the children were already kind of worn out from our travels, so they all napped a fair amount. I have driven this road (straight north on I-15) numerous times, so it was fun to see all the familiar landmarks.

Lady of the Rockies in Butte, Montana (the white smudge at the top of the mountain is the statue).

Welcome to Alberta--welcome home!

The dinosaur at Milk River. When we got out of the car it was really windy!

The view from my parent's house--flat praries!

Canadian sunset

We were very happy to arrive and start visiting with my parents, the Johnsons and the Nelsons!

Sunday we attended the Barnwell ward church meetings, and then spent a nice day just visiting and playing games.

Independence Day (Utah trip day 4)

We were excited to spend Independence Day in Utah County. Becky made a fantastic breakfast (baked french toast) to start the day off right. Then we all headed out for nice hike up Battle Creek Canyon (near Pleasant Grove). The reward for the hike was a lovely waterfall!

We had some quiet time in the afternoon: cousin playtime, making beads under Aunt Becky's tutoring, and watching some shows.

Everyone was excited to meet Mango, the Bowers pet parrot!

Dinner was a patriotic BBQ. It was fun to have so much family already gathered together!

The wives and mothers of the group. This picture was a practice for our red, white, and blue family photos to come one week later. 

 

It was exciting to watch cousin Clarissa open her mission call!

 Finally time for fireworks! The kids got to start things off with snappers, sparklers, and tanks. We took a break to have homemade ice cream for dessert, and when it was finally dark enough Jared and Uncle Paul set off quite the fireworks display. We all oohed and aahed. There was a little unfortunate incident when one of the fireworks tipped over and started shooting sideways, but thankfully no one was hurt.

What a great 4th of July!

Mountain Hiking (Utah Trip Day 3)

One thing that we love (and miss) about Utah is the gorgeous mountains. We were eager to take a hike and enjoy the splendor of the mountains. We drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon as far as we could go. We were aiming to hike to Secret Lake, but unfortunately the road was still closed due to some late snowfall. So we parked at Alta ski resort, had a picnic lunch, and did some exploring.

It was fun to see a few patches of snow in the high elevation.

Anwyn and Kayla.

Sisters--Kristi and Katie

These girls had a great time together.

 After hiking we said goodbye to the Bybee's and headed south to our next destination. Along the way we made a stop at the Draper temple. Another awesome thing about Utah is being able to see so many temples!

The girls at the Draper Temple. Zach missed the photo since he had fallen asleep in the car.

We arrived at the Seamons's home late afternoon. The cousins were sure happy to see each other and immediately headed to the back yard to play.

Meeting Teddy the hedgehog.

After dinner drove to Provo to visit Grandma and Grandpa in their new house. They were busily unpacking and remodeling, so we helped unpack a few boxes of books.  

Temple Square (Utah Trip Day 1-2)

We were so thrilled to have the opportunity to travel to Utah this summer. It has been four years since our last visit, so we were way overdue. Tuesday, July 1st we flew out of Orlando and landed in Salt Lake City at 11:00 p.m. (after a quick layover in Las Vegas). Our flights were mostly uneventful, except for Kristi's case of nausea. The children did well, and were entertained by movies/games on our devices. Our 11 p.m. landing really felt like 1 a.m. to us on our Florida timezone, so by the time we got our rental car and drove to the Bybee's house it was pretty late. We were happy to get a free upgrade on our rental car through Enterprise, which gave us a little more room.

Waiting for our flight.

Wednesday we had a nice time visiting with the Bybee family. We spent a few hours in the afternoon at Temple Square. The cousins played in the morning, and in the afternoon we did a quick tour of Temple Square. We parked in a two-hour limit spot, so we moved quickly (which was probably best for the children's attention spans anyway). We started at the Church History Museum. I really liked the current art display depicting women in their everyday roles, the 100 years of scouting exhibit was fun, and the kids thoroughly explored the BOM fiesta hands on exhibit. No trip to the museum is complete without a stop at John Taylor's pocket watch, and the death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Then we made stops at both the North and South Visitors Center, the Tabernacle, and walked around the grounds (specifically the reflecting pool).

I love this painting by Brian Kershisnik called Climbing Mother. So much of my day is spent with "climbing"children, but I need to remember the angels watching overhead.

Angel Moroni at the museum.

 

The Tabernacle, all decked out for Independence Day.

Such a pretty temple.

Family at the temple.