We had a four day weekend in October that happened to land on the same weekend as Kolton and Camden's missionary homecoming/farewell. We decided to take advantage and take a quick trip to Utah. We usually miss out on family happenings so we were excited to be able to go.
We made it all the way through without getting bumped. It had been a while since we had such a smooth trip.
We got to Utah without a hitch.
The kids were still tired though and fell asleep as soon as we got to Grammy & Grandad's.
Cameron spends a lot of time at their house and we're always so happy to see him.
We were fortunate to be in Utah at the time of a solar eclipse. We didn't realize we'd be able to see it. Fortunately, the neighbors lent us some eclipse glasses.
It was called a "ring of fire" because you could see the ring of light around the eclipse. It was really cool to see, but the pictures I took with my phone don't really show it.
Here's a good picture of a ring of fire not taken by me.
Our temple has been closed so we were excited to do baptisms while we were in Utah. We went to the Provo City Center temple, which is so beautiful. I love that my kids get to share this experience with my parents.
We also happened to be in Utah during Clark and Di's annual harvest celebration. We've seen the pictures and were excited to finally get to take part.
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| Riley, Simon, Bailey, Hailey, Jalen, me, Jonny, Lily, Grammy, Molly, Baylie, Clark, Di, Grandad |
There was so much good food!
Grammy and Grandad supplied many of the apples from their backyard orchard.
We soke up all the family time we can get.
Clark was also harvesting his honey. It is such hard, messy work!
I worked hard to win Bea over. I started by bringing her a bowl so she didn't have to catch honey in her hands.
And we ended up snuggling and reading books.
Will and Gronky with the honey.
It was wonderful listening to Camden speak as he prepares to go to Poland and Kolton speak about his mission to Ghana. They both gave amazing talks.
Grandad put out all the mission flags that represent the missions from our family.
Molly also came home from St. Louis. But sadly her farewell was the following week so we missed it.
I had sent Kolton some money so he could have some clothes made for Jalen and Baylie. We all loved them.
We were pleased to meet one of Kolton's companions, Frederick, who is from Ghana and attending flight school at Utah Valley University.
We laughed because Erik is as dark as Jalen and Baylie.
It was so great to have so many of our family members together.
The grands
Being goofy.
There is nothing quite like a fresh tomato! I wish we lived close enough to get more produce from their garden.
Our flight home was also smooth. Shocking! We braved the SLC Airport 5K (the walk is ridiculous).
I had a lovely conversation all the way from Salt Lake to Chicago with Fares from Tunisia. (No, I didn’t do all the talking!) He was an amazing young man studying finance in Indiana. We talked about everything from politics to religion to tennis to travel to family to education. It was a wonderful reminder that what unites us is so much more than what divides us. We just need to take the time to get to know the people around us.
Chilling in the airport.
We loved our short visit with family. We wish we could have more moments like this.
