Utah Trip and Family Reunion

We just got back from our annual trip to Utah.  It also included a family reunion/50th wedding anniversary for my parents.  I took a ton of pictures on this trip (over 300), but don't worry, I am only including a few in this post.

On our way up, we were going to go to the north rim of the Grand Canyon - but it was on fire, so we drove through Zion National Park instead.

I hadn't been there in years, so it was fun to see it again.  Don't you love how happy my youngest two look in this picture?

We stopped and saw a few temples on this trip.  Starting with the Cedar City temple that is currently under construction.

We also saw the Draper temple.

And we saw the Provo Temple.  We also drove past the Provo City Center temple, but didn't stop for a picture, since we had just taken a bunch when we were there in February.

Jeremy took the boys up to Franklin, Idaho to see some family history sites.  Unfortunately, I did not go with them since I was attending my cousin's funeral that day.  I got the news that he had died on my way up to Utah.  It was so terribly sad.  He was only a couple of months younger than me and his sister was my roommate and best bud while we were both single gals living in Phoenix.

Our family, including my parents, siblings, in-laws, and nieces and nephews had a big reunion at Bear Lake to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  It was great fun!!

This was the great view we had of beautiful Bear Lake from the home where we stayed.

Since the fires had moved away from the roads, we were able to go to the north rim of the Grand Canyon on our way home.  We hadn't been there since Dallin was a baby, so I felt morally obligated to take my kids - especially since we could get in free with Thomas's "Every Kid in a Park" pass.  It was spectacular - as always.

We were so grateful to be able to visit our family and to enjoy so many fun activities on this trip.

Life Lately

Just a few pictures of what has been keeping us busy lately. . .

A Summer sleepover in the family room.  My boys love to do this.  I spent all this money building a bigger house so they wouldn't all be crammed in one room anymore, and it turns out they are having separation anxiety.

Drake got a mosquito bite on the top of his ear and it swelled up so big, I have never seen anything like it.  He looked like Dumbo.

It took about three days for the ear to return to its normal size.

We finally painted the last batch of baseboards and trim.  We have most of it up, but this will finish all of the odds and ends that we have to do.

We poured a new section of driveway.  The driveway ends at our property line and then we have all that space between us and the road.  Jeremy says we will gravel it, since he doesn't want to pay for concrete on city property.

The rock for the front of the house and the porch columns finally arrived.  It was a bit of a headache getting the stuff we wanted, but it is looking good.  Very worth the headache(s).

A close up of some of the stone.

And another close up of another pile of the stone.  I know these photos are riveting.  Honestly - will we ever be done building???

Finally, I want to share a picture of the Snowflake Temple.  I feel so lucky to have a temple just five minutes away from my house.  It is so pretty. I took this picture just the other day.  In our Primary, we give each child that is baptized a picture of the temple that was taken on their baptism day as a special keepsake. So, I get to take this shot quite often, but thought I would share what our beautiful temple looks like in the Summer.