Well, it had been over a year since I had seen my family in Utah, so Doug and decided it was time to go down for a visit. And since we are now 'retired', we jumped in our little car and took Hwy 93 all the way to Idaho Falls! Then hwy 15 down to Provo.
We took Beans with us...he's good at keeping us awake on those late nights! Lucky bear!!
Our first stop was at Karla's in Provo. It's always so fun to visit her and her family. She had just won the County 'Pig Wrestling' competition the night before we got there!
She had all of her family come for a BBQ..Josh, Justin, Erica, Jace and all of their significant others!!
It was so good to see them all again.
We celebrated her oldest son Josh's birthday while we were there...he has two little ones. His little girl Brinlee reminds me so much of Ava, she is sitting on my lap, and his son is in the brown shirt with Josh's wife, Amber. Erica is holding Justin's little boy, Miken.
It was so fun to visit and get 'caught up' with everyone!
This is her youngest son Jace and his girlfriend, Stefanie and Justin's wife, Chelsey...she is a great ball player! We went to their game Thursday night...wow, even Karla played!
Josh and Brian were anxiously looking forward to some of that delicious cake!
Karla just did a major renovation of her kitchen and she did most of the work herself...she really is Superwoman!!
After our 3 day visit in Provo we drove down to St. George with Arlene and Ron and stayed overnight at Kevin and Joeen's. They had most of their kids and grandkids there, too. We stayed up late into the night visiting and reminiscing. It was so fun to see them all again!
What a blessing it was for me to see and visit with my family. I love them and miss them so much and wished I lived closer...but I'll still keep coming down to visit. And maybe they will come see me!!
The next morning we got up and started out on our drive to Phoenix with Arlene and Ron. We saw some beautiful country on our trip, especially the canyons near Lake Powell.
We really enjoyed our visit to Phoenix...we spent a lot of our time in or near the pool, it was so refreshing!!
We also took time to catch a movie, which we loved...The Hundred Foot Journey.
A highlight of our trip was a session we did at the Mesa Temple. It is such a beautiful Temple, we felt such a sweet feeling there as we did some family history names. We are so grateful for Temples and for Temple work!
We enjoyed a lovely late afternoon boat ride on Lake Pleasant.
We love going out on the lake. It is always so beautiful there, especially as the sun is setting!
And we enjoyed eating out!! We had great visits together, but it seemed the week went by too quickly!
Reluntantly we left Phoenix and travelled back up to Logan. We stayed overnight there, and had a fun visit with K and Jackie and their kids, and Brian and Julie. I just wish I had remembered to take some pictures. We were so glad to see them again!
The next morning it was time to say 'good-bye' to mom and Ron. They have such a beautiful place there, with a lovely English garden.
We had such a good time with them!
Well, it was now time to head home. We decided to take Hwy 89 up through Logan Canyon to Bear Lake and on to Paris Idaho.
We stopped in Paris and toured the tabernacle there, it is beautiful. It was built in 1889 under the direction of Brigham Young.
Doug is with Br. Merrill, our tour guide. He and his wife own a historic home just a block away!
Br Merrill and his wife and Sister Rich are the service volunteers here.
Br. Merrill's grandfather worked on the Tabernacle.
Sister Rich, on the left, is a descendant of the Apostle Charles Rich, who lived in Paris Idaho and had 5 wives and 50 children. He now has over 22,000 decendants and each year the Rich family hold a family reunion here and over a thousand show up! Amazing!!
We enjoyed the beautiful drive home and met a man selling Jerky...buffalo, beef and elk. Doug excitedly bought a generous portion, and later realized he got ripped off...but whatever!
We also went up through Jackson Hole, Wyoming and ate at a place called Bubba's...a referral from the Jerky guy. It was great, so that made up for the overpriced Jerky!
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