Vacation - Day 6&7 Provo

We started out the morning visiting the Open House for the newest temple in Utah, the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. An open house is neat, because anyone can walk through the temple and see the rooms before it is formally dedicated. We were glad the girls got the opportunity. After the temple we stopped to see the Watkins family in Draper. Their girls are no longer little and the boys are no longer babies. Gosh, has it been that long.


On our way down to Provo we stopped at the breathtaking Bridal Veil Falls and then drove up to Squaw Peak. The falls are always fun to cool off in.


That evening we stayed with our dear friend, Barbara Culatta from Rhode Island. She is always wonderful and welcoming.

The next morning we took Julia on a tour of the BYU campus. She wants to go there in a few years. I hope she gets to as I loved my time there. The Art Museum on campus had a really cool exhibit based on the "I Spy" books. We all had fun looking at the models and photos. In the afternoon, I met up with a friend my youth, Virginia Castillo Johnson. She has a beautiful family and we had fun going to the dinosaur museum together. Later, after dinner with some former Rhode Islanders, we got in one more scoop of ice cream at the Creamery on 9th with my nephew Adam.


The next morning we had to head home. Not before I saw one more friend, though, Julie Pickard and her cute little family. We are so happy we could make this trip and had so much fun seeing all our family and friends!!

Vacation - Day 5 SLC

Outside Temple Square in SLC

On our fifth day, we headed from ID down to UT. Our first stop was to Temple Square in downtown. We toured the conference center, saw the organist practice and walked around the visitor center.

Inside the Conference Center

After that we headed over to Heritage Park by Emmigration Canyon. What a fun place. I wish we had known how fun it was, because we would have got there a couple of hours sooner to do everything!! The park has a lot of original homestead and replications of how Salt Lake Valley was when the pioneers lived there. The girls had fun participating in various pioneer activities and chores. We also were blessed to have the Evans family (previously lived in PA) join us for the fun.

Julia and Eliza tanning some leather

Eliza hanging her hand washed clothes

The Evans in front of the "This is the Place" monument

Posing in the Print Shop

After our venture in Heritage Park, we headed down to Alpine to enjoy dinner and playtime with the Nitz family (also formerly of PA). The girls had a blast running around the yard with their four children. Eliza and Aislyn were so cute playing Polly Pockets in the bedroom closet. The adults were definitely not allowed to enter their space. It was so much fun to catch up on old times. Thank you Nitz for everything.

Vacation - Day 4 YELLOWSTONE

Is this why they call it Yellowstone??

Monday, we headed over to Yellowstone and enjoyed so much beauty. The pictures will speak for themselves. I just wish we had another day there to see it all.

Eliza in front of Old Faithful

View from Upper Falls

Bison in the fields

Hot chicks at the hot pots

Our family tree

Vacation - Day 3

After church we headed out to Craters of the Moon National Park in central Idaho. The park is what was left from a lava flow that happened thousands of years before. Despite the lack of shade, the day was beautiful and we were able to appreciate a very unique landscape.

At the end of the day, the Crooks had to head back to Oregon. We are so glad they could make the trip over!


On our way back to ID Falls, we stopped at the falls and enjoyed the view.

Vacation Day 2 - July 4th

Ezra and his dad at the parade

We spent the morning at the town parade with the girls and little Ezra. After an hour we headed out to Ririe Resevoir to go tubing and jet skiing. The girls always love the thrill of tubing and are much better than I am at holding on. Eliza got a little war wound on her arm when the ropes crossed, but didn't let that slow her down. After a few hours we headed back to the house for a barbeque, games and firework viewing from the deck.

Vacation out West - Day 1

Bev's house in ID

Cerena, Julia, Mybree and her boyfriend, Michelle

We flew out at 7 am to have a mini family reunion in ID Falls for the 4th of July. The girls and I flew direct to SLC and then drove the 3 hours. Austin flew standby to save us $450, but when he got stuck in Phoenix for 12 hours maybe wasn't as excited for the savings. Friday night we played games and caught up on old times. There were 26 people total who came: our family, sister Michelle's family, sister Bev's family (Sean's family, Jared's family, Kevin, Jacob, Araby) as well as niece Mybree, her boyfriend and nephew Adam from BYU. Bev's house has a lot of room, so we were all able to fit and are so thankful for her fabulous hosting!!

Bev's grandkids: Channing, Ezra, Taryn, and Mylee

Where did June go?

Looking back at my blog, I realized there were so many things that happened in June that I didn't even comment on.

Julia ended her school year with a bang! She seemed to have endless field trips--she went to Hershey Park twice with band and her gifted class. She also went to Sandy Hill recreation area and Gettysburg with her 8th grade class . Lucky duck. (I wasn't so lucky, because I had to foot the bill :( ) Julia also received many awards at the Award Ceremony for band, choir, honor roll, perfect attendance, and the Presidential Award for Educational Excellence. She also came in second in the school poetry slam and won a gift card to Barnes and Noble--woo hoo! I'm so proud of all her hard work this year with ALL the things she was involved in.

Anna was mostly busy with friend parties and appointments. The highlights of her month though were definitely going to our church's temple for the first time and also going to a week long overnight church camp with her sister. They LOVED both experiences. Anna did perfectly fine at camp and has lots of fun memories. I can't believe I have another young woman in my home.

The "quarters" at Girls Camp

Eliza spent her month of June going to friends homes, having lots of school parties and getting a lot of one-on-one mom time while her sisters were at camp. She also got to spend a day with her cousin Christie who moved here the end of June to Philadelphia.

Mom and Dad just spent the month, chauffering them to all their events. But we did have our own fun in the midst of it all. Besides our getaway trip, we also were able to go with some friends to enjoy the comedian Brian Regan. He was very clean and hilarious. A rare combination nowadays. Google him online if you want a good laugh. His most famous act is the "Epitome of Hyperbole". We also were able to participate in the eternal marriage and sealing of the Cruz family. It was so sweet and we enjoyed celebrating this day with them. It was quite the chaotic day though. My niece was moving in to her apartment that day, the girls were returning from Girl's Camp, and we hosted a six hour fiesta in the midst of it all. A very long day, but a very good one.

Alex, Cristina, Eulogio, and Cristian Cruz at the temple

Our backyard fiesta