Utah

For our family vacation this year, we took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Shawn's cousin Amy got married and his favorite Uncle Gene had a suprise 60th birthday on the same weekend. So we made an excuse to get away for a couple of days and attend both family gatherings with doing a little of our own adventures as well. We caravaned with Shawn's parents and left on the 4th of July and traveled all day to stay the night in Manti where we were able to make it to their 4th Parade, which was really fun for the girls because they had various town "Miss Pagent" floats and lots of candy was gathered. It was beautiful weather and we laid on the temple grounds of the Manti temple to watch the fireworks. We stayed in a very small but suprisingly comfortable hotel.

Watching the Parade from the street.

Waving at all the floates and begging for candy.

Got their glow sticks.

Molly watching the fireworks

Manti temple at night.

On Thursday the 5th, we traveled to Provo about an hour and a half away, and checked into our hotel. When we got there my childhood neighbor Brindi Porter was the front desk person! It was such a suprise. I hadn't seen her in like 8 years. It was so crazy. We went swimming while Molly took a nap, and got ready for Amy's reception which was at Brighton Ski Resort in Park City. I had never been there, and it was so beautiful being in that country. They served Churros and ice cream cones, which was really fun idea.

On Friday Jeff and Jennifer came with us to walk around Temple Square in Salt Lake. We got there about 10 am and toured the new conference center, which was so pretty. I loved the garden walks on top of the building. We ate lunch at Cheesecake Factory, which was nuts, but so yummy. Then we looked around the temple, the visitor centers, the old tabernacle, and the church museum. All in all it was a fun day. I hadn't been there forever.

 Lydia peaking over a chair at the conference center

 This was a picture in the conference center of Chirst coming to the Nephites. It was so big.

 It was really nice having Jeff and Jennifer come with us. Poor Molly just wanted to be down to crawl, but she did really well.

 Statue of President Monson.

 Fountain on top of the Conference Center

 Keely in the old Tabernacle

 I love this picture. Shawn should go into photography. :)

 There was a fun children's center in the church museum. Mexican dancing!

 I love Molly's face in this picture with the stuffed animals

Watch out here comes Molly!

On Saturady, we took it easy and went swimming in the morning, took family pictures at the Provo Temple, and ate lunch at a fun BBQ place, oh and took the girls bowling for the first time. It was a lot of fun even if Shawn killed me. I bowled really badly...but the girls had fun. Later that evening we went to the Provo libray where Shawn's Uncle Gene worked and had the suprise party for him. He was totally suprised, and they are such a fun family. We had a great time, and we were so glad we were able to make it.

 Keely eating meat on a bone (aka ribs) her favorite meal.

 Lydia got excited every time she sent the ball down the alley.

 Uncle Gene making a speak. He spoke from the heart. It was sweet.

 Jeff and Shawn's aunt sing "All my Life's a Circle" for the guests.

 They had dress ups at the party so you could take a picture with Uncle Gene and his famous outfits for the reading time at his Library. The girls had a blast with these silly costumes.

 This is what Lydia looks like with long hair. She was smiling from ear to ear and wore that wig for so long. It was so funny.

We love these silly girls.

Before we left on our trip we wanted to take as many family picture as we could of the different temples we saw. We wanted to see more, but we were only able to see three. The Manti, Salt Lake and Provo. I forgot to do the Manti so here it is.

The Manti temple is beautiful! Too bad it was raining on us, we probably would have spent more time there. Thanks Utah! We probably won't see you for a long time! We are glad to be home. :)