June Utah Trip PT 3: Pioneer museum and Birthday

We went up to Salt Lake one day and, among other things, went to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum.  There we found a family Tree Painting of our family!  It is the decendants of Samuel Rose Parkinson. 

My Grandma, Macel Handy, is shown here.  The tree was made before her two younger sisters were born, as they are not listed on the tree.

We also celebrated Thomas' birthday one of the days of our reunion.  We had a fun day that ended with a family talent show just for him (ha.ha.) and his favorite- Jello cake. 31 years old!

June Utah Trip PT 2: Ponds and Parks

We went to a big pond/small lake by my parents house.  Some swam in the water, some went fishing, some played games, and some just sat and talked.

 

 

Another Day we went to a really fun park.  It had a Splash area, tennis courts, basket ball courts, a couple playgrounds, trails, a huge grassy area, and several picnic/bbq areas 

  

 

June Utah Trip PT 1: Salt Lake

We went back up to Utah, Drove this time- with Thomas, at the end of June for a family reunion with my family.  We got there a couple days early so we went up to Salt Lake one day to tour the Conference Center.  We had both been there before but this was our first tour.  It was very fun to hear all about it. 

A couple interesting facts that we learned: The "General Conference set up" that you see behind Thomas is completely removable. It separates and gets wheeled away into storage. The Conference Center is home to one of the best sound, lighting, and video systems and is available for use to all. There only conditions are 1-Can’t be used to make money and 2- It can only be used to uplift and inspire.

They had the original paintings from the series "Stories From the Book of Mormon" by Arnold Friberg on display at the Conference Center. It was really neat to see the originals of all the pictures that we see and use all the time at church.

 

I think this is in the lobby.

On the roof.  Another fun fact: There is 4 acres of landscaped roof up there!  The people you see in the mural below are etched out of the granite.  Very cool.

Views of the temple from the roof. 

Fathers Day

Daddy's girls

  

Presents!

  

May Utah Trip part 3

Sarah & Clare and Jake & Clare

The two oldest cousins with the youngest one.

Bella having fun with her cousins. 

Watching a movie

Bella loves Mathew!

Bella and the Smyths

Clare getting Grammie kisses

Visits

We got to drive up to Idaho for a long weekend to visit the Lundins.  We loved being there and they all loved meeting Clare and playing with Bella.

Lexi and Mary- I think they were singing "Phantom of the Opera" here. :)

Clare and Julie

Allie and Bella

Julie took us to Yellow Stone one day.  It was so fun but very very cold.  The girls and I were not prepared for such cold weather!  Check out the awesome buffalo that were just walking down the street!  They were everywhere!

Lexi (my niece) was working there in Yellow Stone for the summer, home from BYU Hawaii.  We got to see the fun restaurant she was working at.  At this time they were working on opening it up for the season- painting and refinishing projects.

 

We also went to see Old Faithful.  This geyser has been going off every 90 minutes give or take 10 for hundreds of years.  Crazy!  Nature is amazing.

Waiting...

Eruption. It lasts for about 15 minutes...

On our way back to my Mom and Dad's house we got to stop off at the Berrys for a visit in Stansbury Park.

Clare and Ana

Bella and Emma.  These cousins are just 6 months apart!

Getting their feet warmed up in the sink.

Emma, Clare, and Ana

Bella and Emma had so much fun together!

Ana loved holding Clare and practicing for her new baby that would be coming a few months later.