Utah Fun – Part 2

Saturday, July 12 all of the Blomquist family made their way up to Tooele, UT to attend my mom’s brother (Robert) and his wife (Cathy) and their daughter’s baptism.  It was really neat to have all of the family gathered together for such an important event.  After the baptism we went over to Robert and Cathy’s home for dinner.

Four generations!

On the way home we passed Saltair.  There is a picture of my great-grandmother standing outside of this building, so we thought it would be fun to stop and take a current photo.

My parents and sister returned home on Sunday, but before they left we got a four generation picture with my mom and grandma.

I love this mother daughter picture.

Emily and I spent the next week in Provo, hanging out with family at my grandma and aunt’s home and having friends join us for short visits.  Emily really struggled with sleeping for a few nights.  Monday to Tuesday she was up every hour, and my grandma very kindly took her at 4am so I could get an hour or two of sleep.  My aunt and uncle kidnapped us after our sleepless night on Tuesday and took us to the Bean Museum at BYU.

This moose statue made us feel right at home.

This museum had very lifelike portrayals of life in the wild. Please note the dead antelope in the tree.

Elephants are big.

The whole gang; my cousins and my cousin’s cousins. Emily fit right in.  Our adventure ended with ice cream at the BYU Creamery and Brian walked over from his dorm to join us.

My grandma has the most beautiful yard.  We made a point to go out in the mornings and evenings to enjoy it and do a little work.  Gardening is good for the soul.  My grandma picked up a little chair for Emily so she could be in a safe place while I weeded or thinned apples; this was after we tried having her in the baby carrier with me and on a blanket.

Emily discovered how to open kitchen cabinets during this trip.  She also loved being able to climb lots and lots of stairs and, as usual, play by the bathtub with towels.

Emily and I both loved it when Kalin came to stay for the day at Grandma’s. Kalin is so good with Emily and Emily adores my four year old cousin.  Kalin was good to keep new toys in close supply and share cool things like bubbles with us.

On Thursday my grandma took Emily and I down to Santaquin to celebrate her sister’s birthday.  We went to the Red Barn for ice cream and a  tour of Aunt Denece’s yard which is full of antiques, each with a story that is tied back to their childhood. We also went for a short visit with my aunt and uncle because it was my Uncle Jonny’s (and his twin brother who was also in town) birthday too.

On Friday I hung out with Brian one last time.  We also went to a Jerusalem Reunion at Kiwanis Park. I’m always so grateful to have developed friendships with so many incredible people while living in Israel.

Saturday we went back to join Andrew’s family.  We had dinner at Mill Creek Canyon and did a little bit of hiking.  Aimee and I thought that we were heading out on a nice, flat, well worn path with Emily in her stroller.  We were soooo wrong.  Needless to say Emily could not safely stay in her stroller. It made for a good laugh.

On Sunday Sam gave his homecoming talk.  He was fabulous.  We then had a huge party at the Jackson’s and saw lots and lots of family and friends.  This was definitely a highlight of our trip.  Emily met Grandpa Snow (and actually all of Andrew’s extended family) for the first time.

We grabbed another four generation picture, we me as proxy for Andrew.

Monday was our last full day in Utah.  We did a little bit of cleaning up from the previous day’s events.  We played Hand and Foot (way fun card game!!!!). We went to dinner at Pizza Factory and had frozen yogurt for dessert.

All of the girls.  Thanks for taking the picture Sam!

Emily with Grandpa Jackson.  It isn’t obvious in the picture, but she really likes her grandpa and laughs a lot at his tricks.

Our time in Utah was was perfect and went way too fast. I’m so grateful we were able to be there for so many big events: Forbush Family Reunion, Sam’s homecoming, the 4th of July, three baptisms, Brian’s first semester of college, almost all of my mom’s family together, a Jerusalem Reunion, and Sam’s talk.  I’m one grateful girl.