We were all up early and ready to go right on time. The whole airport adventure was uneventful and we were in Salt Lake City by 1:40 p.m. We had asked for a larger rental vehicle and were hoping for maybe an Escape or something similar so we were surprised when they had a Ford Expedition waiting for us. There was room for all the luggage and we all had a chance to spread out in the car which was really nice after being on an airplane most of the day. It didn't take us long to find our rental. It was perfect - location and space-wise. We dropped off the luggage and went to Hires for lunch. The kids had a list of restaurants they wanted to visit while we were in Utah and Hires was at the top of the list.
After shopping with mom we went back to our house and got everyone settled into their spaces. The kids loved that we were right downtown and only a block from the Capitol. We have found our place to stay whenever we visit.
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| The view from our driveway - west, towards the Great Salt Lake |
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| I loved this tree right outside our window. The landlord's live above the rental. |
After we all felt settled in and relaxed we walked to the Capitol and walked around. It really is a pretty place and there is so much to see. There were quite a few groups having their pictures taken with the Capitol as the backdrop.
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| It is a beautiful building |
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| This is the view from the Capitol steps. I miss the mountains. |
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| Naomi loved how the setting sun was coming through the columns. |
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| Jeremy and Nick doing their best poses in front of the fancy gate. |
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| Nick, Jeremy and Naomi on the front steps. |
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| A Beehive next to a beehive, plus it is a cool picture. |
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| The sun setting over the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island. |
After exploring the Capitol grounds we went to visit Dianna and Julie. They were home by themselves as all the girls were with their other mothers. It was fun to just talk with them for a bit. By the time we got back to our house we were all exhausted. It was a great first day of vacation.
June 2
We were up bright and early and on our way into the Unitah mountains to the Cannon family cabin. It was cabin opening day and we were going to help clean and get the cabin ready for the summer. This was a great way to get to see everyone and explore. We were the first ones there and had the place to ourselves for about an hour and a half. It was so peaceful.
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| The kids relaxing by the river below the cabin. |
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| The sun shining on the Weber River with the mountains in the background. |
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| The view of the cabin from the river. |
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| Naomi found the perfect place to draw. |
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| The view from the front porch. I love the new spring green of the aspen with the darker green of the pines in the background. The line of white snow on the top of the mountain is stunning against the blue of the sky. I love this place. |
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| The cabin from the road. |
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| Nick is waiting for the hummingbirds to come to the feeder. It is fun to hold the feeder and see them close up. They are so beautiful. |
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| Jeremy is drying out. He fell in the river while trying to find the perfect place to read. All of his things, including his cell phone, books and wallet, got soaked. It didn't take too long to dry out in the sun. The down side of falling in the river is that he landed on his knee on the top of a sharp rock. His knee was really swollen and very painful. |
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| The whole cleaning crew. It was really fun to see all the aunts, uncles and cousins. |
Once the cabin was cleaned Steve, Nick, Naomi and I took off for a hike to the floating gardens. Nick has missed this hike the last time we were at the cabin and really wanted to see them. Jeremy's knee was getting worse so he stayed back at the cabin with Grandma EllaRene,, Grandpa Rick and a few of the cousins.
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| I love the aspens! |
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| Filling up our water bottles at the source of the spring. |
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| The upper lake. |
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| A view of the floating garden spring from below. |
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| Walking through the aspen. |
When we got back from our hike all the brothers wanted some pictures with Dad. They always have so much fun when they get together.
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| Derran, Steve, Rick, Sean and Bradden. |
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| The pyramid was Rick's idea. |
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| Once more picture. |
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| Adric is ready to go fishing. |
We said our goodbyes in the late afternoon and went back to Salt Lake City. We ate a late lunch at Shivers (another eatery on the list) and then headed out to the Church Distribution Center to get some things for seminary and to look around. We also stopped at Seagull Book to find a few other things. Naomi found a really cute shirt and I got some good stuff for seminary. Back at the house we put some ice on Jeremy's knee and did some laundry.
June 3
Sunday was a family day. Jeremy woke up to a much less sore knee, thank goodness. It was still tender but at least he could walk. We started with a walk down the hill to Temple Square to attend Music and the Spoken Word in the Tabernacle. It is something that everyone needs to see once in their lifetime. The Tabernacle Choir is something to experience in person and in the tabernacle. The acoustics and ambiance are just the right setting for a complete experience. As an added bonus, the orchestra was performing along with the choir. It was amazing. From our seats in the balcony we also got to watch the different cameras. That was super cool as well.
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| Our view of the choir, orchestra and the really cool telescoping camera (bottom right corner). |
After the performance we walked around Temple Square for a bit and enjoyed the peaceful feeling of the Sabbath. Temple Square is so pretty with all the flowers in bloom.
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| The angel Moroni and the sun peaking through the temple spires. |
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| So many beautiful flowers. |
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| I love to sit in this room and take in the Christus and the surrounding paintings. |
After exploring the temple grounds for a little bit, we walked back to our house, changed our clothes, ate some lunch and went off to show the kids the neighborhoods where we grew up. I can't believe how much things have changed. Everything seemed so much bigger back in the day, but that might have been due to the fact that I was smaller...maybe? We stopped by Derran's house to hang out with the brothers for a bit. There were several babies born since the last time we had visited and we were going to meet all three of them today. Oa and Camille are so cute. Camille let me hold her because I was the first person to offer her a drink and a snack when they got back from church. It was great!!!
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| Jeremy fell asleep on Derran's front porch while waiting for them to get home from church. |
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| Meeting Baby Oa for the first time. She is so cute. |
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| Maddie and Graham beating up on Nick. They all loved it. |
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| The more Nick hams it up the more they would giggle. It was really cute. |
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| Summer was showing me some tricks on her trampoline and then asked if she could take some pictures. I showed her how to use the camera and turned her loose. |
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| This is what happens when you give Summer the camera and let her take some pictures. Hyrum is a nut. |
After hanging out for a bit with the brothers we went to the Weenig family party at my parent's. It gets crazy with everyone there, but it is so much fun. Mom really goes out of her way to make sure it is special.
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THE GIRLS
front row l to r: Morgan, Laura, Kathy, Amanda, Jenny, Katie
back row l to r: Jalissa, me, Mom, Rachel, Kimber, Naomi. |
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THE BOYS
front row l to r: Andrew, David
middle row l to r: Jeremy, Nick, Chris, Sam with Waylon on his lap, Shaun with George on his lap, Nate, Mark, Justin
back row l to r: Dad, Steve |
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| The little ones in the back room: BreElle, Waylon, Adalyn, Isabelle, Naomi and Carol (another new cousin/niece) |
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| Carol and Katie. Carol was so shy that this is the best I could do to get a picture of her. |
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Mom wanted a picture of each family. They turned out rather hilarious because we were all blinded by the sun.
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| The Jackson Family |
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| The Christensen Family |
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| The Wykstra Family (minus Eric who is serving a mission in Texas) |
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| Jeremy loved taking pictures of everyone. |
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| The cousins doing crafts out front of Grandma and Grandpa's house. |
It was a fun night of talking and playing and laughing. We were so tired by the time we got back to our house that night, but a good kind of tired.
June 4
We started this day in the best way possible - at the University of Utah Bookstore. There were so many fun things to see. The school pride definitely surfaced as well. Jeremy is now even more determined to attend the U after his mission.
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| My favorite find at the bookstore. |
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| It goes perfectly with my collection on the truck. |
After getting our fill of the Ute stuff at the bookstore, we met Mom and Dad at This Is The Place Heritage Park. This is another place people need to put on their list of things to see while in Salt Lake. I had lived there for 32 years and had never visited. Don't be a me - go check it out.
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| Inside one of the homes learning what it was like to live in pioneer times. |
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| Nick found a fireman's hat. |
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Jeremy doesn't want to have his beard shaved off.
The fun thing about this picture is the young man working in the barber shop had just gotten back from his mission to Washington state. He was in the same mission as our cousin/nephew, Evan. Small world. |
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| The bank was really cool as well. |
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| Mom thought this was a fun picture because I worked at ZCMI during highschool. |
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| Doing some leather work. |
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| Grandpa found his happy place - an old time pharmacy. |
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| This gentleman was really good! We watched him while he made a jug. |
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| The finished product. |
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| Mom found us an ice cream shop. YUMMY! |
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| After touring the pioneer portion of the park we went up to the Indian exhibit. |
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| The boys had boat races in the river. |
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| Watching their boats float down the river. |
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| They had a full-sized t-pee. We weren't allowed to go in but it was impressive from the outside. We did get to go in some wood and mud huts like the ones the indians would have lived in but I forgot to take pictures while we were in them. |
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| Mom and Dad taking a break before heading back down the hill. |
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| Naomi making an Indian arrowhead necklace. |
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| We decided to take a tour of the Heber C. Kimball house. |
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| Our guide was really knowledgeable. She told us several stories. My favorite was of Heber C Kimball standing on the top of Ensign Peak and prophesying that once the valley was filled that Christ would come again. The valley is almost filled! |
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| I view of the park from the balcony of the house. |
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| I loved this picture of the This Is The Place Monument through the trees. |
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| The kitchen with the original stove. The floor was made from the scraps of granite they used to make the Salt Lake Temple. |
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| The school house was really cool. All grades were in the same room and taught by the same teacher. |
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| This is Naomi written in the Deseret Alphabet. |
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| The kids loved watching the animals. The chickens came right up to them. Naomi was talking to the goats and one of the workers came running because Naomi's goat sounds were so realistic they thought one of the goats had gotten loose. That was fun. |
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| I love my parents!!! |
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| After a fun-filled day of exploring we had lunch at Bruges Waffles. The burgers were really good. |
Mom and Dad followed us to our house to see where we were staying. They really liked the location and said that it reminded them of Grandma's house. They then went home to recuperate from a long day of walking. We had so much fun.
All of us showered and got ready to go to Dan Baker's house for a Sigma Chi/Exec reunion. We hadn't seen any of these guys since we moved to North Carolina. It was so much fun to see them and their wives again after so long. I loved meeting all their kids as well. Dennis and his kids were making me laugh so hard. Maelyn and Rosie hadn't changed a whole lot and it was fun to get to know Holly and Tammy. The kids had a good time together as well. Dan's yard backs up to a park and the kids played in the park most of the night. It was fun to catch up.
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| Chris Hutchinson, Dennis Dixon, Dan Baker, Steve Cannon and Dave Barker. The boys are back together... |
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| ...and still as silly as ever. |
June 5
Naomi went to the temple for the first time. Mom and Nick had been doing some family history work and had 23 names to take through the temple. Jeremy got to perform the baptisms. It was such a memorable day.
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| Naomi's first time going to the temple. |
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| Naomi, Dad, Jeremy, Mom, Nick in front of the Jordan River Temple. |
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| Family photo in front of the temple. |
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| Jeremy loved the big, fluffy flowers. |
We went straight from the temple to meet Sharron at her storage unit. She wanted Steve to look at her piano and let her know if we wanted it for our house. It is such a gorgeous piano. She had it specially built. It is a grand piano in an upright format. We decided that it would not be in the best interest of the piano to suddenly introduce it into the extreme humidity in North Carolina. From there we went to lunch at Millie's Burgers (again, on the list) an then to Blick art supplies. Naomi and Nick had a great time finding paper and pencils that were cool and different. It was then back to the house to change out of our nice clothes. Jeremy wanted to check out the old Sam Weller/new Eborn Books on Main Street. It is one of his favorite places to visit in Salt Lake. Steve loves the native american artifacts store next door. I just love walking around downtown. It reminds me of my days working at Wallace Associates during college. We then headed out to Katrina's house to help Sharron get everything ready for the big party. It was a fun night. Sean and Bryn decided to wait for everyone to be there before they blessed Oa. They blessed her that night at Katrina's house. Her full name is Oa Everly Pearl Cannon. Isnt' that beautiful!?!
As always, the food was stupendous and the family time was amazing. The kids all played together and the adults had time to talk. I spent some time downstairs with the kids watching the cousins play together.
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| Bryn and Sharron getting the food all set up. |
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| Cara and Naomi |
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| Randy and Steve are full of good food. |
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| Nick found a potato and the potato jokes started rolling. |
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| The brothers hanging out in the living room. |
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| Jeremy and one of his signature moves. |
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| I love this picture of Sharron. She has the best smile. |
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| Katrina, our hostess for the night. |
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| The cousins loved hanging out on the trampoline together. |
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| Maggie and Oa |
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| Ginger and Terri |
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| I love the looks on all three of their faces. Graham is silly, Adric is concentrating and Maddie is calculating her next move. |
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| Cole, Naomi and Tatum |
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| Derran, Melonie and Caleb. |
June 6
Not a lot of pictures for today, but a lot happened. We left Nick and Naomi with Grandma and Grandpa Weenig while we took Jeremy to Salt Lake Community College to see what his options were for transferring once he is home from his mission. We talked with a counselor who was very encouraging. He suggested we stop and talk to the University of Utah representatives that were sitting at a table just outside of the counseling office. We talked with one of the U counselors who presented several viable options for transferring straight to the U and bypassing SLCC. She said that Jeremy had enough credits to possibly get a double major and made suggestions for complementary majors to psychology. She said we could call her any time to make sure whatever we were doing would work well with the transfer plan she has suggested. When she handed me her card I almost fell out of my seat. It was Therese Pratt. I worked with her when I was in Academic Advising all those years ago. She remembered me and we talked a little about where everyone had gone. She told me to stay in touch. I had forgotten how small Salt Lake is in regards to how everyone has a connection somewhere. We left SLCC with Jeremy feeling really good about his plan to attend the U when he gets home from his mission.
We went back to Mom and Dad's house to have some lunch with them and pick up the other two kids before heading to Alpine to visit Melonie and Jim. When Melonie found out that Steve was making arrow heads and really liked flint knapping she got excited and sent us to meet "her rock guy". It was the coolest shop. Steve got some beautiful obsidian and will make some really pretty arrowheads. The owner of the store even showed him some new techniques. The kids enjoyed looking around. The co-owner showed them a mammoth jaw, meteorite and fossils.
Mel's house is gorgeous. They have lived there several years but we have never been able to visit either due to illness at their house or no room in our schedule. This time it worked out. She had a beehive in the backyard and an area she has decorated with lights and a carpet and chairs. It was really nice to finally see her in her own home. She has told us all about the work they have been doing, but it is different to finally get to see it.
After Jim and Mel we stopped in Sandy to see Dan and Amy Martinez. Wow! They really have not changed that much. I have forgotten how much fun they are to hang out with. Two of their three sons were home and we got to reconnect with them as well. Adam and Sam came to dinner with us. Noah was at work. We went to The Pie. The kids finally got to eat at the pizza place Steve and I have been telling them about for years. We laughed and ate and laughed some more. It was such a fun night. It ended way to quickly.
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| Me and Amy |
We had one last stop to make before heading back to our house for the night. Sean had purchased, from Rick, the apartments near the U and had remodeled the big one for his family. WOW! He did so much work. It looked really good.
We were exhausted by the time we got back to our house. We crashed hard.
June 7
Today was Ensign Peak day with Rick and EllaRene. We met them at the trail head and were in for a real treat. This is another thing that I can't believe I lived in Salt Lake for 32 years and never did while I lived there. It should be on your list of things to do when in Salt Lake.
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| This is a picture of Ensign Peak taken from the Capitol building grounds. So cool. |
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| A little bit of history about Ensign Peak. |
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| Starting off up the path. |
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| Halfway up with the Salt Lake Valley in the background. |
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| Up at the top and overlooking the Great Salt Lake. |
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| Overlooking the downtown area. |
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| Naomi, Grandma EllaRene, Grandpa Rick, Steve, Jeremy, Nicholas |
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| The monument at the top of the mountain. |
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| A little bit of history about the monument. |
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| The view of the valley from the top. I love this city. |
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| We saw a quail on the way down. In the backyard of the house where I grew up we had two families of quail. Every spring we would see the mommy quail, followed by her five or six babies, caboosed by the daddy quail parade across the backyard. It was the highlight of spring for me. |
We worked up quite an appetite from the hike and ended up at Grove's Deli (our last place on the list) for lunch. Rick had never eaten here so we were able to introduce him to this little gem.
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| The kids have grown up on stories about Grove's sandwiches. |
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| Waiting for our custom-made sandwiches. |
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| Now the kids believe Steve about the size of the sandwiches. I love the look on Jeremy's s face. |
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| Yummy sandwiches. |
We took the kids back to the house to chill before the next activity and Steve and I went to do some exploring on our own and some grocery shopping for all the family parties still to come. I had seen a little visitors center gift shop and wanted to see what they had. I am glad we went. Just down the street we found this cool arrangement of signs in front of the Salt Palace.
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| I took the picture as we were driving by so it is not exactly straight on, but it is still cool and you get the basic idea. |
After checking out the gift shop, which has a lot of really cool Salt Lake stuff we went to my old neighborhood when I lived in the basement apartment under Shaun and Kathy in the house where my dad grew up on Chicago Street. We had gone to the closest grocery store to the house and found that the princes were outrageous and then I remembered the Smith's just down the road the other direction. The prices and selection were so much better. We got everything we needed for the last couple of parties at half the price than we would have paid at the other store. Besides, it was a drive down memory lane being back in the neighborhood.
We dropped of the groceries and picked up the kids before heading to Eden to ride the horses at Amanda's house (a must on the list of things to do while in Salt Lake). BreElle was sad we didn't have time to ride her horses the last time we visited so we promised her we would come out this time and see her house and ride her horses. It was a fun night. We barbequed and played and laughed and rode the horses and ATV and laughed while Sam chased the chickens with the ATV and watched the kids play and laughed some more.
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| Nick is in ATV heaven. |
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| Nick giving Naomi a ride. |
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| Steve and I got to ride as well. |
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| Carol didn't leave Grammy's lap the whole night except to ride the horse. |
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| This picture is to prove that Amanda has chickens. She used to be such a city girl that none of us would have believed that one day she would live on a farm with horses and chickens. This lifestyle looks good on her. |
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| Naomi riding the horse. |
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| Jeremy's turn. |
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| All the cousins playing in the yard. |
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| Nick taking his turn. |
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| Amanda and Carol were the last riders of the night. They had a hard time getting Carol to come off the horse. She LOVES riding her horse. |
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| Jeremy and Nick on the ATV one last time. |
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| Cute cousins on the trampoline. Isabelle, BreElle, Waylon (in the back), George, Adalyn, Nick and Naomi. |
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| David, Jalisa, Amanda and Carol (in her rare moment of not being on Grammy's lap or on the horse.) |
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| We all loved this picture. Nick and Waylon were laying on the trampoline just talking about life in general. |
We met the owners of our VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner, the only way to stay when travelling!!!). They were super nice and asked us how we were liking our stay. We told them we found the place we would stay every time we came. It was perfect. They were glad to hear it. Most of their renters only stayed for a night or two. They hadn't ever had someone stay as long as we had. Seriously, we will not ever stay in a hotel again when we visit Salt Lake. We have found our home away from home.
June 8
After the business of the previous few days it felt good to have a day to sleep in and get moving when we were rested. We decided, over breakfast, that we wanted to drive up both canyons. We started with Little Cottonwood. The kids really loved seeing all the trees and the river. They also got a kick out of the snow.
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| This is at the top of Little Cottonwood. |
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| Photo in the aspens. |
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| Jeremy is right at home here. I think going to the U is the right choice for him. |
Next we went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and ended up at Brighton Ski Resort. The memories of skiing with my sisters and dad came back to me. I spent a good amount of time in this canyon growing up. We had lunch at a little cafe at the top and enjoyed looking around before heading back down to the city.
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| Such a familiar sight. I love Brighton! |
We stopped at Sharron's condo to pick up a few things she had for Steve on our way back to the house. The kids really liked seeing Shasta, Sharron's dog, and getting to say goodbye to Grandma. We went back to the house to pack up our stuff and gather the things we needed to return to Mom and Dad (pillows, bedding, etc). We stopped at Mom and Dad's house on our way out to Rick and EllaRene's for the Cannon family party.
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| Saying goodbye to Mom and Dad is always so hard. I love my parents! |
The Cannon Family party was a riot, as always. When all the siblings get together it is always a fun time. We were also celebrating Rick's 80th birthday while all of us were in town.
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| Everyone in the front room to play some games for Grandpa Rick's birthday. Melonie came up with a game about Rick and all the kids got really competitive. We were all asked a bunch of questions about Rick to see how well we know him. It turned into a "who loves Dad the most" game and was rather hilarious!!! |
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| Derran is doing really well at the game! |
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| Sage and Oa. Sage looks so much like her mother! |
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| We went outside, into the gorgeous weather, to open presents and take pictures. One thing Rick wanted for his birthday was a picture with each family and all his kids. |
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front row (l to r): Ginger, Derran, Bradden, Steve
back row (l to r): Melonie, Tamara, Rick, Katrina, Sean
Dianna had to leave early and missed the pictures. |
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| Graham and Adric hamming it up for the camera. |
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| Derran kept the kids busy by playing money bounce ball. He would put a monetary amount on each bounce and whomever caught the ball got the money. Needless to say, it got pretty competitive. Happy to report that there was no bleeding or broken bones. |
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| Sunny and Aunt Anne |
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| Maddie and Summer giving Grandpa his present. |
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| Such a good looking group of people. |
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| The little cousins kept the older cousins busy. |
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| The entire family (minus Dianna and her family - they had to leave early) |
This was a great way to end an amazing vacation. Tomorrow it is back to Charlotte.
June 9
We were up and at the airport early. The flight from Salt Lake to Dallas was uneventful and easy. We grabbed a quick lunch between flights in the Dallas airport and boarded the last leg of our flight home. Not much happened during the loading process until one of the last passengers to board came and sat in the row right in front of us. When she lifted her arms above her head to put her carry on in the overhead bin everyone in a three row radius sniffed their armpits to make sure the smell was not coming from them. It was pungent. It was her and we all smelled it the entire flight anytime she moved. Public Service Announcement - when you are going to be in an enclosed space with other people for any length of time PLEASE SHOWER FIRST!!! Thank you.
We got home safely and ordered pizza for dinner and then went to bed. We were exhausted, but had amassed a lot of incredible memories from our amazing Utah trip.
