Aren't Grandmas Great!

Early in October, it became evident that John's grandmother was not going to hang on to this life much longer. She passed on October 5th. Since she lived in Utah, we made the trek to attend the funeral and spend time with family there.

It was wonderful to see family and nephews and nieces that have grown in the time since we've seen them, some more than a year.

All of John's siblings were able to come, and we were only missing a few of the grandkids because they were either to young to enjoy the funeral services or not in the country. It was more like a reunion than a sad event.



Here is all of John's family. It was his mother's mother that passed and she was the oldest daughter.

John's Grandpa is a rock of a man. He spoke at his own wife's funeral and bore testimony of the gospel and making choices that will bless you and your family. It was great to witness that.



Here is John's parents and all their children. No spouses or grandchildren just their immediate family. They are each different in their own way, but you can see just a few similarities amongst them.



We had to take the opportunity to capture our own family while we were dressed up and together.

We will certainly miss Grandma Graff. She was a sweet, wonderful woman. She truly loved her family and the stories of her life were evidence of that. She loved to have family close-by and have get-togethers at their home. She was a simple, unassuming woman who cared so much about each individual. She listened well and asked with sincerity about how you were and what you were up to. She loved to give. She was a wonderful example to her family of genuine love. She will be missed.

Part 4: Utah

After a pretty good night's sleep, we packed up the van and left the hotel to head to Utah. Another six hours in the van was starting to wear on all of us, but we made it, just barely. John arrived to let us all know that his ear has been hurting for some time. He went to an urgent care and sure enough...swimmer's ear! We're all glad he got it taken care of pretty quickly though.

We relaxed with family that Thursday and just visited.

We got up early the next morning to head out to West Jordan, UT for the second to the last day of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was so awesome! We did our best to try to explain to the kids what they would see and the importance of it, I hope some of it sank in! It really is a beautiful temple. The celestial room was especially bright with the morning sun coming in! At the end we got to sit in one of the sealing rooms and just take it all in. The irony is that some great friends will be getting sealed there next month. Cool, huh?

Once again, we forgot the camera during the tour, but we drove up next to it after we were done.

We came home, played games with John's parents, brother and sister-in-law and the kids played with their cousins.

Then, John and I got ready to go to his 20-year High school reunion. We rode with John's good friend, Chris and his fiance, Janelle (the ones getting sealed next month), to the reunion. It was held in Salt Lake at the Grand America. All-in-all, it was pretty darn fun. Easy for me to say, though since I wasn't the one seeing people I haven't seen for 20 years. I knew a handful of people that John has kept in contact with, so I didn't feel left out. It seemed to go on for quite a while since we didn't leave until about 12:30 in the morning. Lots of people did some catching up and reminiscing.

Here's a capture of some of his graduating class of '89 from Alta High. John's up near the top row with his friend, Chris to the left.

They played some games, relived some good and bad, laughed at old photos, and had some pretty good food.

Saturday was much relaxed with family; another of John's brothers, Trevor and his new wife, Kayla drove up from Orem to spend the day.

Check out the kids getting into the tickle tackle with Trevor!

We drove over to an aquarium nearby and saw lots of cool things with all the kids. An octopus, a couple different kinds of sharks, got to pet some rays, and see some big tarantula.

Sidney got up close and personal with the rays.

We headed back home for games and then a barbeque. Some more games out on the lawn. We all tried to show our best bocce ball game.

I thought this was a nice capture of our bocce ball game, mid-throw and everything. Here they are from L-R; Brittany holding Xander, John's dad, Allen, Ryan's in mid-throw, John's mom, Pat, John, and then Trevor.

The cousins had fun watching videos and playing with each other. It's nice they can be instant friends when they are together.

The next day was Sunday, so we went to church, had a nice dinner and visited and played more games with the family. It's really nice to have these times together, they are some of my very favorite.

Later that night we headed south to Lindon, UT for a mini-reunion of sorts. Some people that John grew up with in high-school that really were a tight-knit group and they all just seemed to fall right back into step with each other. Four girls and 3 boys that some had crushes on and some didn't, but they all just were a great group of friends. John had brought a video that they made while they were extremely bored one late evening in high-school and it was a riot watching with them to see the old styles and how much they have or haven't changed. The evening was a blast! Most everyone was able to bring their spouse (or future spouse) and their children, so that everyone could meet and get acquainted. Then each person took a turn catching everbody up to date of what they had been up to since graduating. The kids seemed to have fun, and I know the adults had a blast recalling funny moments and teasing each other. It was great!

Here's the crew: Marcia, Stanton, Chris, John, Kristin, then in the front, Leanna, and Stacey. They are a pretty unique bunch!

Ok, we are nearing the end...hang in there!

Monday...we went to .....Lagoon! The kids almost didn't earn the trip, but they squeaked by and got to go at the last minute. It was very hot, but pretty fun.

There was a new ride added 2 years ago called Wicked and so we got on pretty soon after we arrived. At first, Hayden said he didn't like it, but after 2 more times and some distance, he liked it well enough

We are far away, but here we are just before getting on Wicked.

Here are Hayden and Sidney on the Dinosaur Drop.

Then John and Sidney are on the Rocket Blast Off......they both seemed to like it...afterward.

Probably because it was hot, but that seemed like the longest day on the trip up to that point. Little did I realized that 11 hours in the van the next to drive home would seem longer, much longer.

We traveled many miles, we saw many people and visited some very fun places and got to each some great food. That seems to be a pretty good vacation.

The Whirlwind Trip

We had to make a trip to Utah for a family wedding and now it's done and over with, so here's the recap. We left early Thursday morning for UT. We are usually in such a hurry just to get there, but this time we decided we could stop and take in some of the sights. Our longest stop took place at Glen Canyon Dam. We took the tour that takes you into the dam and you can see the turbines and look up at the dam from below. It was pretty cool. One of the coolest parts is that the visitor center is called the Carl Hayden Visitor Center. Our Hayden thought that was so cool that his name was everywhere.


Notice where we told him to place his hand so it reads, "Welcome to the Hayden Visitor Center."

Here we are standing on top of the dam.

We stopped in Provo to have dinner at a favorite spot when John and I were living in Orem, Los Hermanos. It just wasn't the same. We drove by some of our old apartments and some of BYU campus. This is the first time that the kids have been interested in where John and I met and lived briefly before they came along.

We met up at John's parents' house and met our future sister-in-law and aunt. She's a hoot. Everyone was teasing the cute couple and she dished it right back. She will fit in just fine.

The next day we had made plans ahead to spend some time with some of John's friends from high school. And did we have a blast! We shared, we laughed, there was much teasing and even some philosophizing, but mostly we just had a dang good time!


Here we are at lunch with Stanton, Chris, Janelle, me, John, and LaRayne. What a crew!

That evening we met back with John's family to take some family pictures. Since it's been almost 8 years or something since we've had pictures taken, it was about time. We met at a park and got each of the families and then a big group shot.

So, here's our family...not too shabby. You can't tell, but it was windy and chilly.

Here's the lucky couple getting married, Kayla and Trevor. They were pretty adorable.

Ok, so here's the big group picture. You can't really see who's who, but it's 25 great people.

So, the next day is the wedding. They got married at the Mt. Timpanogos temple which happens to be one of my favorite. I got to go to the open house before it was dedicated and then to the dedication. I love the chapel there, it's amazing.

Anyway, outside on the temple grounds were incredible with all the spring flowers out, tulips, daffodils, pansies, petunias. Wow, the colors were great.

SEE!

And of course the happy couple were ga-ga over each other.

Here's the couple with parents and siblings only on the Muhlestein side.

Then we raced to pick up all the kids and head back to Provo for the luncheon. Good Italian food. Then we took a breathe at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Orem. And from there got ready for the reception. All the little girl cousins got to wear these frilly froo-froo skirts. They were pretty cute.

Here's a few on the lawn before at Grandma/pa's house.

And then Kayla was trying to get them to play ring around the rosie before the reception.

THEN, even after that long day, a bunch of us decided after we drove back to Sandy from Mapleton that we should try to go see the new Star Trek show...and we did. CRAZY!

Fortunately the next day was Sunday and so we took it easy and just relaxed, played some games and chatted.

For us the next day started way too early when Hayden got sick at about 1:00 AM and so we decided instead of trying to get a couple more hours of sleep, we'd just leave then and head home. Man, we're still trying to get back the many hours of lost sleep.

Oh, well! It was fun. And all worth it!