Sorry about the dalay

Yes I know, we were in Utah until Monday, but I haven't posted past Friday. I didn't want anyone to feel like I was trying to publish a book or anything and then I got sidetracked. I'm going to try to catch up again in the next couple of days, but as we are taking the kids on their very first camping trip, it might not happen right away so don't hold your breath.

Wedding Reception

One of Nolan's cousins got married the same day so we went from Salt Lake to Ogden for the reception. One of funny stories is that while we were at Temple Square we were discussing getting an umbrella stroller because Nevan is just too big to carry everywhere. Keileigh piped up during this and said "Yes, it will keep us dry when it rains, right Mommy?" She knew a little bit of what we were talking about and wanted to contribute. We really liked the idea we had for the basket so of course I had to take pictures. The reception was nice, outdoors, there was a nice breeze, what we saw of the cake was pretty and the bride and groom looked really happy.

Our basket was a months worth of Family Home Evening Lessons. We found some awesome ice cream mugs with a recipe for Oreo milkshakes which led to the book with Book of Mormon FHE ideas, including the Oreo Earthquake Escape lesson. We also included some other dessert mixes and a plan that belonged to Grandma Tolman.





While we were there, Nolan remembered that one of his old friends lived close by and they were able to stop in for a little visit.

Temple Square

After the mines we went to Temple Square while some people did a session and the rest of us and the kids had a picnic and roamed the visitor's centers and museums.











Keileigh was having a blast just being cute and wanting her picture taken.

Kennecott Copper Mines

We had a family breakfast the next morning, but of course with chasing the kids I didn't get any pictures. But all in all, they were pretty good. I thought this sign right after Thanksgiving point was pretty great, especially when one of our family members is a "Kate."




We went to the Copper Mines and I won't put captions on all the pictures, but Knut was very impressed with the Mighty Machines and wanted to know all about them and where they were taking the rocks and ores. Keileigh decided that it was ok for Brianna to be a friend was went around with her.

Dinner for the Recognition of Wilford C. Wood

I was informed about a month ago, that there would be a special dinner celebrating the life of Wilford C. Wood and that there was a slide show of his life and an oil painting being done to be shown at the dinner and that all of his descendants would be invited. We immediately checked the calender and discovered that there were several other reasons to be in Utah that weekend and that would just be the icing on the cake of an awesome trip for us and for the kids.
We got to sit next to a second cousin, his wife and his brother, and the man who was the head of the Church's historical department and his wife and another woman whose friend had helped put the whole thing together and had given her a ticket. We all shared memories of this awesome man and the different things we had learned. We thought it was hilarious that about the only thing I remembered from those early childhood trips was getting to brush the teeth of a statue of a bear.
It was really great to watch the slide show and see the pictures and hear the remarks and to be reminded that even though you might not hold a majorly important calling or be asked to do really big and important things, sometimes the whole journey is made worthwhile by just being "a really good friend" and being the best person you know how to be.


These first three are for Steve and Brianna:








President Monson looking at the painting of Wilford C. Wood:




Kenneth Cope's guitar, Merridee requested this one:



The great grandchildre who were there:



A close up of the oil painting:




Misc family members:







Again for Merridee, with Kenneth cope, who was really cool with being interrupted in the middle of his dessert for this picture:

Recent Vacation

So I'm going to break up these posts a bit so that the interested people looking at these can either go one by one or can jump to the ones that interest them. We got to take a trip down south recently and spend some time with family and friends. We did a lot of different activities and I don't have pictures of all of them, just the ones where I either didn't have the kids or one of my awesome super siblings gave a hand with the kids and then we just let them play and made sure they played nice. It was kind of hectic getting so many people together, but it was really worth the effort since we didn't get to travel for Chirstmas and we hadn't seen most of them for at least a year, some of them way more than that.
The kids were awesomely understanding and great with all the driving we did, from place to place and getting there. When we left here, Knut asked if we were going to go to our new home. We told him we were just going visiting and he said ok. But when we came home he got really concerned and told us we needed a new "real" home to go to.

Swimming, Swimming

What you can't really tell from the pictures is that the pool was filled directly from the well, so even though it was in the upper 80's the water was really, really cold.

Rock Creek Park

We have been exploring the area and we discovered this awesome park that gets Nevan really excited. He loves water and tries to climb in.