Life After Sundance...

Once we left Sundance Laura and Robert went back to Robert's parents' house for the reunion with his family members. They were coming to town for his sister, Laura's, wedding on Friday. Robert has TEN living siblings and so that is a pretty large crowd to gather for various occasions. Almost everyone was able to make it so that was great.

Jen and Lowell went to their house, Jim's mom flew home and we stayed with Chris and Missy for a few days. One of the days we went up to Thanksgiving Point for lunch but stopped on the way at the Veteran's Memorial Park to visit the grave of our good friend, Garth, who passed away a few years back. He is the doctor I use to work for in Las Vegas, forty years ago and the person that introduced us to the Church and baptized us 33 years ago.

Our entire family holds him in very high esteem and so Jen and her kids and Chris and Missy's family and Jim and I all went to find his grave. Garth was from Idaho and spent many years in Las Vegas so he doesn't have a lot of friends in Utah. He had never married and a lot of his siblings have passed away now. I am imagining we were among the few visitors to the cemetery to pay tribute to this wonderful friend. His contributions to our lives cannot be measured, they are priceless.

The cemetery is very pretty but wouldn't you know the sprinklers were being repaired in this part and so his grave site was surrounded by dead grass. Hopefully they have fixed it by now!

We surrounded his grave and had a family prayer together and then decided a photo of our feet would be fun! Laura and Robert's family was sorry to miss this and Lowell was working. There was a sweet spirit there.' Uncle Buffalo' as we called him, is missed and loved by us all for sure.


We are rather weird family (no kidding, you say?) We all have the same Toyota Sienna from the same year, same color. Bizarre but it was a fluke...we didn't plan it or anything. And I think the only color they sold that year had to be silver. Seriously, I could not find it in a parking lot without the permanent roof rack. It is funny to see the line up when we all go someplace together!

When we arrived at Thanksgiving Point it was lunch time and the kids really enjoy the Deli there. They have good sandwiches and it is very 'kid friendly,' so that filled the bill for us!
Snapped a shot of their gigantic chandelier just for fun!

Here is a goofy photo of Anyslee and Me
that Missy sent over the other day!
Aynslee is so funny!
She loves posing for photos lately!

We strolled through the Emporium which is a huge, fancy, home shop and that took just a few minutes. You cannot even think about shopping with a group that large. But it was a fun walk through. The major things to see At Thanksgiving Point, as far as we were concerned, were the beautiful gardens.

They have a lot of acreage there and a big hotel and lots of events, like weddings and receptions that are held there each year. One year they held the county fair there when I was visiting. It was wonderful. Imagine a fair held on grass instead of dirt or gravel. It was really neat. At night we sat on the grass and watched the lighted Ferris Wheel spin. Having the grass made a world of difference to the carnival atmosphere. It took the hot and dusty feel right out of the equation. The best part was it was like going back in time about 25 years. You felt safe and your kids were safe. You didn't have to keep your eyes glued to them every second. It was a very nice family activity like in the olden days before people got scary. I love that about Utah!

It was a lovely day and the flowers were so gorgeous.

Scrumptious! It makes me feel so bad that we never did plant any annuals this year in our garden pots in the yard. We have been gone too much and I just couldn't see the point of spending the money and then having them all die while we were away so much.

So I am enjoying the flowers everywhere else instead.
Brilliant, huh? Not really...just lazy!

The trunk on this tree looks like it was
tied in a knot like a cherry stem.

Beautifully framed red tree
though the Gazebo window.

These poppies were so bright and cheery!

The water features and displays are so fantastic.
You feel like you are at a mountain stream.

Of course we had to stop at Cabella's for Grampa on the way back. That was fun if you are into outdoor sporting equipment...well, ah, not really, but it was fun to see him enjoy it so much. We enjoyed this lazy day very much and it was nice to have a little nap when we got back to Chris and Missy's house.