Park City Day #4

Today's schedule was left open for families to do what they wanted until our family pictures at 4 PM.

My Dad drove up in the morning as did my brother Craig & his wife Lynnette.

Craig and Lynnette stayed and visited with us all morning and ate lunch with us.

Shannon and Brian missed the visit. They had made plans to visit with Brian's brother.

Dad stayed the day with us.

It poured rain a couple hours before our scheduled time. It made me nervous. I was not going to be happy if we had to cancel our appointment. It cleared up and then it ended up being HOT when we took pictures.

 See we are all squinting.

We weren't the only people at this location for photographs. 

It's a very popular location.

I wish we would have taken more photos at this shady spot under this big tree.

This is the best one I think of all. It included my Dad.

I printed a big one for him and hung it in his bedroom.

It is waiting for him to get home.

He has been gone away on a vacation with his cousin for over two months.

Now we are headed back to our cars.

Our appointment was at 6:30 pm. We were concerned the younger kids would be near a cranky time, but they weren't. If we would have known how good they were going to be, we would have gone later when the sun was down. It was awfully sunny and I think the pictures would have been even better.

Corinne and Ben brought their chocolate fountain. 

We all met back there and ate lots of yummy fruit and pretzels dipped in chocolate.

It was pretty amazing that it wasn't a big mess. It was DELICIOUS!!! 

I love this sequence of pictures of Corinne.

It was a Great Day!!!

Park City Day #3

Tuesday was our BIG Family Day.

We were having breakfast together and then headed to Temple Square.

Little did I know that it was also going to be a 

HUGE SUPER EARLY SURPRISE 60TH BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR ME!!

 When I walked in, I really didn't quite understand what was going on.

Even taking it all in it took a bit for it to sink it. It didn't help that it wasn't my birthday yet you see.

 Everything was decorated - it looked amazing!!

 Fred gave a little speech. He said he had all rehearsed in his mind, 

but it didn't come out they way he had planned. 

He and Jess have been working together since February putting this together.

Actually all the kids have had input, but these two worked together tirelessly.

Jess put together a beautiful album for me from pictures Fred sent along with sentiments from 

all of our children, their spouses and the grands. It's beyond fabulous.

She also made a cute little book for each of the kids and me with pictures of me from my childhood. This is the cover. I think I'm about 5 or 6 here.

 Here are a few pages from the album to give you an idea.

"60 Reasons Why We Love You" is the title of the album

One of the pages has a whole bunch of pictures of me at the kitchen sink. 

So it was natural to find me at the sink again that morning cleaning up.

That's just what I do. 

I got to look through the book with Jess. She is amazing and adds a creative and fun role to our family.

It was pretty amazing that all the kids simply milled about while I got to have a birthday.

I guess when there is food everyone is happy. Brian made crepes, Corinne made a wonderful breakfast casserole, bacon, hash browns and juice. All food needs were addressed!!!

Jess ordered a special birthday cake for me from the Kneaders down the road.

Chocolate cake, chocolate filling, Andes mints, York patties, all my favorites. 

Pink color scheme - my favorite color. 

Scott put together a slide show.

After we finished with those festivities, we got in our cars and headed for the TRAX light rail to take us into Temple Square. We didn't know if there would be a ton of traffic on the 4th of July.

Historically our family vacations on the hottest day of the season.

True to form, it was over 100 today in Salt Lake City.

The train was so delightfully air conditioned. 

For being so stinkin hot everyone was very pleasant. No one was cranky. At least that I noticed. There was no whining. Honestly. I didn't hear any. 

That Evan was so cute. It's fun to have a baby around again. 

Jess is so good with Buddy.

This picture is doubly special.

First - Corinne. She is amazing. That girl is up for anything and she doesn't complain.

Nothing is too hard for her. She does what needs to be done and does for others no matter what.

She does not get that from me.

Second. Fred. 

By the time we finally got to our destination - it was time to eat so we headed to the Mall.

We converged to the food court and staked our claim of tables.

It was by the play land.

We were here a pretty long time.

Finally - we see the Temple. 

If only it weren't so hot. It doesn't look hot. Doesn't it look beautiful. 

Wouldn't it be lovely if it were a sunny day in Washington state? If only!

Shade - Beautiful Shade!!!

Someone looks a little droopy here.

Again, I can't say how impressed Fred and I were with how well our grand kids did with all the walking and looking at what I would consider not a very exciting place for the day. They all did great.

There's my Freddie.

You know you can't just walk around the Conference Center. Those missionaries just have to give you some portion of their tour. 

I want to document our Conference Center story about Scott. 

When we brought him here when he was about 12, he and Fred sat down in these chairs. Scott wiggled his little rump in the chair and looked over at Fred and said "yeah these are two hour seats". 

I think these little cousins were pretty smitten with Evan.

This was the end of our Temple Square excursion. Well we did hit the Assembly Hall after this, but no more pictures. This was a great day from start to finish even with the heat.

So proud of my family. 

Thank you to Fred and Jess for giving me the best surprise party EVER.

My children are my greatest blessing. 

I don't know what I did in the preexistence to earn them, but it must of been something.