Memorial Week Trip to Utah!

Since Memorial weekend is a 3 day weekend Matt & I decided to take a few more days off of work and make a trip to Utah for my family reunion and to see Matt's parents and siblings.

Our trip started off on Wednesday night before Memorial weekend. When Matt got off of work we headed to my parents house to drop off Ellie and half way there I remembered that we had forgotten our church clothes. Of course we drove all the way back doubling the time it should have taken us to get to my parents house. When we dropped Ellie off she didn't even seem sad so we went quickly on our way. We drove to Elko that night and stayed in a pretty shady motel. The next morning we headed to Wendover to meet Matt's brother, Alan, and his wife, Annette & their son Logan to go scuba diving. They had fun diving in the murky water while Logi and I sat in the sun on the beach (it wasn't really a beach more like dirt covered with old carpet and plywood but we still had fun).

After scuba diving we all headed back to American Fork to spend the rest of the day and Friday with Alan's family. Here are a few pics of us with our cute niece and nephews.

We attended the Mt. Timpanogos Temple

Us with Ethan, Jaydan, Logan, & Ashlan

On Friday night we drove down to Richfield, UT for my family reunion. It is always fun to see great aunts and uncles and second cousins. Richfield is such a small place but there still seems like there is quite a bit to do. Saturday morning the ladies go to the dairy to get breakfast and then go shopping while the men go golfing. And then we meet up for the family reunion at a local restaurant about 1 ish. Although I don't know about 1/2 of the people at the reunion it is cool to hear stories about my great grandmother's siblings and families. After the reunion my dad, grandma, aunt Trina, Matt & I drove up to Fish Lake. My dad always raves about Fish Lake and how we just have to go there, so I'm glad we made the trip finally. It was really beautiful up at the lake but also, very cold and rainy.

Fish Lake

Fish Lake Lodge. Matt, Kendall, Trina & Grandma Hawley

Us & my dad

On Sunday we were able to go to church and then headed out to the cemeteries to put flowers on the graves of my ancestors. The first stop was the Richfield cemetery and a lot of the last names were familiar to Matt so he decided to call his parents to ask if he had any relatives in Richfield. Come to find out his great great great grandpa Keeler is buried there with his wife that was not Matt's great great great grandma and then one of his grandpa Barlow's grandmas is buried there too with her mom. Very confusing I know! And I hope we got that right, it's so hard to remember when there are so many "greats" in there :) Then we drove out to the Annabella cemetery. My great uncle Herb and aunt Connie actually purchased some land in Annabella and are going to be living there by the end of this year.

Richfield Cemetery

My family at the Annebella Cemetery

Annabella Cemetery

After visiting the cemeteries we went to Big Rock Candy Mountain with my dad, grandma and aunt. It definitely wasn't like I thought it was going to be but they still had the same rock candy as when I was younger. Here are some pics:

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Trina, Dad & Grandma... it was a little windy :)

I thought this sign at Big Rock Candy Mountain was funny, especially

since we were heading to St. George.

After our visit to Big Rock Candy Mountain Matt & I headed to St. George to spend a few days with Matt's parents and Kirt's family. We were able to go down to Enterprise to visit Matt's grandparents and some relatives that were in town and then on Tuesday we went to Zions. Zions was very beautiful and a little warm :) Kirt and his kids, Dallin, Noah and Mia and Matt's mom came with us.

Noah, Dallin, Mia & Matt at Zions

Matt's mom & Mia

If we would have kept going on the trail we would of had to trek through this water.

Mia striking a pose.

Noah, Dallin, Kirt & Mia walked through the water to get on top of this big rock.

On Tuesday night we were able to go to Texas Roadhouse with Matt's cousin Mitch and his wife Kim. It was so good to see them and to eat great food together.

On Wednesday we made the long trip home. I drove 1/2 of the way and did an AMAZING job... especially since I hadn't driven during the entire trip except once when I was shopping in American Fork. We are so glad that we were able to go on such a fabulous trip to visit family. Too bad we can't go on vacations like that every week!

Thank you to all who were so kind to let us stay with you! We really enjoyed getting to see you!