2016 Family Reunion

This weekend Randy and I drove down to California for a quick family reunion with my siblings. We decided to rent a car since my Blazer has over 280,000 miles on it, and Randy says that he doesn't work on broken down cars anymore!

Friday morning we drove to the new Payson temple and did a session. We aren't supposed to really have 'favorites' - as long as we do the work - but I think I have a new favorite temple. It. Was. Beautiful.!!

Then we drove to Mesquite, Nevada, and met our nephew David (Randy's sister Anna Fern's son) and his wife Dee for dinner. It was nice to catch up with them.

The we headed down to Henderson, Nevada (south Las Vegas) to stay at my sister Becky's house. My brother Derek, his wife Rita, and my sister Connie were already there. (They live in Orem).

The next morning we drove a little less than 4 hours to the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery in Riverside, California, where my parents are buried. Terry and his wife Becky, Wendy my sister, and Dave my sister Becky's husband, met us there. It was really pretty good that we all arrived within 10 minutes of each other since we were coming from 4 different directions with most driving several hours!

There was a goose there that was checking himself out in the reflection of Dave's car! We didn't get too close to him since they tend to be pretty aggressive.

We all drove around to where my dad and mom are buried and took some pictures there.

We had a picnic at a park and Wendy's children and grandson joined us (Whitney, her husband Bryce, and son Nolan; Dustin; and Courtney). We ate lunch and then Whitney opened gifts for her new baby girl (Gwendolyn) that gets here in 2 weeks.

After hours of talking, catching up, and reminiscing, several of Wendy's kids went to work, and the rest of us went to dinner and talked some more. Derek, Rita, Connie, Randy and I drove back to Becky and Dave's and spent the night at their place. The next morning we attended Sacrament Meeting before heading towards home.

On the way back we took a picture by the sign for "Valley of Fire". I've never been there, but in high school we used to pass that sign on our way from San Diego to Utah and we would say the name of that place in a weird voice and laugh and laugh - you kinda' had to be there...

We also drove up to the temple they are building in Cedar City and snapped a picture - it will have a beautiful view of the valley!

It was a quick, long, getaway - but it was great! It was fun to be together with all my brothers and sisters.