Father's Day 2024

Happy Father's Day to Tony and our dad's.  I think that we had a good day.  Tony got a fun new bush trimmer and a t-shirt.  We stopped at my parents' house and gave my dad some treats and a little book with a note from Allie.  He liked it all.  The kids also enjoyed snuggling Bella.  Eddie doesn't like to snuggle. 

 Tyler has learned how to play Gethsemane on the piano, so he played for my parents while Allie sang.  They seemed to really enjoy that.

After we went to Tony's parents' house for dinner, and we gave Lloyd a book.  It is always nice to spend time with family and take some extra time to celebrate our dads.   

Tyler got his Wisdom Teeth Removed

Tyler got his wisdom teeth removed after work on Friday.  Tony took him there and he said that he did really good and had no problems.  He came home and rested in our room for the night.  He wasn't in tons of pain, so luckily, we were able to keep the pain under control with just Tylenol and Ibuprofen.  He ate soft foods for about three days, and then started feeling like he could eat semi-normal again.  He has healed well and is glad that he has gotten this done now and isn't trying to do it during the school year.

Baptisms at the Taylorsville Temple

The kids got to go do baptisms for the dead at the Taylorsville Temple.  They loved it and said it was so nice going to our very new special temple, that oh so close. 

June Rec Center Fun

The girls have been having fun doing different activities at the rec center as part of My County Pass, which is a free pass to all the county recreational facilities for kids 18 and under for the summer. 

This is also what Tyler has been doing for his job this summer.  It's Monday through Friday from 11:00 - 1:00. So, Tyler goes in at 10:30 to get things all set up for the kids.

They have tons of different activities for each day.  They have had open soccer, big yard games, table games, and the girls favorite open skate with scooters and roller blades.  We have gone many times, and I am sure we will continue to do that.  It's nice to go somewhere that's inside with air conditioning and the girls get to be active and have fun.

;30

Allie is Living her Best Life

Allie has been living her best life.  She has been liking to help me in the kitchen.  She made her our charcuterie plate and wanted me to send a picture of it to Aunt Wendy.  

We got a new couch, and we kept one of the boxes to let the girls play with it.   Allie made it into a little how with a closet and a mailbox.  It was very creative.  

They had a great time playing with that box for a couple weeks before I had enough of the box.

Allie asked me to get out the sprinkler for her to run through.  Megan came out for a minute and then decided she didn't like it.  Allie stayed out and played in the water and loved it.  It'll be sad when she stops doing these fun childlike things.

"South Pacific" at Murray Arts in the Park

We all went and saw "South Pacific" at the Murray Arts in the Park with my mom.  They did this free for the community to celebrate a big anniversary of the arts program in Murray.  

Tony's cousins' husband, Anthony, was the director of this play so that was extra fun.  This isn't my favorite play, but it was nice to see it again and have the kids see it. 

We all love seeing musicals and free is the best price in town.  And seeing it in an outdoor amphitheater is always fun.

Josh Went to FSY

Josh got to go to FSY (For the Strength of Youth) with his friend Quinn (and Quinn's brother) at the University of Utah.  Quinn's mom took them up to the U at the beginning of the week. Tony went and picked them all up early Saturday morning.

Josh said that he had a really good time.  He liked that he went with his buddy Quinn and really like his group and councilors.  He didn't tell us too much but did say that he was glad that he went.

"Percy Jackson, The Lightning Thief"

A local theater put on "Percy Jackson" the musical.  Knowing the kids would want to go, Tony looked into how much tickets would be.  He found out that this theater does tickets half off one day for West Valley residents.  Sweet for us.  

So, Tony suggested to Tyler that he gets a group and goes on a date to the show.  It took him a little bit to find a dude to double with, but he did find someone, and he asked Rebekah to go with him.  They went to Cafe Rio and got food to take to the park to eat it.  It was 100 degrees that day, but they didn't seem to care.  

After they ate at the park, they came to the play.  After the play they went back to the park to play tennis in the dark.  Then they came home around 11:00.  He said that they had fun, and it was a good date.

The rest of us ate dinner at home and then went over to the theater.  We did see Tyler and his group when we first got there, but we were cool and didn't bug them.  We did have tickets across the theater from them, so we saw them plenty.

The play was super good.  I wasn't sure how I would like it since I have never read the books or seen the shows. We had heard a lot about it from the kids, so we weren't totally clueless.

The actors were really good.  They all had great voices, and it was a very funny musical.  We all enjoyed the show, and we hope to go back again when they have half off tickets for the next show.

Summer Baseball

We have been having fun watching Tyler play summer baseball.  Some games have been hotter than others.  

Allie likes to come to the games with us.  She would bring her toys and find fun ways to entertain herself. 

Tyler played pretty well.  He got a couple opportunities to pitch and play other infield positions.  He also caught as well and did a good job.  

We always enjoy watching Tyler play ball and we look forward to seeing how he does during fall ball.

Taylorsville Temple Dedication

We all got to attend the Taylorsville Temple Dedication at our stake center during the first session.  It was so nice that everyone was above the age of eight, so we could all attend as a whole family.

The speakers and the choir did a great job, and the service was good.  Allie got a little restless towards the end, but she did a good job sitting through the whole thing without her usual sacrament bag of coloring things.  We all love the temple and are very excited to have one so close to home.

Tony and I then got to attend the second session at the temple.  It was busier than we expected getting into the temple.  We parked at the bank nearby and then walked over to wait in a line wrapped around and into the parking lot.  It didn't take too long though, and we were in the temple.

We were led up the stairs and ended up waiting just outside the celestial room where we saw Elder Gong, a member of the Seventy, and our area authority.  Elder Gong even talked to me.  He asked if we were going into the celestial room (that's where they broadcasted the dedication).  I said no, we were just waiting to be told where to go.  

We were then led into one of the endowment rooms where we watched the broadcast from there.  They had different speakers and a different choir from the first session, and they all were very good.  It was a neat experience to watch it from the inside the temple.  We look forward to serving in our new temple.

Nauvoo Trip 2024: Day 8 & 9 - Traveling Home

We woke up early and got on the road by 7:30 since our longest drive was on the first day driving home.  We also wanted to stop at Winter Quarters, so we knew that would take even more time.

The drive was good.  We found a fun rest area that the girls liked taking pictures at.  We got to our hotel in Sidney, NE without any problems.  We unpacked and then went out to dinner at DQ. 

After dinner Josh and the girls went swimming.  Tony went down with them to watch them while Tyler and I stayed in the room.  They said they had fun.  They swam until almost 10:00 pm and loved it all.  
We woke up pretty early the next day too.  We were able to get on the road by 8:00.  This day we only had like seven and a half hours of driving, so that was encouraging.  

We were able to stop at Little America and enjoy 75 cent ice cream cones, so that was exciting.  We stopped there on our way to our vacation, so it was the perfect way to end our trip.  It was only a few more hours of driving after that.  

We got home without any problems, and we got all our stuff unloaded from Grandma's van.  We all had such a great time and learned so much.  We are thankful to Lloyd and Margie for taking us on this trip.

Nauvoo Trip 2024: Day 8 - Winter Quarters Temple and Visitor Center

We were able to stop at Winter Quarters in Nebraska.  This is where some of the early saints stayed through the winter season as they traveled from Nauvoo.  

There is a temple across the street from the visitors center and a cemetery next to the temple.  

The visitor's center was nice.  They had a lot of information about the pioneers, where they came from and where they went.  They even showed how they traveled throughout time.  From wagons to handcarts, slow boats to steamboats, and then eventually trains.  

After our tour of the visitor's center, we then went over to the temple to take pictures.  I asked a lady to take our family picture and it turns out that she was originally from Utah and went to Granite High.  She knows my dad and says her, and her siblings were in student government.  Her maiden name was Renolds.  It truly is such a small world.  

After we went to the cemetery where two of my Flake ancestors' kids were thought to be laid to rest.  They didn't have gravestones with names, but they had a map of where they thought the people were.  It was a lovely cemetery and monument to those who died at Winter Quarters. 

It was a neat experience to go to Winter Quarters and we were glad that we went.  The early saints really did so much to get to Zion and had so much faith to do so.  

Nauvoo Trip 2024: Day 7 - Nauvoo Temple, More Nauvoo Explorations & Shows

I really wanted a family picture in front of the temple where the sun wasn't in our faces, so we got a picture first thing before the sun was in front of the temple.

We then went to see the Joseph Smith Historical Sites, an area of Nauvoo that was previously owned by the Community of Christ.

We first went and had a tour of the Smith Family Homestead and the Mansion House.  These were both houses that Joseph lived in with his family.  After that we walked around the cemetery where Emma, Joseph, Hyrum, and were all buried along with other people in the Smith family.  I believe that the cemetery is still owned by the Community of Christ.

After we had a tour of the Red Brick Store.  This was way cooler than I had even known.  They showed us the main store area, but then we got to go upstairs where the Relief Society was started and where they stared giving some of the saints their temple endowments so that when the temple was all done, they could start the work right away.  Such a cool thing to be in the same place that had such significant things from history happen.

After that we got some lunch back at the hamburger place.  After we were done eating, we walked down and saw the tomb house where they think the early saints made a tomb for Joseph, but because they were worried about grave robbers, they moved his body a few different times.  

After that we went to ride on the wagon pulled by the oxen.  They were super sweet, and the kids loved petting them.  You just have to hold their horns while you pet them, so they don't move as much.  We found out that Ox are just well-trained cows that learn how to be yoked.  They moved pretty slow, but it was neat to see how they worked together.

After the ox ride, we went to the visitor center where we saw another performance from the missionaries and the band.  This was the second to last one that we still hadn't seen.  It was very good and patriotic.  We were running late from the ox ride, so the visitor center missionary took us upstairs and we got to enter through the stairs at the top of the theater seats.  

After the show we drove into the town that was North of Nauvoo about 20 minutes to have dinner.  After we ate, we picked up some ice cream and then drove back to Nauvoo.  We had to wait on the bridge for a barge to cross so the draw bridge was up.  That was neat to see too.

We got back into Nauvoo in time to see the big show again.  The kids like it so much, they wanted to see it again. We even saw our friends, the Watkins at the show.  We then chatted with them for a little while before going over for the Sundown performances down the Trail of Hope.  It was the final performance that we hadn't yet seen.  We saw the missionaries depict different saints as they were leaving Nauvoo towards the west.  It ends at the river where we then looked for fireflies.  We saw a bunch but couldn't catch one.  It was the perfect way to end our last night in Nauvoo.  We then drove back to our hotel.