MANTI TEMPLE TRIP

 

A couple weeks ago Joel and I were able to take the Young Women and a couple leaders to the Manti Temple to do baptism for 30 of Jennifer's family names.  It was a beautiful overcast day.  For the middle of the summer the temperature that is usually 110 was about 80 and had a perfect little breeze.  We left around noon and stopped at Fort Cove and took a quick tour of the amazing people who lived there and who took care of the travelers who came through there.  It was amazing.  If you've never been, you should go.  I think my parents should go there on their mission. We had a great couple that did our tour that were from Idaho.

They had the cutest sunflowers.

 These three Locust trees are the original trees that they planted way back in 1867 by Ira Hinckley (paternal Grandfather of Gordon B. Hinckley) who built Cove Fort.  They rarely live 100 years but with a great deal of care they are still here and hopefully will still be around for awhile.

 Cove Fort was used for two stage coach lines, the Pony Express and the telegraph so not only was it a popular place for travelers but it was an important regional communication hub.  These front doors are also originals and an interesting fact was that they had originally filled them with sand so that they would stop bullets and arrows from going through them but when they attached them to the hinges the hinges broke away from the walls from the weight.  So they emptied them and filled them with cotton.  Neat huh?

 Here are some of the rooms.  Look at the needle work on this quilt!  And this other picture shows the cellar door.  It reminded me of my Grandma Shelton's cellar. 

This was one of the boys rooms.  The whole place was really interesting to see.

 This couch is covered with a buffalo hide.  It was a longer fur than I had ever thought and this old stove reminded me of the one Aunt Polly had that Jenny and I use to get in trouble for playing  with  in her basement in the house by the overpass.  The overall tour was very educational.   It was the 20th time Joel had taken the tour because of his job but the first for me and Sophie.  I need to bring my boys out here. They'd love it!

 So after that we loaded everyone up into the van and headed the rest of the way to Manti.  As soon as we parked and got out we saw a bride and groom taking pictures on the lawn.  It was great to have the girls  actually see how it should all turn out.  Seeing  the new couple having their pictures taken on the temple property inspired me to take the following million shots.  I wish I could blow them all up to poster size and give them to the girls to put on their walls.  That would make great wallpaper!!!