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!!!

 

Lowe's with Grandpa Shelton

 We took Grandpa and the Wells kids over to do a Lowe's project with us the other Saturday.  We love to do them.  They are always so cute and it helps Ben and I learn more patience.  This time we made RC from the Toy Story movies.  I always make Josh come help David and this time I got lucky and Grandpa helped Ben.  I helped Evan.

                            IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!

Ben's Braces

If you remember Ben's teeth were really jacked up and he got braces put on last August.

If you forgot look here.

So here we are a year later and they are a million times better.  But Dr. Christian's famous last words were, "When Ben's other teeth explode into his mouth, he'll need another set."  Nice.

See how big his teeth are!?!  Definitely takes after the Beckstrand side.  So far Josh is the only one who has had a mouth big enough to hold them all.

He was so excited to have them off.  Three months with retainers on top and bottoms 24/7 except to eat and then he'll only need them at night.

River View Summer Party!

River View Medical Center is the best place to work.  We are like one big family that works well together.  This summer Amy decided to put together a family party and it was awesome.  She had games for the kids.   The first one was to guess how many things were in the container.  David actually guessed the closest on the mints and cheeseballs so he got to choose which one to take home and took the mints. 

Amy with Lina, Sewa and Kayleigh

Ethan and Emma

 Then Amy had them throw darts at balloons and depending on how old you were determined how far away you stood or sat.

This is Sue's adorable but super curious granddaughter Maud.  Every time we turned around she had wandered off to look at something or climbed up on top of something to get a better look.

Kayleigh giving it a try.

Our big boys sitting to throw.  Hayden and Josh.

Our party was up at Pioneer Park.  It was a perfect location.  We were worried at first because it was the first part of August and we wondered if we'd melt from the heat but the shade from the Sugar Loaf was perfect and there was a great breeze the entire time.  Plus the hiking up there is perfect for families.  The kids don't have to go far to think they've climbed a mountain.

Sophie and David

Kayleigh, Megin and Kalo's niece who is staying with them.

Amy also had a Fish Pond for the kids that they LOVED.

Look at how happy David is.  He got a Hot Wheel.  He asks for one every time we go to the store and I always say no.

Here is the Prisbrey family chatting it up with Megin.

This is the picture I get when I say, "Hey everybody look over here so I can take a picture."  Thanks, Dr. LaRowe for being the only one who cares.

Cheesy but oh so cute.

Cheesy and the cutest little things you've ever seen in your whole entire life!

Here are 3 more adorable kids.  Emma, Ethan and Alec.  Shayne the picture of Alec by himself is for you.

Here is Dr. LaRowe and Debra his wife who we all love dearly.

So, here we are, me and Kalo.  We are goofy together.  She is so funny and fun to be around.  She makes the whole office fun to work in.

Amy gave all of the employee 2 gift cards from her and Dr. LaRowe.  One to a restaurant of their choice and a $25 Visa gift card.  We love Amy.  She is amazing.  I wish I was half as smart as she is.  She has a great personality and the patients adore her.  In this picture we are trying to show off our cool presents and Josh had to be Josh and bomb the picture.  Stinker!

Here we are. Thanks so much Dr. LaRowe and Amy for all you do!

As we were cleaning up Maud found a princess and took off to get her.  It was actually a girl taking her bridal photos up on the red rocks but for all she was worth Maud knew she was a princess and took off to get her.  She wanted to bring her back to show her grandma what she had found. 

BEAT the HEAT!

Every year the very last swim meet is the Hurricane Beat the Heat Meet.  But, a couple of days ago the pump at the Hurricane pool broke and they had to order all new parts so the meet was moved to Mesquite.  It was really fun and it was awesome to see how well everyone had grown from the beginning of the year.

Here are the highlights

Ben's 1st 100 IM  - Look at how amazing his backstroke is.

Sophie's 50 Freestyle - She has a teammate that she constantly beats every time by a 10th of a second.  But this meet the girl out touched her in all three events.

 

Sophie's 100 IM - If she just fixes a few little things she'll be knocking a lot off time off.

    

 Ben's 50 Free Relay - If he learns how to do a fast flip turn then WATCH OUT!