Our Summer Trip to Utah - Cousin Time

In July we took our annual trip to Utah to see the family. This time we had a very special occasion for our trip – our niece, Tess, was getting married! The wedding was a couple of weeks after we arrived so we had some time to get over our jet leg and get ready for the festivities. The wedding was lovely, and our kids had so much fun at the reception afterwards being waiters and dancing their hearts out with their cousins.

Speaking of the cousins, we spent a fun week with the Mayos, and had fun times visiting with the Holts and the Willardsons. The day before the wedding we had a dinner with both sides of the family in Ephraim. Ephraim is where Spencer mostly grew up and had some of his best childhood memories, so we wanted to show the kids some of the sites, and also the old cemetery where their great-great-great-great-grandfather, Christian Willardson and his wives are buried. 

At the old cemetery in Ephraim. It was so hot

We also went to the co-op building and the Old Mill that Christian built and that now was housing a small museum. 

Oma with some of her grand-kids by the Old Mill building.

The Old Mill building was nicely restored. On the first floor they had a small museum, and on the second floor they had some space for different functions. 

Some of our crew's fun-meter is reaching its highest reading!

Inside of the old co-op building they had a craft store and the kids loved looking at different items there.

Then we went to the Pioneer Park and found the tree under which Indian Chief Walkara made a piece treaty with the pioneers that ended the Indian War.

The tree!

Spencer is probably explaining something about the history to the kids here.

An old pioneer cabin at the park

Beer wagon? I don't know.

While Mican and Roger went to Lake Tahoe, we had their kids minus Ian who just recently started a job and thus had to stay home in Las Vegas. One of the days we decided to take a trip to a mining town (now more of a ghost town) of Eureka to visit Museum of Mining. The town was very small and we barely saw any people there but the museum was quite nice and full of treasures.

While driving to Eureka we saw some desert landscape that I learned to love and appreciate over the 6 years of living in Utah.

An old Mine between Santaquin and Genola.

A fun clock in Eureka

Trying to figure out where is the museum. 

On our way to the museum we saw this fun old train car.

And explored it inside and out.

We also found an old Porter Rockwell's cabin that they brought here from somewhere else where it's been vandalized and restored it to its original shape.

Found it! 

Inside there was an interesting collection of all of the minerals that are found around the place.

And then they had some very neat things like a collection of clothes people wore at the time this town was prospering...

Printing press from the town's paper.

Afterwards we decided to eat at a little place named after famous Porter Rockwell who had a cabin not so far away from town. I tried buffalo burger for the first time and have to say that I didn't take much liking to it. Kids liked trying some new things there, though. The most interesting part of eating there was reading old newspapers some of which were over a hundred years old that were placed under a glass on our table.

To be continued...

Summer 2016 Trip to US Part II - Reunions

We didn't do a good job of documenting our trip to the United States this year.  Part of the "problem" was that we were very busy while we're there, and then we came back and immediately went to Russia.  Yulia and the girls stayed for an extra three weeks and I came back to Astana to get ready for, and begin the semester.  I needed to be here to welcome three new faculty members, and to make sure things were ready for the new semester for the department - I've been the Department Chair since August 2015.

We wrote a post about our big adventure at Disneyland.  That was one of the highlights of the trip. The other main highlight was the opportunity to spend time with our family. We had the wedding reception of my cousin's daughter the first day we were in the states, which was a good opportunity to see family from my Dad's side.  The son of my oldest cousin on my Mom's side also got married this summer.  My mom has been kind of his adoptive grandma while he's been studying at BYU before and after his mission to Brazil, and so it was fun.  We also had our annual family reunion with everyone in conjunction with his wedding.  My oldest niece, Abree also had her mission farewell and left for Peru, so it was a busy time for all of us.

At O'Hare waiting for our last flight.  We were all ready to be done traveling by this point!

Cousins playing UNO at Oma's

The lazy river at the Payson Aquatic Center.  We went here a few times and had a good time.

All of the girl cousins.  Aubree (rear left) getting ready to leave us for 18 months to Peru.

Lina is our nomadic birthday girl.  She is our summer birthday and celebrates it in different places each year.  This year was at Oma's! She got glasses this summer.

Lina with her farm cake. It's nice to have a talented mom. Yummy. 

The cake.

Bowling on Lina's birthday because it was too cold to go swimming.

The twins at the pool. 

We met our friends at Temple Square.  It is nice in the summer.

The girls at the Christus statue.

With our friends.

Playing Ticket to Ride with the cousins.

Cousins having fun at Oma's house.

Trip to Salem pond.

Parents enjoying the shade at Salem Pond.

Trip to Palisades Reservoir.  It was colder than when we were there last year - and much higher.

Hiking to the Grotto up Payson Canyon.

What a crew!

We weren't the only ones with this idea.

Max and Danielle: A lovely couple and a lovely wedding day!

At the reception.

Family reunion at Payson Pioneer Park.

Our girls putting on a show.

Hanging out at Oma's house.

Other highlights of our time in Utah included the opportunity to spend time with my brothers and sisters and our nieces and nephews.  We made a trip to a museum at BYU that was about anthropology, and which had a huge focus on textiles from south America.  It was interesting to see, and was a fun time.

At the BYU Anthropology Museum.

Springville Art Museum.

The museum has a large Russian art collection and we loved looking at it.

Cousins!

We made outings to go see "Finding Dory" and just little trips around town as well.  Overall it was a quick four week trip. We are grateful we have the opportunity each summer to spend so much great time with the family.  Next year we'll do a better job of documenting things while we are there!

Getting ready to fly home to Astana.

Sunset Over the Atlantic. On our way home.