Our Summer Trip to Utah - Part 3

Every year in the summer when we come to Utah, the kids take swimming lessons. They are all very good swimmers but I want them to learn proper techniques and solid water survival skills, so we make them take swimming. Most of them love it. The one that doesn't still has to do. Yep, we are mean parents. And we are good at it!

Lexa making her breast stroke.

Sophie is making her way to the other side of the pool.

Twins were the only ones in their class who would dive head first and they took every opportunity to do so and then some more!

Nika and Lina waiting for their class to begin.

Payson where we mostly spend our time in the summer has Scottish Festival at the beginning of July. This year it took place just a few days after our arrival. People from many different states come to compete in Highland Games. Our favorite event was when they had to throw this haystack weighing 16 lb for men and 12 lb for women up over a raised bar. There were some very impressive throws!

This guy was over 60 years old and a champion in his age category.

A log throwing by women is happening in the back.

Kids watching intently and cheering for their favorite contestant.

While in Utah we also took the kids to the Payson Temple and to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. At Temple Square we visited our favorite place - the Family Search Center. It is a lot of fun for all ages plus you end up learning something about your family. For example, we found out that Spencer (and our girls) are related to a few famous people including a couple of US Presidents. My family on the other hand is a mystery since we all come from Eastern Europe and Russia.

It was Lina's first time going inside the temple.

At Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

Reflection pool

This is one of my favorite pictures of the Salt Lake Temple.

Spencer at the Family Search Center is finding people he is related to.

All of the places his ancestors came from.

Girls are leaving a recording for posterity.

It is funny how when you live in a place, you often do not explore much around it. Since we moved out from Utah, we keep finding these little gems that we didn't know about while we lived there. Or maybe it is just that we are at a different point in our life now and have different interests. I love hiking but there are no mountains in Astana where we currently live. And so I try to find some fun hikes whenever we happen to be around the mountains. Donut Falls up in Big Cottonwood Canyon was such find! I heard about it on one of the blogs I read sometimes so we decided to try it out. It was sprinkling a little the day we went there but it didn't stop us. The area was just beautiful. The hike was easy and led to a nice waterfall.

Twins and Spencer are crossing a little stream.

Two partners in crime.

Mika and Lina trying to get back down from a rock. The rocks were wet, and it was quite an ordeal.

Nika

Lina

Beautiful!

While in Utah we visited some of our dear friends and family... unfortunately, I didn't take pictures with each one of them.

One night we had a dinner with the Stices at their Provo home.  They've been home from Kazakhstan for a year now, and it was fun to see them again.

We saw Mary and Jerry Busenbark who we haven't seen in a few years.

And one evening we met up with Spencer's two high-school friends, Mike Hansen and Dan Haring and their families at Payson Park. We all have kids about the same ages and they all ran together and got along great!

We made a couple of trips up to Logan and ran into Aunt Laura at the Farmer's Market! Of course, later we gathered for a big get together at her house with some of our family.

Twins being twins at her house.

We also stopped at Suzie's house for a couple of days, and the girls had a great time playing with their cousins and Jade the dog.

We are a pretty good team!

Every great vacation comes to an end at some point. We loved seeing our family and friends and having all of the great experiences but it was time to go home. We are now back in Astana having other kinds of adventures.

Lexa walking through the airport in Houston.

When a crew member saw the way I put our luggage in the overhead compartment, he was in awe. He was also a German which makes his awe even more impressive!

Our Summer Trip to Utah - Cousin Time Part 2

The first week we were in Utah, Oma threw a "birthday party" for our girls and their cousin Karlie who all have birthdays within 4 months. She bought them all these cute shirt (the first time I saw the shirts, I thought they were doll clothes, and you will see why) and had a family history party where girls wrote in their journals the stories about their ancestors.

A ladder of cuties!

Listening to Oma's stories about their ancestors.

These are the shirts that Oma bought for the girls before they put them on! Magic!

Every summer when our big family gets together, we make a hike up to Payson Grotto and have a little picnic afterwards. It became sort of a tradition since we discovered the place 3 years ago. The hike itself is very easy and very short but is beautiful nonetheless. Anybody who is able to walk can do it. At the end of the hike there is a nice waterfall. We love going there!

Waiting for others to arrive to start the hike.

Emma and Lina

Aubree and Aunt Suzette

Aaron was not so thrilled to be caught on camera!

Spencer is holding the wall!

I finally got Uncle Mike!

David

Nika. Love those freckles!

If you don't see Lina, look up! This time she was on top of the waterfall.

 We also had quite a few gatherings at the Payson park in different family combinations that looked like this...

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Oh, look, it's a giant faucet! Kids and water - a never ending story!

We also had a lot of meals together, played many games, made some crafts, watched America's Got Talent. Thanks to our family's passion for this show, a lot of our cousins are now hooked without any chance for recovery. OK, may be I am exaggerating, just a little bit. 

Watching one of our favorite shows together!

I love big family dinners!

Working on projects and crafts.

Making friendship bracelets.

Cousins are the best!

To be continued....

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...