Family Reunon - Part 1, Utah sites

     My little brother Daniel got this crazy idea that it would be fun to have 16 adults and 25 grand-kids  (most of them under age 8)  get together in one place.  He was right. It has been fun.  He  and his wife, Kaydee, did an amazing job renting a lodge in Idaho and organizing the logistics of getting everyone here.

    For us in Wisconsin, in meant flying into Salt Lake.  We will skip describing the 3 hours of motion sickness Mattias and Sylvia experienced on the plane. It was not pleasant.  You do not need to hear details,  but if you ask Ephraim "What does a plane say?" he will make hurling sounds and laugh like it is all a good joke.

   It was pretty amazing to walk out in the daylight to the mountains right there!  It made me a bit dizzy, kind of like vertigo in reverse.  It had definitely been too long since I saw mountains.

    Once everybody recovered from the gut wrenching flight, we enjoyed visiting with my siblings who live with Utah before heading north to Idaho for the weekend.  We enjoyed seeing Carson's basketball game, Hanna's dance performance, and Caleb doing flips off the couch.  It was neat to see how mature and handsome Braxton had gotten, and how tolerant Michael is when Ephraim just wanted to keep hugging him. 
   It has been 6 years since we have all been together, so we are meeting some cousins for the first time.  (Mattias was my main photographer during this visit and depending on what shots he got of people, I may upload some later from Utah cousin party times.)

    We made sure to visit temple.  I had seen the Christmas lights once as a teenager and wanted my kids to see how amazing it is.

   I loved the large nativity scene they have on one of the lawns outside the visitor center.  Mattias took lots of great pictures which you are about to enjoy.

 In the nativity area, they tell the story of Christ's birth in Luke over the speakers, and end with a quote from President Monson.

    His quote at the end of the Nativity story went something like "Let us share the wonder of the wise men and the awe of the shepherds.  May the spirit of love which comes at Christmas time fill our homes and our lives and linger there long after the tree is down and the lights are put away for another year."   It was a wonderful feeling to hear his words.

 As dusk settled, Mattias enjoyed using his new camera to get some beautiful shots.  We wandered around, going in and out of the buildings to warm up on occasion.

Mattias got some elegant pictures of the temple spires.

 It was neat to have some many different areas to explore.

 You would walk around a corner and be shocked by a whole new line of lights.

Sylvia liked all the green bushes best. I liked the orange trees.

 On the reflecting pool behind the temple, they have decorated with floating lights and a small statue of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.  It was really simple and peaceful looking amidst all the crazy colors on the trees.

At the end of the day though, no matter how many lights are on the grounds around the temple, it is still the House of the Lord.  Mattias nicely captured the carving on the temple side saying "Holiness to the Lord.  The House of the Lord built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints commenced April 6, 1853, completed April 6, 1893.

On another day, we went to Tracy Aviary.  It was perfect for Ephraim.  He loved feeding all the ducks and birds, and chasing peacocks along the walkways. It was a beautiful 45 degree clear winter day, with hardly anyone else there.  We took all the time we wanted and spent lots of quarters on bird food.

     We went to a free "animal encounter" show, where they had a half dozen birds flying around the room as the trainers described their different points.  One trainer would stand behind us, and the birds would just fly right over our heads to her hand.  We could feel the "whoosh" of the owl wings beating above us, and feel the tail feathers of several birds drag across the top of our hair.  It was pretty amazing. We saw lots of unusual birds up close.

Sylvia got to do a bird feeding activity.  They had a cage with dozens of Sun Conures, a type of parrot.  She held a cup of blueberries out in her hands, and they flocked down and ate as they used her as a bird perch.

When they finished the blueberries, she got a cup of seeds to keep them happy.  It was fun for her to see such beautiful birds up close.

I stayed outside with Ephraim, so I could take this picture of Mattias, who was inside the cage with Sylvia.  A bird decided to land on Mattias and started picking at his hair.  Then it moved on to pecking at his eyebrows.  Mattias handled it very well.   It was just one more experience in his life as a photographer.

After fun at a motel pool, we picked up Noel and Asher who flew in later.  The following morning, we headed north to Idaho. It was a relief to get away from the big sprawling city and out into sagebrush country.  Stay tuned for Family Reunion Part 2 - The Cabin.