Family History

So on our vacation this year we were able to sneak in a bunch of learning and some pretty awesome family history.  Beyond the family history that we were making by going on vacation.(:  We got to visit with my grandma and the kids that don't remember her got to meet her and will probably remember her for at least 6 months.  On that note I have to admit something.  Part of the reason I consistently want to see or be with family on our family vacations is the genuine desire to be with them.  Family is the most important thing in this life and I miss my parents and brothers and sisters dreadfully after a while of not seeing them.  So, yes, I would rather see them then the Statue of Liberty or Boston, etc.(of course the best thing when possible is to spend time with family in a cool place)  I have an ulterior motive as well though.  I want my kids to know how important it is to put family first and go and see them often so that when they are grown up and married they will (hopefully) keep that attitude and if they happen to move far away for jobs they will come and bring my grand kids often so that I can see them.  And even later, when I am old, if they have to put me in a home they and my grand kids will either come and see me often or feel intensely guilty about not doing it, knowing how important family has always been to me and how I went out of my way to show it.  So, now you know, I am even now preparing my children to be guilt tripped into spending as much time as possible with me.

 We also drove through Spring City, UT on our vacation and saw some of the buildings that my great great grandpa built.  Here are some pics.

 This is the spring city church that he helped to build.  He was a stonemason.

The front with our family.

Getu, James, Alayna, Mezi, Joseph, Evelyn, and Noah in front of the church.

 He also helped to build the Manti Temple.

We went to the pageant, and it was really good.  I would advise anyone who wants to go to go when you have slept more then 4-5 hours a night for the nights before.  Towards the end I had a hard time staying awake, which was especially annoying, because when I was awake I was enjoying it so much!  But then i would wake up again to find that I had missed a bunch.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Joseph and I got to go through a session.  This was triply cool because-
1. We love the temple and rarely get to go together
2. My grandpa helped to build it
3. Josephs parents were sealed here ( at the time they lived in New Jersey they were in this temple district!)
4. We have never been to a live session before and here the sessions are live.
5. The architecture was absolutely breathtaking!
OK, so that list got longer and guess it was Quintuply cool?  Hmmmm. In any case we were very grateful for the opportunity.  Thanks Mom and Dad!