Vacation - Blake Reunion

Well, I surely don't remember what happened each day. But the festivities included these things:

My sister Heidi (who is leaving on Oct. 19 for her mission to Phillipines) went through the temple for the first time. There was, of course, a wonderful spirit there, and it was the first time that my mom (and dad in spirit!) has been in the temple with all eight of her children (and some spouses). What a neat evening!

We spent some time getting family pictures done. Unfortunately they aren't finished yet, so I can't show you any of the results. But I will say that I'm glad it wasn't MY job to try and get all 7 grandkids smiling and looking in the same direction at once! :)

We did some service projects for humanitarian aid. Here's my mom and my sister Lisa in the middle of their projects.

We rode TRAX up to Salt Lake.

This is Aidan's cousin Luke, who we finally got to meet for the first time on this trip.

Once there, we toured the Conference center.

We also went to the planetarium. The movie was a great chance for Aidan and I to catch a nap! (haha) We also enjoyed the moon-scape and the falling balls exhibits. (The moonscape is my sister Emily, her husband Jon, and their son Luke.)

My mom and sister Rebecca were pretty tired on the way home!

We went to the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days parade. Aidan had never seen a parade before (and didn't understand about trying to get candy), but he LOVED watching it. He even asked for "parade! pretty girls! horses! fire trucks!" for several weeks after we got home.

We let the men go shoot guns while the ladies played games with the kids.

The adults went out for a nice dinner together.

A different night, we had a big potluck dinner with all of my mom's extended family. It was great to see them again, especially my grandmother and aunt, who are both in precarious health right now.

Quick story about the salt and pepper shakers: my aunt has collect them for years. She decided to let each of her nieces and nephews choose a pair. The pair we choose is in front of us, and it is significant because they are made with ashes from the Mt. St. Helen's eruption, which Mike lived near when it happened. So these shakers now have 2 pieces of history for us!

I think that was all of the official activities, and this post is already long, so I will do another one with the last pictures that didn't fit in. More to come!