Memorial Day Weekend

So, for the 3-day weekend, we decided to have a blast and just do some exploring as we drove to a few different destinations.

Destination #1: my former roommate, Nicole Heaton, was married in the St. George temple on Saturday May 29. On Friday, we drove down to stay with my cousin Sarah Jade and her husband Brandon. They were so nice to let us stay with them in Cedar City and then on top of that, she agreed to watch Joshua even though she was 10 days away from delivering a baby. She said it was good practice. So on Saturday morning, we drove the hour to the temple and were able to go do a session while Nicole was going through for the first time.

Immediately following the session, we went into the sealing room and were able to watch as she and Mike were sealed together. I was so grateful that we were able to be there and share in her joy!

Nicole and Mike

The St George Temple
This is a picture of three of us that were really close roommates. It was so nice to see Lindsay, since the last time I saw her was just a few days before she left on her mission to California.
After we went back to Cedar City to pick up Joshua, we drove out to the reception, which was Alton. Now, you've probably never heard of Alton because it has a population of 120, and I'm not kidding. It was teeny, but it was a gorgeous drive through the canyon that goes past Cedar Breaks. We really enjoyed the drive.

The reception was very beautiful and we were happy to have been able to talk with Mike and Nicole a little more before they move to Washington. I will definitely miss her!

The drive home that night was similarly beautiful. We took more of a scenic route home that joined up with the highway a little ways further north. It was fun to explore new areas and get to know the land a little bit better.

Destination #2: The following morning, we left our apartment (after getting home at 11:30pm) at 8am to get ourselves up to Idaho. We had received an invitation from the Baker family to hear Mark Baker II's homecoming talk in their sacrament meeting. (It was an excellent talk, by the way.) We got there right on time but then had to change Josh into his Sunday clothing before getting into the meeting.

One of our primary reasons for visiting was that Julie (my cousin with whom I get along the best) is staying in Pocatello for the summer (as versus Lincoln, Nebraska) and we wanted to make sure that we got a chance to visit her. We weren't expecting her husband to be there and we were very surprised and excited that we got to spend time with both of them. After a rousing game of Risk (well, no, I don't actually play), some excellent cookie-making and lots of talking, the day was over.

On Monday morning, because we didn't want to have to entertain ourselves for several hours before people woke up (since Joshua was up anyway) we decided to visit Rexburg, ID, home of BYU-Idaho. I can't say there was much to see, but we enjoyed seeing the temple there and seeing what the campus was like.

The drive home was also a bit of an adventure. Because I had heard so much about Logan, UT and had never seen it, Steve suggested we drive home by way of this city. It was also very beautiful and worth the trip.

One of our favorite parts of our trip was that we got to see 11 LDS temple just in a 3-day trip.
Utah temples: St George, Provo, Mt Timpanogos, Draper, Oquirrh Mountain, Jordan River, Salt Lake City, Bountiful and Logan.
Idaho Temples: Idaho Falls and Rexburg.

It was so neat to see such beautiful Houses of the Lord! I know that the temple work is important and I am grateful for the chance to more fully worship our Lord in His houses.

I hope you all had a great weekend! I look forward to reading the blog posts!