Summer Fun in Provo

Day 1 was a day of mostly nothing as we waited at Mawmaw's for the plumber to come and put in a new water heater after the previous night's excitement.  The kids played outside in Mawmaw's backyard.  Kyle and Cameron loved the swing.  Mawmaw made us potato cheese soup and chicken salad sandwiches for lunch while we waited.  After the plumbing was all fixed, Cayden went up to Grandma Penny's to play with Cam and Lexi, Kyle took a nap and Don and Caleb went down to check out 7 Peaks.   We went to Grandma Penny's house for dinner where we had taco salads and Don made salsa from the gobs of tomatoes we brought up.

Day 2-The Zoo  We got up bright and early so we could get to the zoo when it opened at 9am.  It was really hot and we didn't want to be there in the heat of the day.  We stopped at Sonic for breakfast and headed out.  It was very hot as you can tell from the pictures of the red cheeked babies. We saw a polar bear, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, birds, lots of reptiles  and seals.  Cayden loved to see the life size animals made of legos.  We drank lots of slushies, rode the carousel,  and then we ate lunch at the restaurant at the zoo and were out of there by 1.  Everyone was pretty tired from the heat.  Kyle fell asleep before we were barely on the road.  After some rest, we went up to Grandma's for dinner.   I made chicken spaghetti-enough to feed an army and Calley made brown sugar muffins.We stayed until about 8:00 and then went back to Mawmaw's to go to bed.  Uncle Jim and Aunt Laurel got there about 8:30.

Caleb made a funny face every time he came around.  He had us laughing hysterically!

Day 3-We all piled into cars and drove up to Logan to visit the fatherland.  We stopped at one of Aunt Suzanna's favorite pizza places, Firehouse Pizza for lunch when we first got to Logan. We ate their yummy pizza and focaccia bread and then their extra delicious fazookie-a freshly baked cookie with a big scoop of ice cream and chocolate sauce.  We should have ordered the large.  Then we went out to the Pepperidge Farms Outlet to purchase mass quantities of Goldfish crackers and cookies, made a stop at the Gossner Cheese outlet where we purchased a multitudinous amount of economy cheese. Included in that cheese purchase was 5 lbs of cheese curds, a pound of which I may or may not have eaten on the way to our next stop, the Logan Temple.

 

Running around the temple grounds.

Touching the temple.

After stopping at the temple we went Grandma and Grandpa Gessel's house.  The family doesn't own the house anymore but Aunt Laurel went up to the door and asked the owners if we could see the back yard.  There were family handprints in the cement and the name Gessel in the brick fireplace that grandpa built.

This is the kind of tree we had in the front yard of our Lindon house.  You can peel the white stuff off of the tree trunk and it's like tissue paper.  We did that all the time when we were little.

Kyle sitting in front of his name sake's handprint Grandpa Brandt Gessel.

The chimney/fireplace/grill in the back yard.  

The green house used to be right behind this block wall.  The new owners were cutting down an old tree and it fell over and crushed the green house.

 After the Gessel house we stopped at the cemetery to see where Grandpa Kim is buried.  We decided that we all hadn't been there together since 2000 when Grandma Gessel died.  Caleb was 2 and Cayden and Kyle were not even born yet.  After the cemetery we went to the house where Uncle Randy's family used to live and asked if we could have a few bricks that were leftover from the Gessel Brick Company that our great great grandfather started in the late 1800's.  The man who now owns the house was little perplexed that we wanted bricks but since he had 2 whole pallet fulls he was happy to let us take 7-8 of them.  After a quick stop at Maverick and the roadside raspberry stand we were on our way back to Provo.

It was pretty hot and we were facing the sun so Kyle was not too thrilled.

Lexi put some little flowers she found on the headstone so Kyle followed suit.  

Gessel Kids

 Day 4-We were going to get up an go to church but we just didn't make it.  We rested most of the day and then got ready for a big family dinner at Aunt Pam's house.  Most of my cousins were there with their families.  This side of the family is just getting too big to have a dinner at one person's house.  We are going to have to start having a Connor Family Reunion but that would mean someone would have to plan it.  We ate brisket and BBQ pork sandwiches and then everyone brought pot luck.  We sat around and talked and let the kids play in the backyard.  It was nice to see all the cussies.

Day 5-We got to use our Pass of All Passes and go to Seven Peaks on Monday July 1. The whole family went except grandma and granddaddy. We rented a cabana and that was well worth the $30 for the awesome shade! Cayden was not to excited about being there and it took him a little while to get in the water.  Kyle had not such problem and dived and climbed and swam all over the place.  He loved going down the slides in the kiddie area and bonked his head a few times because he did not know how to keep himself upright.  I didn't think that he would last all day long but he did great and actually fell asleep around 4 on Don as we were waiting in line for snowies.  I took him and let him sleep on me so Don could go slide with the all the adults.

Day 6-I went to lunch with some friends from high school, Don,Jim, Larry and the boys chopped down some tree limbs and shrubs at Mawmaw's house and then later in the evening me, Calley, Anne and Laurel went to get pedi's at the mall.  Grandma Penny made a big bowl of pasta chicken salad and Mawmaw bought some rotisserie chickens from Costco for dinner.

Day 7-We were going to ride Frontrunner this day but we all decided against it since it was so hot and since there really were not any places close by for stopping points other than going all the way to Salt Lake.  Our family went to Village Inn for breakfast-who knew it was free pie Wednesday?  Then we did a little shopping at the Distribution Center, Target and Old Navy, went and took a nap while we waited for Connor to arrive with Grandma and Grandpa, went to dinner with everyone at JCW's and then met Katie Farmer Atwood at the BYU duck pond for family pictures.

Day 8-4th of July has it's own page dedicated just to it.

Day 9-We got up super early to get to Lehi by 9:30 for our own family pictures.  Kyle was not super cooperative but we got some good ones.  Grandma and grandpa came out to pick up Connor and then they headed out for Island Park, ID to visit the Hoskins and go to Yellowstone.  Me and the kids went back to Mawmaw's for a rest and then headed to Grandma Penny's for dinner.  Don went to Saratoga Springs to golf.  We ordered Cafe Rio for dinner and watched the storm roll in from across the lake.  Good thing Don was done golfing by that time because he was right where the storm started.

Day 10-We got up, got packed and loaded and cleaned up Mawmaw's house and headed back to Logandale.  It was a busy week but lots of fun.  We enjoyed staying at Mawmaw's house and seeing all our family.