A Week of Fun During the Temple Closure

While our Monticello Temple was closed, we had a week of travel to spend time with family.  It began on Saturday, June 29, at the Monsen Family Reunion in Hyde Park. All of my living siblings were there as well as eight members of my immediate family.  Here are pictures with Mom.

 Gary and me with Mom

                            Jeremy, Brittney, Gary, Me, Gina, Kwint, Brennan, Mom, Kaeleb

All the family who were there.  Some are only partially visible.

Following the reunion, Gary and I followed Jeremy and Brittney to Rexburg where we spent some quality time visiting with them for a couple of days before heading north to see Gary's granddaughter, Marie in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where she is working for the summer at the Bar T-5 Chuckwagon.

 We went to this park in the middle of town.  This monument sat in the middle of the park and

                  on all four corners there was a huge arch of elk antlers leading into the park.

 This friendly little chipmunk, along with several others, had dug homes under the boardwalk.

Gary and I posed by this stuffed buffalo on the sidewalk

 And this is Marie with Gary and the buffalo

With Marie there, we were able to get a picture of the both of us under one of the antler arches.

After Marie had to go back to work, we took a ride in this stagecoach.  Check that off the bucket list!

 Marie in her costume at the Bar T-5

              Going to board the 10 covered wagons that took us up to the dinner in the canyon.

                               In the front left is our driver, Liesl with the horses that pulled us.

The view behind us.

Dinner being served

Gary and I drove back to Victor, Idaho where we camped for the night then returned the next day, got Marie and headed north for the Grand Teton National Park.  We stopped along the way to explore "Mormon Row" an original pioneer settlement near the beautiful Teton Mountains.

 The settlement is now uninhabited except for the groundhogs.

 This old barn was a perfect backdrop for another photo of Gary and Me

 and Marie and me.

 In the park we saw beautiful scenery like this shot of Jackson Lake with the Tetons in the background

And this amazing look at the mountains in front of us.

After our visit to the park, we took Marie home and headed back to Rexburg  where we went to the Rexburg Temple and did family sealings with Jerremy and Brittney. We spent that night with the kids in Rexburg then headed back to Utah on July 3.

 On our way to Gina's in Heber, we stopped to see the Golden Spike Monument in Promontory Point, another check on our bucket list.

This is the site where the golden spike was driven in 1869.

 This is a replica of Jupiter, the engine belonging to the Central Pacific that was at the Golden Spike Ceremony

Gary in front of Jupiter.

We spent the rest of the day with Gina and her boys before heading back to Provo where we celebrated the 4th of July with Jim and Rebecca and family.

We left early in the morning for Fox Field where they have their annual balloon show. Here is Preston next to Jim holding Hyrum.

We were completely surrounded by balloons, but it was too windy aloft for them to go up.

Here are Sara, Gracelyn, Rebecca, Katelyn, Jim, Emily, and Tyler

 Tanner and Sara

 We ate breakfast as they were lowering the last of the balloons, then we headed to University Ave where we watched the parade.

 This is the Provo High Marching Band with Jared and his trombone.

Hyrum was so good.  He loved watching the army trucks with great grandma.

 He also loved the penguin balloons!

On Saturday we went to Zoey's baptism

 Zoey with us

Zoety with Brian and Sara

Zoey and her siblings

After the baptism luncheon we headed back to Blanding.  We were exhausted, but what a great week!