Family Trip, Days 1 & 2

New bridge from the top of Hoover Dam

It was time to enjoy another Utah trip with family. There is no better place to celebrate the 4th of July than Provo with its "Freedom Festival." It is also a glorious place to be in the summer and certainly a cooler option than "home sweet home."

There is currently road construction on the Navajo Reservation with very long waits for the pilot car, so we elected to travel through Las Vegas instead. Three carloads of Jensens drove up on Wednesday, June 29th with the fourth carload arriving on Friday. All those cars meant 8 of 10 grandchildren AND my sister, Lynette, who had already flown in from Kansas would be in Provo. Lucky me!

We stopped at Hoover Dam to show the grand kids the new bridge and to let them walk across it.



This was good in theory but not so great in execution, at least for Julianna and I. The temperature was 108 F and wind gusts were 40 miles per hour. That pretty much translates to "convection oven" so Julianna and I walked as far as the first set of stairs and then hightailed it back to the car for a photo session. Isn't she adorable? Still 2 with 2 year old traits, but simply adorable. All of her siblings continued the walk across without being blown off to the dam below.

We stopped for hamburgers in St. George and then enjoyed a beautiful ride north with rain showers and rainbows. Julianna wanted to catch a rainbow but they are pretty elusive.

Upon arrival, Lynette had cookies waiting for us. We quickly rolled out the air beds, distributed pillows and blankets and made it a day.

The next morning found us at Gardner Village in Midvale. Grandpa and Toby split off from the girls whose main destination was the doll shop. Eric and TJ and split off even earlier, electing to go to the new Transformer movie instead.

Heather had been requesting a visit after learning that this is where I did part of my Christmas shopping. They had moved to a new location, but we soon tracked them down.

Part of the store is a clothing section for 18" dolls like American Girl. Those in the boxes on the shelf are an 18" versions by Madame Alexander. Heather bought a denim skirt and peasant blouse for her doll and we also shopped for a birthday present for Ruby.

Next stop was the candy shop.

There were sweets of every kind, but we managed to limit ourselves to the free samples of fudge.

How could one choose anyway?


This is Anastasia's Attic which is owned by a former neighbor from our Bountiful days.

The daughter that is! Sharon taught me how to smock while Tara was filling page after page with dress designs. Now they are both grown up! I snapped this picture in front of the store last October.

Grandpa sort of ignores this store, too. But he loves being anywhere with his grands!

Lynette posing with my grandchildren. I'm always happy to share them with her.

We lunched at Archibald's. Heather elected to stay with grandma and her great aunt for more shop hopping including the quilt store. She also patiently tagged along to Quilts, Etc. in Sandy before heading back to Provo.

Late afternoon found us grocery shopping, regular and Costco, after which there was a spaghetti dinner. We needed to carb up for the next day's activities!