Yellowstone, Day 2

We started day 2 with "Yellowstone" church.  The local LDS ward in Island Park plays host to sometimes thousands of visitors a week between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  They have a Sacrament Meeting only service at 9am.  As we walked in, they grabbed Tyler to help with the sacrament.   They had a sacrament table at the front of the chapel and another in the back of the gym.  They video fed the meeting into another chapel right next door and every available room in the chapel.  The Presiding Bishop of the Church was presiding at the meeting, Vocal Point from BYU gave the musical number, and they had some great speakers from the local ward.  They have a traditional 3 block schedule of meetings that begins at 11am.  The Aaronic Priesthood and the Bishopric attend both meetings.  The Presiding Bishop gave some closing remarks and joked that you have to be an event planner to be in a leadership role in that ward.

After church we stopped by the cabin to eat and then went back to explore Yellowstone some more.  It was still a rainy day but not quite as hard as the day before.  Melanie was really praying it would not be raining on Monday because she did not want to miss her horse ride.  As we were leaving the park the sun came out and we saw a pretty rainbow.  We took this as a good sign God had heard Melanie's prayers.

Island Park is in Idaho, you have to travel through a tiny part of Montana to get to the West Entrance of Yellowstone, which is in Wyoming.  We tried to get some pictures with state signs once the rain stopped.

When we got back to the cabin we watched "The Sound of Music" before going to bed.  I fell asleep about 30 minutes into the movie.

Yellowstone, Day 1

One of the first things you discover about Yellowstone National Park is that it is huge and there is a lot of driving involved with moving from view area to view area.  The day started off cloudy,  then to a light rain, to pouring rain, to a few minutes of sunshine, and then back to rain.  We were very glad to have brought our winter coats with hoods.  We still got to see most of what we planned for the day.  Luckily the sun was out when we wanted to hike "Uncle Tom's Trail" which is 328 steep metal stairs bolted to the canyon wall that you climb down to get a beautiful view of the lower falls.  It is considered a difficult climb but fun to be able to say we did.  Tyler and Maria ran up and down those stairs like they were nothing, the rest of us took it a little slower.  When we got back we enjoyed a movie in the nice dry cabin.  The beds all had heating blankets on them which the kids loved.

Ogden Temple Open House

We decided to begin our Labor Day weekend Vacation with a visit to the Ogden City Temple Open house.  The temple has recently gone through a major remodel.  It was beautiful and peaceful inside.  We will get to participate in the re-dedication in two weeks.  

After our tour, we went to a local park and had a picnic dinner before starting our long drive to Island Park.  As we got closer to our destination, we were driving on a two lane road in the dark.  It began to rain and so the windshield began to fog up.  Tyler was driving with Maria in the passenger seat.  I tried to give Maria instructions from the back seat to turn on the defrost but she got flustered and the whole windshield became so fogged over Tyler was driving blind.  It was scary but as he slowed down and tried to figure out if there was a side to the rode we were on, all the sudden there was a gas station on our right and he managed to follow the lights and get the car safely off the road.  Melanie now loves to tell the story of the miracle gas station.  I'm sure God was blessing us with safety as we asked him to do when we began our trip.  Prayers answered.

When we arrived at the cabin where we were staying the rain cleared out and we were treated to a beautiful star show.  We found the cabin to be very comfortable and everyone got their own bedroom.

Annual Neighborhood Progressive dinner

I like to tell people that when you live in a neighborhood like ours you don't move.  We have lived in our house now for 19 years and have known our close neighbors for most all of that time.  We have known most of the kids for all of their lives.  A few years ago we began a tradition to have a progressive dinner with our families and move from house to house for each course of the meal.  This year we started at the Mitchell's backyard for appetizer, then moved to our house for salad, then on to the College's house for sloppy joes, and finished with ice cream in the Clark's backyard.  We made the set up easy by bringing along camping chairs and moving them with us.

The Living Planet Aquarium, an Outdoor Movie in the Garden, and haircuts for the dogs

Even though school has started we are still trying to get the most out of what is left of the summer.  On Friday we used our bounce back passes to visit the Living Planet Aquarium again.  They had a lot more of their displays open this time.  It is a large museum with a lot to see.

Friday night we used our Peaks Passes to see the moving, "Maleficent" at the Towne Cinema in American Fork.

 Saturday night we took blankets and went to watch "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" in the Garden at Thanksgiving Point.  We are having some unseasonable cold weather for this time of the year but it was a beautiful night for an outdoor movie.  I saw several shooting stars above the movie screen.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

We had an open calendar after church today and so Tyler, Maria, and Melanie decided today was a good day to groom the dogs.  It takes two people to hold the dog while one does the trimming.

Kayla and David's Wedding

It was our pleasure to witness Kayla and David's wedding for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple.  Kayla looked so beautiful and the two of them seem so happy.

 After the Wedding we met at a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  Melanie, Tyler, and Maria left the first day of school early so that they could join us.  David Bogle's Dad, Ron, bore his testimony about how David's mission had changed his (David's) life and committed all of the young men in attendance to serve a mission. This is significant because he is a Methodist Pastor.

 Then it was off to the reception center to get ready for the ring ceremony and reception.  The reception center was the most beautiful I have ever seen.  Maria said it reminded her of a European Castle.  There was a beautiful garden the bridal party walked through as they made their way to the ring ceremony in front of a beautiful set of waterfalls.  Ron Bogle did the ring ceremony.  Most important, he counseled them to make Christ part of their relationship.  He even quoted from the Doctrine and Covenants about Eternal Marriage.  He told us that he became a Pastor so that he could baptize and marry his children.  I loved that he wanted the priesthood so he could use it to bless his family. Ron had put a lot of time into his remarks and gave Kayla and Dave some wonderful advice.

As part of the ring ceremony, David and Connie, Kayla and Dave, and Ron and Roberta all took turns filling a glass vase with different colors of sand representing the joining together of their families and their lives.

Megan and Tyler wanted to recreate this picture taken at Uncle Michael and Aunt Becky's wedding ten years ago.  They are still pretty cute cousins.

 Another favorite moment of the day was when Kara and Megan sang a duet to the couple.  The song was "All about Us" by He is We

When the evening was over we sent the couple off on their honeymoon with sparklers lighting their path.