Summer Outings

Once Sarah was up and about from her surgery and before Marie had her "procedure" as she likes to call it (a same day small hernia surgery) we joined Marie's sister Diane and her husband Lant for a fun day at Deer Creek reservoir--with majestic Mt. Timpanogos in the background. Also joining us were Marie's sister Betsy, her husband Kirk and three of their children.

Joel trying water skiing for the first time. He almost made it up several times.

Will trying water skiing for the first time. He almost made it up several times.

Chad trying to salmon ski after a 20 year hiatus. He almost made it up several times. 

Marie and her sisters doing a tube run.

Uncle Lant showing us how it is done.

Cousin Lucy

 Cousin Ben

 

Joel giving it a try. 

Sarah signaling.

 

Sarah with an extra large zucchini from her "faith garden" that she and her friend Rachel planted as part of a Young Women's personal progress project.

New school shoes on the feet of Joel and Will with some of their other colorful footwear.

It has been over a week since Marie's procedure and she felt up to a one day outing which we have now dubbed our summer vacation.  We headed north (via a stop at Dicks for some soccer supplies) to Salt Lake City for some back to school shopping at City Creek, the new outdoor mall in the center of town. Bisecting the two blocks of shops and restaurants are creeks and fun water fountains.

We exchanged some gift shoes at Nordstrom's for Sarah (thanks cousin Kristen and Andrew).

Then we headed to H&M and Macy's. Each of the kids found something.

City Creek stands on the site of the old ZCMI store which then became part of the ZCMI center--a large indoor mall. The above facade is from the old ZCMI store with began during pioneer times as Zions Cooperative Mercantile Incorporated--which I believe was the first department store in the US. 

For more about City Creek and its role in reviving downtown SLC see these two New York Times article: click here
 and here

Between shopping we celebrated Sarah's birthday with a delicious and filling lunch at the Cheesecake factory. It was everybody's first time here, except Sarah's. We loved sharing the mango key lime and Hershey chocolate cheese cakes.

We next visited the Beehive House, home of Brigham Young.

The gardens throughout the two-block Mormon administrative and religious complex were spectacular. Some days I think being a gardener here would be a great job.

The main parlor where the large Young family would nightly read scriptures. The wives and children were called by the ringing of a bell. I think our family might need to use a bell  to help gather reluctant children. 

Railroad and beehive decor on the stair post.

Brigham Young

The nice sister missionaries who gave us the tour. One from Alberta Canada and one from Recife Brazil.

When I was a child and we toured the Beehive house we were always given a piece of horehound candy as a going away treat. I don't think any kids liked the taste and so they would spit it out in the garden above just outside the side exit door. They have discontinued the giving of horehound, but I still call this part of the garden "horehound garden" because it was once littered with half sucked pieces of nasty horehound candy.

We next hoped to go to the observatory atop the 26 story Church Office Building (rear of photo) but the building is closed on weekends.

The Lion House adjoins the Beehive house and was also part of the large Brigham Young home.

Marie seems to remember that this sculpture by Dennis Smith used his son Danny as the model for the boy. Danny is now an adult married to Marie's niece Nadia.

You know you are in Utah/Mormon territory when there are businesses that use words like Zion, Deseret, Beehive and Pioneer. I use examples like this when I talked about the Mormon Culture region in my geography classes.

 

Watching all of the marriage parties talking photos after their marriages in the Salt Lake Temple.

 Sea Gull Monument on Temple Square.

 

Will did not know the story so I used these reliefs to explain. Here the Saints arrive in the valley of the Great Salt Lake.

 

They work hard to plant their crops and divert the streams to irrigate.

Then swarms of crickets come and threaten to devour the much needed crops. The pioneers pray for deliverance of their crops and soon thousands of California Gulls (the state bird of Utah) swoop in out of nowhere and eat their fill of the crickets, these unlikely saviors then fly over the Great Salt Lake to regurgitate their fill and then swoop in for more eating. The happy ending to this miracle is that the sea gulls saved the crops which saved the pioneers.

A nearby monument to the handcart pioneers--my mother's great grandmother, Margaret Caldwell and her familiy were some of those handcart pioneers.



The Assembly Hall on Temple Square. It was used for weekly sacrament meetings during the early years in Salt Lake City. Now it is mainly uses for weekly concerts.

 

Stars of David above the entry doors.


 Beautiful interior. They don't make them like they used to.

 

 Loved the stained glass windows.

We then slipped in to the south visitors center of Temple Square for a potty and water break before heading home. While waiting for everyone to finish we got watching I'm a Mormon videos. We all enjoyed the  comfortable couches, a big screen and the compelling vignettes about Mormons from all walks of life. It was a delightful half hour.

Here are links to a few of the I'm a Mormon videos we enjoyed:

Iraq war survivor

skate board dude

Foster care grandmother

See more here



Decorating a nearby wall was this nice mural about Heavenly Father (and Mother's) Plan for families.