BYU

My dad wanted to show the boys his old stomping grounds plus some family history down in Provo at BYU. My parents met at BYU, b but not only that my great grandfather was a famous Professor there and my dad wanted to show him his plaque. 

First up BYU’s University of Art

The building my Great grandfather was a professor in.

This deer literally walked right in front of us while we were looking at this building. I’ve never had a deer come up so close to me before without running away!

Next up we meet my aunts and uncles for lunch at the Brick Oven. It’s always nice to visit with family.

Across the street from the brick oven was the home my grandma grew up in. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of it. Next up the plaque of my great grandfather. 

Vasco Tanner. This is the family name that obviously Tanner is named after. Vasco was a zoologist and discovered many new species. We have a bug of his that he discovered as almost our family mascot. It was cool to see this display of him up in the natural history museum.

 And we couldn’t end our trip to BYU without getting some ice cream at the BYU creamery. (Although I must say I prefer Aggie ice cream instead 😉) it was a fun day of seeing and learning about our family. 

This is the Place Monument

My dad wanted to create memories and to teach my boys about our heritage this summer and out first visit was Heritage Park at This is the Place Monument.

We got to see what it was like to live like a pioneer. What kind of houses they live in, chores they did as well as different kinds of trades/work.

We learned how to sew 

And how to ride horses! My dad spoiled us with a horse back riding experience along the base of Emigration Canyon. It was a fun ride with a beautiful view of the Salt Lake Valley.

Some horses were more cooperative then others 😆

After a long ride those horses wanted a drink!

And we did too so we got popsicles instead

Then we got to try our hand at handcarts. Brought me back to when I did the pioneer trek! 

Yep I don’t think my boys could have made on the plains 😆

We also got to try our hand at mining for gold. Logan was so excited for this part. And even though we came at the end of the day and the big pieces I’m sure we’re all long gone, we still found lots and lots of gold. Logan was in heaven, and his pockets full.

Other places we saw/experienced but I didn’t get pictures of was the Desert News printing press where we learned how they made newspapers, the blacksmith shop, and the tinsmith. As well as the chapel, a pioneer cemetery, and the true/original this is the place monument. And there was so much more in the village that we didn’t have time to see!

  My dad really wanted to show us our family’s home that is on site at Heritage Park. The Atkin home on my grandmother Murphy’s side was originally located in St. George area and built in1877. The building at heritage park is only used for private events and so we weren’t able to go see it. We were however able to see a pioneer family home on Brads side. The Rich home was the home of two of Charles C. Richs wives and was located in Centerville Utah. It was small for home that was split like a duplex, where one wife had one side and the other wife had the other side. And each side was really just one big room with a kitchen. No bedrooms. With kids it would have been a hard home to live in!

Charles C Rich and his wives.

I’m so glad we got to go and experience this piece of family and Utah history! And to teach my boys about their pioneer heritage. As Logan said “It was way funner than I thought!”

 

Fun Times in Utah Part 2

Sister time to see the new Barbie movie! Dinner and a show at Farmington station. It’s been awhile since we’ve done something with just us. It was fun!

Seaquest with our Murphy cousins

The fish always love Carson and his dry hands

Hiking up Green pond trail with the Clark cousins

And we got Italian ice after.

Basketball against a gorgeous sunset

And pickleball. These boys became obsessed this summer with pickleball. Any spare time they had they wanted to be playing.

24th of July Parade/Days of ‘47 in Ogden

Watching the Layton High School band go by

But my favorite band is Ben Lomond. Their mascot is the Scot’s and as such there have a bagpipe band! I love it!

That night we went with Brent and Kae to watch the drone show after the Ogden rodeo. We heard it was really well done. So we got to the Rodeo and we saw the drones lite up and ready to go.

And then we waited…and waited… for like 2 hours for the rodeo to finish! (It ran late) only for them to get on the speaker to announce that the drone show was canceled because it was going to rain. And then literally right after he said that it started raining, so we had to make it back to our car in the rain. No fun. We were all extremely disappointed.

Meanwhile back in Texas, Brad had to renew his helicopter emergency training certification and sent this video. This is in case the helicopter going to the oil rigs crashes in the ocean. In this simulation they flip the “helicopter” over so Brad is upside down and he has to unbuckle his seat belt, kick the window out, and swim away from the wreckage. Pretty cool. Hopefully he’ll never need to do this particular safety drill.