Summer Vacation 2010

Each year I get a week of vacation time to take from my research. This year we went to Utah and Nevada to visit both of our families. My parents were just about to leave for their three-year mission to Taiwan to be presidents of the Taichung mission. They were recently featured in an article describing the unique responsibilities, sacrifices, and blessings experienced by mission presidents. Here's a link to the article. Anyway here are a few pictures first from our trip to Utah and then to Nevada. If they are too small, you can click on them to see a larger version.

Utah

This picture was taken in front of the Salt Lake Temple the day my parents were set apart as missionaries by President Uchtdorf, Second Counselor of the First Presidency of the LDS Church. He and Elder Acosta gave very special blessings to my parents and promised that our family would be blessed eternally for their service as well. I know that the next three years will be difficult for my parents but I know they are making the right decision to serve when the Lord asks, even if it is not convenient. I know they will influence the lives of the missionaries over whom they preside and the lives of the people of Taiwan.

The day after we arrived, we had a family gathering at the cabin in Provo Canyon. My mother's parents purchased the cabin years ago and it has been the venue for countless family functions. This time, we started with professional family photos, including our latest arrivals, Brinton and Tomás (Josh and Ximena's). There was the largest jumping castle I've ever seen, including a basketball hoop and a self-contained waterslide. The grandkids had lots of fun. Meanwhile, you can see that Brinton slept the day away inside the cabin between the sweet shag rug and retro armchairs--the cabin decor is great! We had lunch catered from Zupas which has to be one the restaurants I miss the most from Provo. Our day at the cabin would not be complete without homemade root beer to wash down all the healthy food from Zupas. 


I snapped the photo at the right of Chrissy (isn't she beautiful?) while she was chatting with family on the benches at the cabin. After lunch we presented a program we had prepared for my parents including a variety songs have sung together as a family. Mom and Dad got up and counseled us to remember to prioritize the small and simple things in our lives and to remember them while they were away. They presented each grandchild with a necklace or lapel pin made of a Scrabble piece (a favorite family game) with a Chinese character for Love and the word Remember in a border surrounding the character. Each couple was also given a framed photograph of Mount Timapanogos, which we hike every year, to remind them of the temple and to have courage to do hard things.

Sunday my parents spoke in Sacramement meeting and we blessed Brinton as well. My parents' talks were phenomenal and it was nice to have so many family members there for Brinton's blessing as well. Afterwards, we had breakfast at my parents' house.

Here's a photo of me, Chrissy, and Brinton on our hike Monday in South Fork. The hike was brief, but beautiful. Mom showed us all how to make whistles out of snake grass segments and we piped up and down the trail.

Lest anyone believe that Brinton was scarred for life by his experience at Bear Lake (see previous post) I decided to post this picture of us at the Scera pool in Orem. Brinton didn't seem to mind the water too much and we all had fun introducing him to swimming.

Mom and Dad entered the MTC on Wednesday. It is very different than how it used to be. They don't herd you all into a room to watch a tear-jerking movie and there is no drama as all the missionaries exit the room through one door as the families leave through another. I am glad I had the experience of living away from Utah and communicating mostly by phone/blog/email for the last year. I think if I had been living in Utah seeing them all the time, it would be harder. We do hope to visit my parents in Taiwan and we plan to communicate regularly, but I anticipate it will be hard not to be with them during holidays, vacations, births, etc. I admire them for their willingness to serve and I know we all will be blessed for their service. 

Nevada

Here is Brinton surrounded by his adoring cousins who took the message on his onesy to heart. It was fun to see them so excited about meeting him and holding him. His aunts and uncles and Scow grandparents had also been looking forward to seeing Brinton, and his grins and coos did not disappoint.

Chrissy's mom watched Brinton Thursday night so we could go on our first "real date" since Brinton was born. We started with dinner at PF Changs (my parents had given us a gift card for Fathers' Day) then we went to see the Lion King at Mandalay Bay. Both times I have seen it, Rafiki stole the show for me. Still, the other performers were very talented. The costuming and puppetry are amazing and the whole spectacle is very impressive. It was fun to be there with Chrissy who was seeing it for the first time. It reminded us of being in Africa together when we were engaged. After the show, we went for gelato at the Venetian, which was fun. We were going to go on a crazy ride at the Stratosphere but it was getting late and we were ready to go home.

Friday we went to the Hoover Dam. We saw a brief movie explaining the interesting history of the dam and its construction as well as the huge impact the reservoir and dam have on water and power supply in the West. It was pretty impressive. We got to see the gigantic pipe that feeds the turbines and then they took us down to see the turbines. We would have like to spend more time in the Visitor's Center but we had to run back home since everyone was coming over for dinner and Brinton needed to eat too.

Saturday morning Chrissy's parents took us out to breakfast at IHOP. Brinton got a little fussy so we took him out of his car seat and his cute face drew looks from around the room. See where the cleft in his chin comes from?

Well, that was our vacation this year. We had a great time and made a lot of great memories. I am impressed that you made it to the end of this blog to hear about them!