wonderful time doing what we planned to do. Months ago, Nate and I decided not to go down to Palisades State Park (near Ephraim/Manti) to camp over Memorial Day weekend, like usual. We'll be going for the Manti Pageant, in mid-June, instead. Since we had the weekend available we agreed it would be a fun experience to travel to Shelley, Idaho with Nate's parents, Dan and Rosemary to visit the graves of Dan's family. Dan and Rosemary make this 3-hour trip, each way, every Memorial Day and they usually go alone but we asked if we could tag along this time and they were happy at the thought. We set out at 9:00 am, along with us all we took our niece, Kayla, along to pal around with Brady and Elise. The drive took a lot longer than 
expected with the heavy rains so we stopped in Pocatello for lunch. I was pleasantly pleased we stopped at a Jack-In-the-Box for lunch (my favorite fast-food place, why won't they come back to Utah? so sad). After eating a super-yummy Sourdough Jack combo and the rest with what they ordered, we were back on the road. As we were leaving Pocatello we passed a "Holiday Inn". Dan and Rosemary got a little giggly and mentioned that was where they spent their wedding night. Ooooh la la!Shelley is quite sparse, full of crops and farms as far as the eye can see. From the stories Dan told, not much of it has changed. We made it to the cemetary and were amazed at all the Armstrong's buried there. We were blessed to have the rain stop the whole time we were at the cemetary. Dan made for a very informative and wonderful "tour/family history guide". He showed us several other graves of family members on his moms side. You could say much of the small cemetary was comprised of Nathan's family. Quite a fascinating site! I couldn't help but be very touched with Elise and Kayla picking dandelions for the graves of infants. They would pick the yellow "flowers" and place them next to the head stones of the little ones. They cared so much to make sure the little babies were acknowledged. Those dandelions weren't weeds to them but, instead, beautiful tributes to the sweet little babies that were only on this earth for a short while then returned to our Father in Heaven---and they both understood that. I get a little teary-eyed thinking about it again.
After our visit to the cemetary we traveled around the neighborhood Dan grew up in. We saw 
the house he grew up in and the houses of many other relatives that have long moved away or passed on. He showed us areas he use to play at. He also showed us the vast acreage his family used to own and talked about the farm they ran and all the many things he used to do to help out. I hope he enjoyed taking us down "Memory Lane" because I sure enjoyed it. I think Nate was really happy to come back to Shelley. He hadn't been for many, many years.
the house he grew up in and the houses of many other relatives that have long moved away or passed on. He showed us areas he use to play at. He also showed us the vast acreage his family used to own and talked about the farm they ran and all the many things he used to do to help out. I hope he enjoyed taking us down "Memory Lane" because I sure enjoyed it. I think Nate was really happy to come back to Shelley. He hadn't been for many, many years. Our last stop was to see the Idaho Falls Temple. This is the temple Dan and Rosemary were married in, almost 40 years ago! Happy Anniversary on June 7th! I had never seen it before. We stopped at the look-out point along the falls and the temple was on the other side. The view was spectacular! The kids were amazed and, of course, we took photos.
After our visit to the falls it was time to go home. The drive was quite long and we tried to fill the time with good music and Mad Libs. Elise became a "peeing machine" so we had to stop every 1/2 hour to take her to a bathroom--twice, she didn't make it! (thank heavens for a mom who always packs extra clothes because she knows her children ALL too well!) **On a side note--with all the bathroom breaks for Elise, Nate and I got a little scared this could be a symptom of diabetes, we tested her when we got home and her blood sugar was perfect---a HUGE breath of relief! While driving pass Brigham City, Grandma Rosemary kind of got a little goofy and asked Brady if he would smell her sock for 5 cents. He said "no". She persisted and upped the amount to 25 cents. He still wasn't a taker. I was laughing pretty hard (we all were!) and told her to offer him a dollar. He was not going to smell her sock! She was about to give up when I suggested she offer a dollar to Kayla and Elise. As she was asking them she could hardly control her laughter!At first they said "No way!" but then thought about it and said "sure". She 
got a dollar out for each of them and they both proceeded to smell her sock. I don't think it smelled all that much but the two of them made it as dramatic as possible! However, they were both quite happy to get their dollar. And at our next stop for Elise to use the bathroom she tried to spend it. Crazy! It sure was an out-of-the-ordinary thing for Rosemary to do but we all enjoyed the laugh, it was quite hilarious.
got a dollar out for each of them and they both proceeded to smell her sock. I don't think it smelled all that much but the two of them made it as dramatic as possible! However, they were both quite happy to get their dollar. And at our next stop for Elise to use the bathroom she tried to spend it. Crazy! It sure was an out-of-the-ordinary thing for Rosemary to do but we all enjoyed the laugh, it was quite hilarious.We made it back to Dan and Rosemary's house where we enjoyed pizza and pasta from Pizza Hut then off to get home for bed.
What a LONG day but I had a great time visiting with my mother and father-in-law. I'm very blessed to have them in my life. I'll always wish my parents lived close to us but I enjoy my relationship with Nate's parents and appreciate all they do for us. They are wonderful people and deserve all the happiness in the world. I look forward to my children growing up and having some of their main examples be their grandparents. They have a lot of wonderful qualities I would love to see my own children develop, some are already there including compassion, kindness, sincere love and devotion, mixed all together with plenty of humor and laughter.
I hope to go with them again someday
I hope to go with them again someday
May 5th--Elise decided to recruit one of our neighbor friends to help her learn how to ride a 2-wheel bike. Tianna Carmon is older than most of the kids on our street and she's been known to teach other kids how to ride without training wheels so, naturally, Elise trusted her over mom and dad---since, you know, we wouldn't have a clue how to teach her, right? (note the sarcasm!) Anyhoo, Tianna did a wonderful job helping Elise out. She didn't quite figure it out today but we'll keep working with her and I know Tianna will love to continue helping her.
