Visiting Mindy and Beth!!

On July 3rd, I packed the kids up and went to Orem to stay with Mindy. Although she was still grieving for the loss of Sarah, she wanted to make sure that the kids had a fun summer.

I got to her house in the afternoon and we went shopping for 4th of July. We bought hamburgers and hot dogs for the grill and I got the ingredients for my now famous potato salad! (Mindy and the kids wouldn't touch it, but Dennis, his kids, and Mindy's mom loved it!)


Anyway, that first night we walked to Sarah's grave. It was set on a hill with lots of trees and a little bench nearby. It's very peaceful there.

That night I stayed up to make the potato salad and we just talked. The next morning was a neighborhood parade and breakfast! This was so much fun for the kids! They all looked so cute! After the breakfast, Mindy and I walked to Sarah's grave again so that she could put flowers and flags on it.

That night we had the BBQ and fireworks. Chris brought his friends over and Mindy invited the Fronk's. We had a great time watching the boys light up everything.

That Sunday was testimony meeting. It was the most wonderful meeting I had been to in a long time. It went over, but all of the testimonies were so strong. Mindy bore her testimony, too. I felt so lucky to be able to hear her.

While I was at Mindy's, we took the kids to the Scera pool and play area. I forgot my camera, but it was so much fun! They had water slides, splash pads, diving boards, a lazy river, and a wading pool! Then we got snow cones from a Snow Shack in the parking lot- so many memories!

One of the nights we went to a late movie. Horrible idea! The movie was awful, the whole audience was seriously sobbing, and Mindy couldn't even talk afterwards! I had asked her if she had wanted to walk out, but she thought it would get better. It didn't.

Since I was spending such a long time at Mindy's house, I decided to break up the trip and went to see my sister for a couple of days. We had a great time taking the kids to the Hogle Zoo. On the way back, she stopped at the "This is the Place" monument so that I could take a picture of the kids. We had fun staying up late playing games and talking.






I went back to Mindy's house after that. It had worked out perfectly because her kids had all sorts of things going during those couple of days. We went on a hike to a waterfall really close to Mindy's house. They had never been before, so it was fun for all of us! We got Subway on the way back and had a picnic in Mindy's front yard.

I was also invited to Dennis' family BBQ. The food was great and the best part was driving home! Dennis' son, Andrew has an orange Lotus and if you know me well, you know that I LOVE fast cars. He took me on the best ride of my life! It was so awesome! It was amazing! He drove so fast, took the turns so tight, and raced up the side of a mountain! It was more fun than any amusement park ride!

Dennis also took us out to dinner a couple of times. The best part of the visit was being with Mindy late at night, playing games, talking to her step-daughters, and walking to the cemetery. Mindy even made a Birthday Party for Maryn! Maryn was plagued with attitude and cried throughout the whole thing until she got her present. Very embarrassing!!