I'm back!!!!  Hoping to do better at keeping up with my blogging!!

A week ago Mark and I decided to take a road trip and visit his 3 sisters in Utah.  I actually loved the drive!  It was beautiful everywhere we went.

 Ilene (Franck), Mark, Lila (Besendorfer), Nadene (Reich)

 It was a great experience!  We all stayed in the Plaza Hotel across from Temple Square.  We just did whatever activity we wanted.  We visited the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see the Joseph Smith Restoration movie.  As expected, it was very touching. 

We visited the new City Creek Center/Mall built right across from Temple Square! WOW!! It adds to the beauty of the city and the church property and its history. The LDS church paid for most of it.   It has stores, offices, fountains, waterfalls, places to eat, retractable roof and it is very nice!  I could spend my whole day there.

 

And of course, we visited Temple Square where the flowers gardens are outstanding and colorful!

The Salt Lake Temple is always picture perfect!!

A lot of the time was spent just visiting!   Mark comes from a family that is gentle, accommodating, have a geat sense of humor, and some of the nicest people on this earth!  Ilene had brought some things of their mother to go through and we came home with a book given him by his Grandma and Grandpa Hillam and a handmade quilt of his mother's. 

 

Laddie by Gene Stratton-Porter, author of  A Girl of the Limberlost that I read with my mom and watched the movie with her more than once.   This book was copyrighted in 1913.  I may need to read it.

I wish I knew when Grandma (Mildred) Stringham quilted this.  And I wish I knew how many quilts she made over her lifetime.

Great treasures!

Next....we drove to Idaho Falls, taking Ilene with us.  When a brother and sister talk, you hear little family tidbits and learn more of their upbringing!!  They had a hard-working, but very good life!

40 years ago Mark and I began our life together in this temple. We spent time inside and I reflected on all of our experiences together, on how our life together was strengthened by the teachings of the gospel, how blessed I am to have him as my husband and how much I love him, our children and our grandchildren. 



Before our wedding, April 5, 1972.  My dad (Arthur Edmond Lee), my mom (Betty Jane Merrll Lee), my Grandma Merrell (Minnie Bay Ellis Merrell), me, Mark and my Aunt Nancy Merrell Alldredge (Wright)

Next, we visited the farm where Mark grew up.  The new owners were building a new house on the farm!  Made me a little sad, because I grew to love their humble little farmhouse and have fond memories of the Pollyanna games, made-from-scratch meals, fun conversations, teasings and laughter and eating from their huge garden!!

 

The new owner told Mark about these cool tractors that have GPS systems that can make perfectly straight rows when planting the crops.   The cost can be around $400,000, more than the new house they're building....I'm guessing!  During the war Mark's parents had tractors with no rubber.  There was rubber-supply crisis because most of the U.S. rubber supply had been cut off and rubber was needed for the war.

Final resting place of Mark's parents!!

It was a great trip and so glad we went!