The Provo Dunford Grandkids on Temple Square

 Rob organized a wonderful visit for the Provo grandkids - Duncan, Caroline, Grace, and Clay - to come spend a day with us.  The kids took TRAX in from Provo, and Rob met them at the downtown station. He showed them a whole group of photos for their phones which included small shots of different places around the Temple Square campus.

Then they went up to the top of the COB to see the interpreter booths, etc.  

Grace, trying the booth out as an interpreter

 I was able to join them for lunch in the cafeteria there.  They loved being able to pick out whatever food they wanted. Then we began more of our exploration of the Temple Square campus.

First, a photo at the famous spot in the Plaza with the temple behind. I then took them around that block.  As we walked down State Street, they saw some things on their list from the Brigham Young Park there.

Next was a tour of the Beehive House.

Here we are in the JSMB in what used to be the coffee shop.  There are these ornate tiles of women and grapes around the top.

Here is the beautiful lobby.

With the imposing statue of Joseph Smith

Here is the chapel where we have Sunday meetings and Mission devotionals and conferences.

A view of the plaza showing them President Nelson's offices on the bottom left side of 

the Church Administration Building.

Here is my office.

The wall in the mission office showing all the missionaries in the mission.

A view from the 10th floor 

A beautiful view of the temple

Then we went to the theater there to see a Meet the Mormons video.

Then we walked through Temple Square, stopping at the South Visitors Center, passed the Assembly Hall and Tabernacle and on over to the Family History and the Discover Zone.

Us in front of the First Vision sculpture.

Clay and Duncan in the Tabernacle.

When we grew up, all the baptisms were done in the basement of 

the Tabernacle.  The kids thought that was so amazing.

Now to the Discovery Zone in the Family History Library.  This is a green screen.  

We don't have a copy of the actual photo with the background that the kids chose.

Such great grandchildren. 

Over 10,000 Dunfords in the United States

Sweden was one place.  

Who are we related to?

They "dressed" themselves in their ancestors' clothing.

I gave Clay some pointers.

We finished up checking out their family trees in Family Search.  

Caroline really enjoyed doing indexing.  

Our final stop was the Church History Museum.  Among other things, 

we saw the newest version of the First Vision in surround picture.

There were so many interesting displays.

  Then it was time to hustle Duncan and Caroline out to meet Heather for their family overnight.  We had dinner at Chick Fil A with Clay and Grace, and then drove them down to Provo to meet Bryan.

We had so much fun, and I think that the kids did as well, but we sure wore them out.  I put 14,000 steps on my Fitbit!

Christmas!

Our celebration began on Sunday morning attending Heather's Sacrament meeting and then going to Bryan's for a little bit of Christmas Eve Buffet  He had cooked a wonderful tri-tip on the barbecue.  We gave their family their Christmas presents then.

Dear Bryan and the kids - Emily had hurt her back and was having to stay in bed.

Wonderful food!

They do the family tradition of making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.

I had made silly little mice for the kids and also Bryant and JD's kids back at Bert's.

(Chocolate cookie crumbs, melted chocolate chips and powder sugar)

Bryan, showing their gift from us - a wrapped canvas photo of their family.

The kids seemed to like their gift cards - Los Hermanos and The Container Store.

All of us celebrating!  Bryan went in on our DNA tests!

Then we picked up Heather (her kids were with John this Christmas) and went to Joy's and Willi's for a German dinner with their granddaughter Bailey.  Heather had brought German red cabbage and butter kuchen which Joy and Willi hadn't had for a long time and loved.  We had such a sweet evening.  (Mark and his girlfriend were supposed to come, but he was ill).

Bailey and Heather really hit it off!

And us, of course  

After spending the night at Heather's, we shared our gifts with her. 

Heather seemed to be thrilled with her repaired kaleidoscope 

that Dad had purchased many, many years ago.

Heather gave us each a certificate for some time alone with her, plus going in 

on the DNA tests for us.  

 Then we went to Parkinson's for breakfast.  They are Emily's parents and have been so good to us and them for so many years.  Christine does weaving and always shares a little of her weaving on their Christmas card.

Then back to Heather's for lunch/dinner with her kids and opening cards.  We went back home to have a quiet evening.

 The next day, we went back down to Heather's for Boxing Day - a casual day of scones, games, etc.  Rob and I made our first attempt at cooking Dunford Donut Holes - good, but they need a little more work! 

Christmas Activities

We were given tickets to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It was a perfect way to start off the holiday season

Last year, we visited Temple Square to see the lights and spent a lot of time looking at them.  This year, I took a photo as we drove into town the night of the Devotional.

The weather didn't really cooperate as far as snow was concerned - this is really all that we had.

The Light the World campaign by the Church was wonderful.  In the JSMB, they had several vending machines where people could "buy" food, emergency supplies, water, animals that would be donated to the needy throughout the world.  It was always busy with people participating. We did many Light the World services.  

We had two wonderful Christmas devotionals and lunch with the PSD Dept. and our mission.  All month long, different choir groups came in and sang in the COB and the JSMB over the lunch hour.  They brought such a feeling of Christmas.  We will really miss those next year.

Eden came into town for a few days to meet her boyfriend, Stephen McKean's family.  They were able to join us for lunch at the Dodo Restaurant in Sugar House.  He is such a nice young man - we will see what happens with the two of them...

 We went to Music and the Spoken Word the Sunday morning after the three nights of the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert.  We weren't able to attend that, but we were able to hear the performers and some of the same music.

And last, but not least, our mission president, Jerry Fenn, dressed up like Santa 

and visited all of us in our zone.

It was a very busy Christmas month, and we were so grateful to have been able to be part of it.  

Our 49th Wedding Anniversary

Dear Rob planned a fun little getaway for our anniversary.  We took off from work on the 18th and 19th and went up to stay at the Marriott in Park City. (We had some points which made it free :-))

The beautiful lobby and fireplace

A view of the whole room. We had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant in Dear Valley and then came home and toasted each other.

We visited a number of stores there before we checked in, but we especially enjoyed Oil and Vinegar and a some fascinating art galleries.

What a surprise to run into Ryan and Clarisse Pedersen from the Sugar Hill Ward and their kids.  They were out visiting her sister for the holidays.

The cute card Rob gave me...

The next morning, we joined Jill Johnson from our Caribbean Mission days at a cute restaurant called Five Seeds.  They featured great meals that incorporated seeds, flower petals, and other healthy items. 

Here is my breakfast cake with black berries, flower petals, and mascarpone cheese.

After checking out, we went over to Midway to see Rob's sister Gayle and to talk about what to do to preserve the Red Book - letters that Clayton wrote to Elizabeth.  

That night we went to the little theater of the Conference Center to see the Savior of the World musical presentation - the story of Christ's birth and his appearances to his disciples  after his crucifixion.- wonderful voices.

A perfect ending to a wonderful anniversary get away!