Dunford Family Reunion: Part Four (Salt Lake City)

We packed up and headed back down to Salt Lake City on Thursday morning.

Here was a view of the house--it was such a perfect location for our family.

 On our way down, we stopped at the Logan, Utah temple for some of the cousins to do baptisms for the dead. Clara was pretty nervous and only felt comfortable doing the confirmation, but that was okay and we were glad to be there.

We visited Temple Square that afternoon and enjoyed the Church History Museum. The children's section was really fun. We also watched a neat video of the First Vision.

 Playing in the children's section.

 They had some fun stuffed camels, etc. that kids could climb on. The area was very thoughtfully designed.

 Robbie enjoyed these tangrams.

 Giving a talk at the Conference Center pulpit.

That night we enjoyed dinner at Cafe Rio with Mom and Dad and Adam and Wendi and their family. Clara loved giving LOTS of hugs to her cousins on this trip. Here she is with sweet Ali.

Then we headed to my uncle Bert's and Aunt Chris' house--they were so gracious to host us. Clara especially was excited to see their dog, Mooshoo (sp?).

 We got to bed by around 9:30pm (hallelujah!) and then the following morning headed back to Temple Square to see the sights and especially to see Nana and Papa on their mission.

 Don't they look sharp?

 Their mission changed from being over the interpreters to helping out in the "Quality Translation" department--it is pretty daunting as they try to figure out how to determine the quality of the language interpretations, but they are excited and happy to be serving. I am proud of their example.

 Walking to the cafeteria (yummy food!). There was a man playing the piano there, whom Mom informed me was Elder Klopfer, a Holocaust survivor and author of the hymn "Home Can Be a Heaven on Earth" with his wife. It was beautiful listening to him play as we ate.

 Checking out the interpreter booths on the floor where they used to serve.

Our kids sure love their grandparents.

 We also got to see the Conference Center briefly--it was fun to show the kids where General Conference is held.

There were so many other neat experiences that we had on the trip, which was definitely an adventure and not a vacation :-). I was touched by the kindness rendered by my siblings and nieces and nephews towards my children. I also felt that this particular reunion was a special one because of the ages of all the grandkids--the majority being school-age--which made it really fun and not super stressful since there weren't a ton of babies and little kids. Despite some sickness from Henry (an odd high fever that lasted for a couple of days), injuries for Robbie (he slammed his finger in the door really hard--the nail finally came off today) and Michael (his toe in the lake), sleep deprivation, poor eating, personal angst, etc., overall the trip was wonderful and definitely worth the money and sacrifice. The kids were troopers and now that time has passed it only continues to get sweeter in retrospect. I feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and to be sealed to them through our temple covenants and the Lord's beautiful plan of happiness.