To Utah again

Cleo went to the temple, and the Maxfields held a huge family reunion–all in Utah. So on July 14 Carla and I were off; Judy rode there with us. Carla and I stayed at one of the Orem La Quinta Inns.

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Somewhere in Utah

Cleo received her temple endowments the next day at the Jordan River Temple. Elizabeth, Jenny, and Cleo’s boyfriend Taylor joined us for the temple session.

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Carla, Judy, Jenny, Elizabeth, Cleo, Taylor–after the session.

I like the view from that temple:

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Jenny, in front of the Jordan River Temple

 

Later that day, it was fun getting to know Alton better:

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Alton#1

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Alton#2

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With Aunt Judy

 

And Ruby:

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And Milo:

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Milo and John

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Six-year-old chess master

 

And Jonah, and Maxwell, and Bentley:

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Max

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Jonah

And, I’m sorry, but somehow, I missed getting Bentley on camera.

That evening we dined at Tucanos in Provo with John, Judy, Elizabeth, Cleo, and Taylor.  The food is always good, of course, and it was crowded and noisy. Click here to see our dessert.

The next day, after our Maxfield reunion trip to Salt Lake City, we took Cleo and Taylor to lunch at Kneader’s in South Jordan. It was quieter than Tucanos, and we learned the Taylor was from Parowan, where his dad had been the mayor. Taylor took hopefully his final exam for licensing as a pharmacist that very morning.

Jenny had babysat during our Tucanos outing the day before, so we took John and Jenny to a very tasty dinner at Pizzeria 712 in Orem.

The next day, we met Elizabeth for lunch and she opted for Guru’s Cafe in downtown Provo. After a nice lunch and taking Elizabeth back to work, Carla and I shopped at the nearby Riverwoods Zion’s Mercantile Co. for a gift for John’s kids and then enjoyed some additional refreshment at Brian Ellingford’s nearby Yuki shaved-ice stand; my flavor was tamarind and root beer.

During our stay, I learned through sad experience that Jonah and six-year-old Milo are good chess players. Both beat me.

We watched baseball games Saturday morning. Ruby and Milo played for a team John coached, and Max and Jonah played for another team at the same time and location. So we were able to watch the games on adjoining diamonds at the same time.

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Milo and Ruby with John

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post-game refreshment

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Max and Jonah with their season-ending trophies

 

Sunday, after church, Julie’s son Brighton and his fiance Tiegen visited us at John’s. They are a great couple, and we were glad to be able to finally meet Brighton:

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Cleo, John, Brighton, Tiegen, Brent

 

Our visit came to an end, and we drove home Monday.

But we did have an adventurous detour as we approached Hesperia on the I-15 in California. I’m happy now that our Chrysler has all-wheel drive because, to avoid a traffic tie-up over the Cajon Pass, our Chrysler’s GPS took us off the I-15 and onto this ATV path; Carla’s cellphone video doesn’t quite do it justice. I’m just glad that we didn’t try this at night: