Our Vacation Part 1

This past week we were able to travel to Utah for a few days for a family reunion. We decided to head out a few days early and spend some time with Cindy and AJ before the reunion. Before we got to their house we stopped in to visit Brandon's Grandma Bronson. She is now living in a nursing home in Ogden, and it was so wonderful to be able to go and see her. Brandon's grandma is such a sweet lady. We didn't tell her we were coming, and when we walked into her room she started crying, and saying how happy she was to see us. We were so touched. We went out to the front lobby of the nursing home to visit for a while. In the front they have this great big case full of birds. She told us a really sweet story, that I just have to record. She pointed out this little bird that was bright yellow. It was the only yellow one. The rest were white and brown. She said that right before she had moved from her house, she was outside, and she saw a little yellow bird. She said that she never had seen one like that at her house before. It was really sad for her to move after Grandpa Bronson died a few months ago. When she got to the nursing home, she was looking at all of the birds, and noticed the little yellow one. It was the only one, and she said she loves looking at it. I was so touched by her story. I know that it was a tender mercy from Heavenly Father, to give her comfort during this hard time. Brandon said it was a reminder that Grandpa Bronson is watching over her.
After we left the nursing home we drove a little further to visit Brandon's Grandma and Grandpa Simmons. It was so fun to see them. Grandma Simmons made them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then she gave them little baggies to go out in the front and pick out some rocks that they found that looked like "diamonds" =)
Of course we had to go and see their horses! The kids loved feeding them, and petting them. It was such a hot day that day, and we could only stay outside for a few minutes before heading back into the air conditioned house. We were so glad that we decided to take the extra time to drive out and see Brandon's grandparents. It was so nice to visit with them. We wish that we could see them more often.

After leaving Brandon's grandparent's house we headed to Salt Lake City to see Cindy and AJ! What a fun visit we had! That night after dinner Cindy and AJ took us to the high school where High School Musical was filmed. The girls were so excited. (OK I admit, I was pretty excited too) Here are some pictures we took while we were there.

Here are Tori and Alexis peeking in to see if they could see anything. (They really thought that they were in there right then!)



AJ's parents were out of town, so they let us stay in their house. It was such a cute house. It really felt like a bed and breakfast. Brandon became convinced that he wanted to buy it. They live in a really old house, that they have really done a lot of improvements on. It still has a lot of old time charm, and we really enjoyed staying there. Kristalyn, David, Mason and Carter all arrived the next day. We all had so much fun hanging out, and playing games. It was such a fun start to our trip. I will post pictures from the reunion soon.