Memorial Weekend

Hello to my family and friends. Monday is Memorial day, but dad was wise and decided to visit cemeteries today instead and beat the traffic. It was a good plan because there was plenty of traffic anyway, and lots of people with the same idea. There were already lots of pretty flowers and decorations on graves.
I was really happy to get to go along on this venture with my parents. My husband came along too.
I took a small notepad and pen and tried my best to learn more about some of my relatives. I also needed to be reminded as to where some of the people are located.
Most of the pictures that I took will stay on file for my own use. I'll just show a few that may be familiar to some of you.

We started in the Salt Lake City cemetery, as it's very close to mom and dads home. The very first site that we went to was my younger sister; Laurie. We lost her last summer. It's very strange to comprehend.
I have to mention that Dads car trunk was filled with flowers for several graves. He also brought stakes and string to tie up the flower pots. This way they wouldn't fall over.

We also swept and decorated his step-moms grave in Salt Lake. Dad's mom, Beth, passed away when he was 12 (She's in Logan). Later grandpa Smith married Lela, who happens to be Beths sister.
Grandmas plot has 5 pots of flowers on it now; very pretty. I didn't take a picture of her stone though.

Next we drove to Farmington. If cemeteries can be loveable, this one is it. It's small and homey. It's also filled with relatives.
Here we tended to my Great Grandma Robinson; Beth and Lelas mother. Then we went to an older section and took care of people that lived in the 1800's. I'm glad they wrote journals, because I have a good sense of who they were, and I really wish that I could meet them and talk to them.

Here's one that I really like:



This is my other favorite person; Ezra T. Clark. His first wife was Mary S. Clark. We come through her.

These were awesome pioneer people. Their lives were hard, but they were history makers.
Like I said, I'm keeping this post simple. I'm leaving out several grave sites and there are really good stories about the people.

When we finished in Farmington, we drove up to Logan. It's really pretty up there.


I think this first picture is of Grandpa Smiths parents. I didn't write this one in my notepad, so I could possibly have it wrong.
We filled a bucket with water to wash off the stones. Birds must like to hang out on them. Then we swept them off really good. Dad carefully tied up flower pots, everywhere we went. They brought about 15 pots.


Here's my nice mom:


I like this picture the best, because it's just me and my dad. We're standing behind Grandpa Calvin Smiths spot, after we cleaned it up.
I really liked my grandpa Smith. He passed away when I was about 14, but I remember him perfectly. He was very good to us.
We were raised in California, but many summers we came up to Utah to visit grandparents. When we stayed at his house he sometimes walked with my sisters and me down to the local ice cream store and bought us cones. He also kept gum in his pocket for us. When we were really little he would sit in a big chair and let us put curlers in his hair. He was pretty neat.

Before leaving the Logan area, dad took us to the college for some Aggie Ice cream. This ice cream thing is a really good tradition!!
By now the day was getting long and we stopped at Maddox restaurant for the best late lunch ever!! It helped that we were all starving by now.
I had Salmon, mashed potatoes, veggies, rolls, and Shrimp cocktail. It had jumbo shrimp. It's my new favorite menu item.



I thought for sure mom and dad were ready to get rid of us by now, but instead they had us go in their pretty backyard. I picked some of dads rhubarb so I can make a pie on Monday. They're also going to have lots of apples this fall. Yum.
I don't want this to be the longest post in the world, so I'll end here.
Have a nice memorial weekend and don't forget about your loved ones.