Memorial Day

I had so much fun with Emily over the Memorial Day weekend.

We worked in the garden, then went out to eat.. then worked in the garden, had oatmeal, worked in the garden, went out to eat, worked in the garden and then went out to eat.

Emily loves to go out to eat and she loves her garden. Guess what we'll be doing next weekend when she comes to help me entertain Megan and Jenny in Vegas? Everything on that list except the gardening and oatmeal.

My broken arm was sore after pick axing. Apparently that's rather hard on the elbows.

OK.. on Sunday she made wonderful food after letting me help with her sunbeam lessons. Her and Mama are so great with those kids. And they love them back.

This is something that burned... I think.
Its a picture that needs a back story but I can't remember it.

Truth be told, we would probably have been out in the garden on Sunday but it was raining. I still haven't quite figured out the going from 90's in Vegas to raining in Utah so Emily had to let me borrow some warm socks. Her house is cold!

But Memorial Day was the best Memorial Day I've ever had. Emily wanted to put Mums on graves of our ancestors not only because of the stories Mom's told us of Memorial Day's in Rexburg (taking loads and loads of flowers out to the graves in the early morning and then the big water fight in the afternoon after lunch) but also because Bethanie and Angela were doing the same to family graves in Idaho... although the relatives buried there are a little more recent.

Emily on Sunday looked up all the people that were buried in Provo and Salt Lake. And out we headed to the Provo Cemetery with Mums and little flags in hand (just in case we needed them).
Here she is looking in the registry (all the pictures of both of us are on Emily's camera so all I have is a few I took on my cell phone). We already knew where they were from the Internet, but it was a good picture opportunity.

There were so many graves with flowers on them and people all around. Can you see Emily? We found the Chesleys on my Mothers side (ask Emily how they are related... I knew last weekend)
And then discovered Eliza Haws grave (mother of the one above) who apparently had a sister wife who looks like is her younger sister.
There was a laminated card with a number asking for descendants to call. Emily decided to call the lady then and there. The lady was VERY excited! She'd been placing that card there for 5 years and this was the first time she'd gotten two responses (somebody else had called earlier). It was fun to go over the story of Eliza's husband who left on a mission to Australia and never came back. The family here thought he was a martyr but just a few years ago the family looked him up and found he never got on the boat where he had paid passage and after a few years died a ranch hand in Australia (good thing the computer knows how to spell it).

Nobody knows why he didn't come back. Emily and I were even more surprised that he left TWO wives. The lady on the phone told how her father was "disgusted" that a box of letters and stuff was sent back from Australia to "people who didn't care" and left in a garage somewhere. After the box suffered water damage it was thrown out. Who knows what was in there that could have been used to figure out the mystery.

After all that excitement, we wanted to do even MORE. After lunch in Lehi, we headed to Cedar Fort to find some relations on my Fathers side.

This is the only picture I took. It was a couple (whose name I can't remember... ask Emily) in a cool old grave yard with lots of Aults, Berrys and Messersmiths. Obviously our family wasn't one of the ones that stayed. It made me curious about why this one family went out there and why none of the kids seemed to settle there... although a daughter could have I supposed.

If I was them I would have put my maiden name AND my married name on my gravestone to help alleviate confusion. So inconsiderate of them.

All in all, can't wait to go grave hunting next year... although all that's left close to Emily's is Salt Lake. I guess that could be exciting. I LOVE memorial day!