March 2013 Trip to Utah

Mom with her five sons, 3/15/13

Satellite View of Provo w/landmarks

Dorine with Quorra

Hillery and Kevin with Quorra in Orem

Family at Jeff and Marlyn's house in Lehi

Cait and Darren at Jeff's house

Kyle, Kelly, Roger

Emily talking to Kyle's wife Heidi

Playing "Ticket to Ride" in Grantsville

Ellen's 11th birthday celebration

Our crew with Brian and Dona's family

Cait and Darren in our room at the Super 8

Dorine and I drove to Utah with my mother on Wednesday, March 13, and stayed four nights in Provo before coming home on Sunday the 17th; Dorine was off work due to APS's spring break, so we had a little time for travel.  I've come to loathe the drive up to Provo, having done it so many times now that I could almost do it in my sleep; however, Utah is where Darren and Cait are, along with my four brothers and Dorine's brother Brian, so it's a natural vacation destination for us.  We stopped in Farmington (NM) on the way up to visit with Mom's brother (and my uncle) Wayne Stradling, but we still made pretty good time.  Once in Provo, we stayed in the Super 8, and Mom stayed with Robin and Karolyn at their house in Pleasant Grove -- Mom stayed an extra week to visit longer with my brothers, so she didn't come home with us.  We didn't do a whole lot, but what we did was fun.  We went to dinner on Wednesday night with Cait and Darren in a Mexican-Salvadoran restaurant called "El Mexsal" on 200 W. and 300 S. in Provo.  

On Thursday, Dorine and I did an endowment session at the Provo Temple, and then we shopped for a while before meeting up again with Cait and Darren.  On Friday, we (Darren, Cait, Dorine, and I) had a late lunch at Five Guys in Orem with our niece Hillery, her husband Kevin, and their baby girl Quorra.  Later we drove to Lehi, stopping first at Cabela's to look around and then going on to Jeff and Marlyn's house for a Kartchner family get-together.  It was nice to see all of my brothers, their wives, and various nieces, nephews, and their families.

The following day, Dorine and I went to the Provo Temple to attend the sealing of Michael Ferreira and Drea Ferreira, two of Lynnea's kids, to Roger and Lynnea.  That turned out to be another de facto family get-together, especially inasmuch as our cousin Rick Shumway performed the sealing.  Later, Dorine and I headed north with Darren and Cait, stopping on the way out to the freeway to eat at a pizza buffet in Orem.  We spent the evening in Grantsville with Dorine's brother Brian, his wife Dona, and their family, which was an enjoyable time notwithstanding the 90-minute (one-way) drive.  Finally, Dorine and I came home on Sunday; I drove to Farmington, but, by that time, sunflower seeds were all that was keeping me alert, so I handed over the wheel to Dorine for the rest of the trip.

The Provo Super 8 was looking a little ragged around the edges, although it has nice new TVs and still has a functional exercise room (which Dorine and I used twice during our stay), a continental breakfast with waffle machines, and "free" wi-fi.  A large contingent from Urban Development Solutions -- an outfit that brings people in to a given locale and sells magazine subscriptions door-to-door, blitz-style.-- was staying in the hotel.  Given that all the guys wore shirts and ties every day, at first I wasn't quite sure if they were a religious group or a sales organization, but the latter proved to be the case.