The Great Catch Up: Memorial Day & A Bonus

There's a great tradition around here of the young men going around and putting up flags in the yards of every home on Memorial, Independence, Pioneer, Veterans, and Flag Day. You just wake up to this patriotic sea of flags in your neighborhood, and then they come around and take them down at the end of the day. It's nice. Since we had the winter that would never end, it wasn't really BBQ weather. And since we didn't have any plans with anyone else, we decided to head up to Salt Lake for the day. We knew Temple Square would be full of things in bloom, so that's where we headed. But first, some bikes and boards outside:

From inside the south visitor's center:

A cool little replica of the interior of the Salt Lake Temple:

If they ever build/refurbish a Mormon temple near your home, you can walk through before it's dedicated and see everything. There is always, always an open house. Just so you know. It's kind of cool since you can't go in after it's dedicated. Well, you can, but you'd have to baptized first, be a member for a year, tithe 10% of your income, stop drinking alcohol altogether, and a few other minor details.

Will giving me the Vulcan greeting:

 So photogenic:

Church headquarters:

Waiting for the fountain to burst:

Back in my college days someone once told me that the president of the church always lives up in that corner top floor apartment with the green glass and that the glass is bullet proof. Mormon folklore is a funny thing, but I do know for a fact that there are tunnels underneath all these pretty pictures:

I kept trying to get a nice picture of the four of them together. These are the two best:

It's a pretty downtown, known for being clean and well kept:

I told them to go up there and see if they could find President Monson:

I thought I'd go over and see everybody at Deseret News since I'm such a big deal over there, but we didn't have enough time. That is a total and complete joke. I email all my stuff to one person, and we've only communicated via computer. I still feel the love:

The Lion House. Brigham Young used to live here with 52 of his 726 wives. Or something like that:

(You knew that was a joke, right? He did have a lot of wives, though . . . but you knew that too.)

Why do I love stuff like this? I really do. Probably for the same reasons I loved Little House on the Prairie when I was a little girl. Don't you want to live in a simpler world sometimes? (Not that butchering a chicken for dinner is simple, mind you, but you know what I mean.)

Did I ever mention my mom and dad were married in the Salt Lake Temple? (Hey, Mom! I just realized it's your anniversary tomorrow! Or today when you read this. Happy Anniversary!!! How many years is it? Post a comment!) Do you want to hear something even weirder than "Kate and Will" getting married over there in Britain on our anniversary? Brandon's parents have the same anniversary as my parents! I know. Crazy weird.

This is the right place!

I think this is cool. We should all still celebrate "Old Folks Day".

It's just so darn photogenic, I can't help myself:

Saw this as we were driving home:

I'm a little compulsive about making holidays meaningful. Christmas can't just be about the presents, Easter can't just be about the egg hunt, Halloween can't just be about the candy (oh wait - we're good on that one), and Memorial Day can't just be about a BBQ--or in our case, a day trip to Salt Lake. We talked off and on over the day about what the holiday was about, and about all the people who have sacrificed their lives to defend freedom. We even extended it to the pioneers who sacrificed so much for religious freedom. And then I realized that Memorial Day was the perfect day to start my annual "Sound of Music" movie night tradition. (You know, the whole WWII connection?) Remember when it was only on once a year and it was such a big deal? (That, and the Peanuts holiday shows. . . did I just date myself or what? I grew up in the era before DVDs and even VIDEOS!) Well, I'm in love with the Sound of Music and have been looking for a good day to watch it with the kids, and decided Memorial Day would be it. So that's what we did after we got home. Maybe next year I'll even make some wienerschnitzel.

Ready for the bonus? Pictures from the end of the school year dance festival. Check this out:

Will is on the far right:

Front and center:

Who let the dogs out:

Pretending to be a puppy is Rachael's modus operandi, so she really got into it: