Temple Time!

We enjoyed the beauty of the Utah temples!

We arrived in Manti just after a thunderstorm 

and Dan snapped this photo:

Later that night this was the view from our motel room:

Friday was our first time to the Bountiful Temple...

 ...and we were glad to enjoy it with Josh!

 Happy 4th of July from the Mount Timpanogos Temple!

Matthew's Baptism!

Matthew was baptized today!   We are so proud of him.

Here are some pictures of Matthew as he has grown through the years:

Matthew is a great brother!  He has lots of great talents.   He is one of the Nephi's of the upcoming generation!

His uncle, DeShawn Smith, baptized him and Josh confirmed him.

It was a great day for Matthew and his family!

 He was a little nervous, but all went well!

Cedar Breaks?!

We were so glad that we stopped at Cedar Breaks National Monument on our way to Bryce Canyon!  Most people skip it and just head straight to Bryce.  Cedar Breaks is a natural amphitheater canyon, stretching 3 miles with a depth of 2,000 feet.  The elevation of the rim of the canyon is over 10,000 feet.

Here are some of the wonderful and amazing things we saw:

We thought we would take time for one short hike but as we progressed there was just too much snow.  Here is Dan posing by one mound of snow on the trail, but it got a lot worse past that meadow and into the trees.

The park is called "Cedar Breaks" for the trees which are actually not cedars but junipers (mistake by the early Mormon pioneers) and "breaks" described the badlands (pioneer word) with all the cracks and crevasses.  

One Secret Behind The Wonder!

Still sorting through all the photos, and then we took 100 more at Capitol Reef National Park yesterday!  While you wait, here is the reason it is so hard to choose a few pictures to post: 

 Dan is a great photographer! 

While he worked at getting good shots, I took pictures of him!  

You'll have to keep waiting to see all the wonderful things

 he photographed!

Here's a peek!

Red Canyon!

This post is a little teaser for our trip to Bryce Canyon.   9 miles from Bryce on Highway 12 heading into the park is Red Canyon!   It is amazing!    We couldn't wait to see what could be more spectacular than these formations.    It may take some time as I will have to sort through over 100 photos we took there!   Enjoy this beautiful place for now!

(P.S. Dan took most of the photos on the past posts and the upcoming ones)

If I Could "Hike" To Kolob!

The drive to Southern Utah was beautiful!  

We had lunch in Fillmore at The Garden of Eat'n!

As it was late in the afternoon we decided to drive to Kolob Canyons which is actually part of Zion National Park but is in the very north and can only be accessed a little south of Cedar City.

The main attraction is the Finger Canyons and they were amazing!

Here is the drive in--love the red road!

The next three pictures are of the Finger Canyons panorama but a camera can only capture one third at a time, so try putting them together to get an idea of the view we had!

We went on a mile hike at the Overlook area where we had spectacular views of the Canyons!

"Kolob" means "star closest to heaven"

 and we felt like we were in heaven!

P.S.  Earlier in the day we stopped at Cove Fort, a church historical site, and took a tour.  Thirty couples serve as missionaries there during the summer.  Although never used as a fort for defense, it was a post office, telegraph office and way station for travelers.  President Hinckley's grandfather built the fort and was in charge of it for many years.  His father, Bryant, grew up here.