Sabbatical Part 2

When we woke up on Sunday, we got ready for church and attended the ward in the stake center.  It was Fast and Testimony meeting, and for the longest time, no one stood to bear testimonies.  Eventually, a bunch of the kids got up and bore simple, but powerful testimonies.  They brought the Spirit there.  Mark bore his testimony too, sharing how Calvin wanted to camp on the temple grounds, and how he shared the sentiment of wanting to stay in a holy place.  Albric and I explored the building a bit.  After the meeting, we went to the temple grounds again.  Then we went back to the motel and checked out.  We went to the Utah Fieldhouse Museum.  Calvin's favorite part was a little playing room right at the beginning that had dino toys in it.  He didn't want to leave it, and after we saw the whole museum, we went back to that room and let him play for 30 minutes.  We got some groceries and lunch food at Walmart.  Albric fell asleep, so I stayed in the car with him while Calvin and Mark checked out the Cobble Stone Park.  Calvin was not impressed, as there was no playground equipment.  We next went to the Dinosaur National Park.  We rode the shuttle up to the quarry and enjoyed that.  We rode back down in order to take care of a poopy diaper.  We rode the last shuttle of the day back up and took the hike down.  We drove a little longer to the eastern side of Dinosaur National Park and stayed in Deer Creek Campground.  We got there in time for sunset.  

Sabbatical Part 1

At the company Mark works for, after 5 years, you earn a two week sabbatical.  Mark was able to take his this month.  It was awesome, and I loved spending so much time with him and having him with our family.  The first night of our vacation was Thursday night. It was spent at my parents house so we could follow the family down to a camp out at White Rocks.  We had everything packed up for our whole vacation.  We went to dinner at Empire Chinese in Centerville.  Our kids were kind of naughty and running around a lot, but there was only one other person there and he enjoyed watching their antics. 

On Friday morning, we headed over to the Goudy household and got to hold baby Clara while they packed up some last minute things.  Albric absolutely loved holding Clara and was devastated every time I tried to take her back.  We all gassed up our vehicles and followed the procession to White Rocks in Skull Valley.  I didn't take any pictures because I just enjoyed the camping.  Mark set up a little reading nook in a tree with a water bladder hanging above him, and his lounging chair in the shade.  Calvin explored with his cousins and climbed up on the huge rocks.  Albric loved climbing on the stationary motorized vehicles belonging to the Goudys and pretending to drive them.  Calvin got his cast signed by everyone there.  I stayed up later with my siblings telling scary stories around the campfire. We all enjoyed it.

On Saturday morning, we packed all our gear back up in the car and headed to our next destination: Vernal.  It was about 4 hours away from White Rocks.  Albric didn't feel well and we had to stop on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere to let him have a bit of a break.  We drove through a canyon afterwards and he threw up when we drove through Provo.  We pulled over and changed his clothes, then headed through Provo Canyon.  He threw up again, and was unhappy, poor little guy.  When we finally made it to Vernal, we decided to go to JB's for dinner.  I changed Albric's clothes again and we enjoyed being out of the car.  We noticed a church behind JB's.  We walked over to the stake center and behind that was the temple.  We walked into the grounds and enjoyed some quiet time there.  When it was time to go, Calvin wanted to know why we had to leave.  Mark told him that we needed to find a place to sleep for the night.  Calvin replied by pointing to a grassy area of the temple grounds and saying, "I know, we can camp right here!" His sentiment of wanting to stay at a holy place was very powerful and touching.  We ended up staying at the Econolodge that night and everyone was able to get clean and some good rest. 

We took a selfie in front of the temple.

Calvin behind a flower bed on the temple grounds.