Week #44, May 21-27, 2018, SLC, Utah

Today is Memorial Day and we remember our loved ones that have passed on before us.  We are so blessed to have a rich heritage of wonderful people who have helped to make us the people that we are today.  We were able to visit several graves today with Eric, Hannah, and Violet (Chase was helping his sister and her husband move). As we visited each one, we talked about special memories we have of these great people and Mike shared stories of his parents lives. 

It was especially tender to be able to visit and bring flowers to Paul's grave.  He passed away on March 5, 2016 from kidney cancer and left behind his beautiful wife, Joni, and two darling daughters, Ellie and Reese.  He will always be remembered for his sensitive, caring, fun and funny personality and perhaps mostly for his positive attitude even when he was facing his own death.  We love Paul and think of him every day. 

Paul is buried in a beautiful spot next to this lovely water fountain.  He is buried next to Mike's brother Jim's son Andrew and just a few rows from Mike's father and stepmother, Fred Maurice and Wanda Lambourne Moore.

This picture doesn't do justice to the amount of flowers that were brought to the cemeteries here in Utah.  We were truly touched by the number of people who come out to "decorate" the graves of their loved ones.  It is an incredible sight to see.

After leaving the Larkin Sunset Garden Cemetery, we ate lunch at 5 Guys in honor of Paul! 

We dropped Hannah and Violet off at their place and continued our visits which included another Larkin Cemetery in which Mike's mom and stepfather, Wanda and Mark Eggertson, are buried.

We also drove through the Salt Lake City Cemetery where many of our prophets and many other prominent church leaders are buried.  We loved seeing this section that has the graves of the military.  A big part of Memorial Day is remembering those wonderful people who have served to make and keep our country free.  We are so grateful and indebted to these amazing, brave souls!

My own father, Charles Peter Brady, didn't give his life in serving our country but he did serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a pilot during WWII.  Here is a picture of him returning on May 3, 1946, on a Liberty Ship to Staten Island, New York.  I am including some of his own memories of his time in the military on my Family Search account. 

After our wonderful visits, we took a lovely walk up Memory Grove alongside City Creek.  It was rainy and cool, but also very green and absolutely beautiful.

At this point on the trail, it started to get steep, muddy and quite treacherous!  We turned around went back to our car and ended our day by going to see the Han Solo (Star Wars) movie.  It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it.

 Sunday, Eric invited us and Hannah, Chase and Violet over for dinner.  He lives in a beautiful brand new apartment and it was fun to be able to break it in with his first dinner party!

After dinner, we took a nice walk and found this awesome playground in the complex across the street.  Eric and I had fun riding the zipline!  Playground equipment has come a long way!

 Saturday we got to babysit for Violet while Hannah and Chase had a date to the Jordan River Temple and then to dinner.  Violet was perfect for us.  We enjoy every minute of time we get to spend with her.  We are constantly reminded what a blessing it is for us to be here and what a blessing Violet is.  She has doubled her weight since coming home from the hospital and is five times as big as she was when she was born weighing under 2 pounds! 

I love to share the flowers on Temple Square.  This week the roses are blooming and the peonies and poppies are amazing!

I got an email this week from my sweet neighbor, Sue, from Longmont, with pictures of our beautiful peonies and our muddy, high, swift flowing spring run-off creek behind our house!  She said "the creek's up but not scary!"  We all experience just a bit of PTSD this time of year when the creek rises, remembering the flood of 2013.  

 
This week started out with our City Creek Branch's Hail and Farewell dinner.  We welcomed a lot of new missionaries both young Elders and Senior missionaries and said goodbye to many who are returning to their homes all over the world.  It really is an incredible blessing to be able to serve on the International Floor of the Library.  We are making friends with amazing people from all over the world.  This week we said goodbye to a dear sister from New Zealand.  We welcomed a sister from Lima, Peru and a couple of weeks ago we welcomed a dear sister from the Netherlands.  Each person adds so much to our floor and each has a wonderful life story to share.  Life is good on the B-1 Floor!

We are all faced with challenges and we may sometimes wonder where we can turn for answers.  There are people to talk to for help, there are books to be read, there are many amazing places we can get answers that will help us through hard things and I hope you will all do these things......

Prayer is absolutely the best source we have for comfort, peace, and answers to life's toughest questions.  Have a great week!  On Friday, it will be June already!  Make the most of each day and each opportunity that life gives you.