Utah Trip: May 2008

Mt. Timpanogos Temple

The 2nd week in May, my brother Wade and I flew down to Utah for a special reason. Our dad. After many years of being less-active in the church, my dad had a change of heart and decided to come back into full fellowship in the church and return to the temple after many years of not going.

A date was discussed and decided upon, that bing May 10, 2008. Alecia and I wanted to be as supportive as possible and not dictate what day he should return to the temple but rather let hime decided. We discussed going down as a family to be with him whenever it was, but decided with school and finances, it would be more feasible for me to make the trip than bring the whole family. This also left the date decision more in the hands of my folks, as I would be able to work around my work schedule easy enough.

Everyone else had parts of their own family down there, except for me. Wade's son Ryan was even down there, so Wade had a member of his family. Alecia, however, DID participate in the temple trip in spirit by providing some of her family names for us to take through the temple that day. It happened to be a family of brothers and sisters that she was able to share with all my brothers and sister. It was truly great as we were all in temple together for the first time ever.

Wade & I flew down on a Friday, went to Mt. Timpanogas Temple on Saturday, May 10. Celebrated Mother's day with my family on Sunday and flew back to Seattle on Monday. I enjoyed being with my birth family, but missed my family in Wenatchee so much more. The only thing that would have made this a better trip would have been to have my wife and children by my side.

Childhood Home

On the way to the airport on Monday, I asked my Mom & Dad to take us to different stores looking for webkins stuffed animals for my kids that we couldn't find back home. We had no luck in finding one. When we were in West Valley City I said let's go look at the only home I grew up in as a youth.

As we drove through town, it looked so different yet very familiar at the same time. We got to the old home located at 3701 S. 4485 W. and we couldn't believe our eyes. What an eye sore. The new owners did not take care of it at all. Looked like a slum. My dad has always taking excellent care of his home and had a nice looking yard. Even the yard at his new home looks much nicer than many of the neighbors.

My dad couldn't believe his eyes. He had to circle the cul-de-sac twice to look at it. It was just so sad. Some of the homes on the street looked the same, but there were many that didn't look well. What happened? The above picture was taken in the summer of 2006 and believe it or not, this is a good day for the home.

I went onto Google maps and found a street view of the home and it doesn't look much better.