Las Vegas!

 The main event, and reason for hanging out in Utah, was to make it down to Las Vegas for Christer and Samantha's wedding reception, not that anyone minded hanging in Utah for some extra time with the family. We ended up going to Vegas a day early so we could meet up with my dad and Mary Lou. When the plans over the holidays to attend the wedding and see my dad in California fell through, due to covid numbers, we have been trying to figure out how to see them.  After all the driving in Yellowstone, we just couldn't drive any further before losing our minds, or without more time to have in between drives. We were very happy it worked out to visit with them for a couple of days in Vegas. We just swam and played games.  It was so relaxing and good to catch up!

That's where I picked up Karissa and Jason, at the Las Vegas airport.  I also picked up Jason's dad- bonus! 

We enjoyed extra visiting time with Abuelo, Grandma Mary Lou, and Grandpa Dave with good food and fun swimming!

Saturday afternoon,  we had to say goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma Anderson and then get ready for the reception.  Since we were the only Mercados able to attend the reception, we were to arrive a little early. We finally got to meet Sam, and of course her lovely family.  

Sam and Christer were sealed in the temple last December, so there was a nice ring ceremony in the chapel as most of her family are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Christer and Samantha's institute leader, who led the ceremony, shared his testimony of the covenants made in the temple at marriage.  Then Sam and Christer did. Sam's was in Spanish.  She's from Vegas and her parents know English (though Christer often spoke to them in Spanish), but she had some family members come up from Mexico,  who don't know English.  It was fun to use our Spanish again,  but harder than with Clara and David because of all the face masks. 

After the ceremony we took pictures with the bride and groom and then ate a deliciously catered meal of parmesan chicken,  mashed potatoes,  and grilled veggies.  Complete with meatball hors d'oeuvres and bread,  as well as bottled 7-up or Coca-Cola, which Erik gladly took up the offers for more than 1, or even more than 2...

There was nice piano music playing during dinner, then came the dancing! Lots of Latin music,  some fun line dancing, which imcluded the Macarena which is one of Erik's favorites. Erik wanted to dance just about every song,  and that's pretty much what we did! He said it was one of the best days of his life! After the cake, there were a few more dance numbers, and then it was time to go back to the hotel. 

The next morning we dropped Abuelo off at the airport and made our way back to Orem  for Jason to work one day before coming back to Michigan.  We met with most of the cousins for one more evening at Grandma Pat's.  

Rest Trip

 The original plan was to drive back to Michigan,  then fly to Vegas for Jason's nephew's wedding reception August 21. When we saw how expensive the plane tickets were for 6 of us to fly back out west,  we decided to drive down to Orem and unhook the camper at my mom's house.  From there we would go to the wedding after taking up the time with fun visits with cousins, grandparents, and friends. 

The way things turned out was that our sunroom and siding projects had to be completed and Jason had to go home for part of that work.  Karissa ended up having color guard camp, so she and Jason flew back home where he worked for his job and the deck while the Living Spaces finished the sunroom, and Karissa went to camp. 

We were in Utah one full day before they left,  but we used it to visit with some friends of Jason's from his mission to Chile. They were visiting their daughter,  who got married in the states during covid. They weren't able to come to the wedding, so they finally got to meet their son-in-law and see their daughter again.  We got food from Chipotle and went to a park to eat and had the best time with them! They don't speak much English,  so we had done a little Spanish practice in the car on our rode trip and Jason,  Victoria,  and I were able to communicate the whole time! Jason doing the best,  obviously,  but Victoria and I could hold our own.  Karissa has had 1 year of Spanish and got a few things out of it . The boys learned some things as well.  Clara and David spoke very slowly for us and had a lot of patience!!

Great friends!

When Jason and Karissa left, the boys enjoyed playing a lot of soccer with their cousins,  Victoria got her lashes and brows done by Grandpa Jim's granddaughter Emily,  who is going to esthetician school. 

Before Karissa left with Mariah, Natalie, and Victoria.

Calvin and Nikolas with Erik. Auston on D. Peter in goal.

Emily did such a great job! Victoria doesn't have to wear makeup anymore for a while!

The big event was hiking Mt. Timpanogos. I wasn't sure how Erik,  or even Austin would do and of they'd make it to the top, even after all the hiking in Yellowstone.  15 miles is a lot and there's a big altitude change! Plus, Erik's carsick problems can be severe,  as we learned.  I gave him dramamine before bed at 9. We woke up at 1am to beat the heat.  I gave him another dramamine before Karina's family picked us up at 1:45. We started on the trail at 2:15. Victoria went a little earlier with Mariah,  Natalie,  and Calvin so they could be back by noon. I wasn't sure if I would like going that early for Erik's sake. He relies so much on good sleep to help him with lack of good eating habits,  but he also doesn't like the heat,  and it was going to be a hot day, so leaving early was best. We hiked about 3 hours in the dark with flashlights,  which made it seem like a dream.  Erik still had his shirt off, even though it wasn't hot to anyone else.  A couple of times he wanted to turn around,  but I convinced him to keep going until the sun started to rise. Then he heard about the mountain goats that we could see, and since they're one of his favorite animals,  he started to get excited. Karina kept telling him that the meadow was coming soon and ge responded well to that. Unfortunately,  she had to turn around just as we arrived at the meadow and the sun started to come up. Her older son wasn't feeling well and had to go to the hospital,  but he ended up being okay. We missed her on the rest of the hike.

Soon after the emergency call from Blake,  we saw lots of mountain goats! Soon after that we were at the saddle, and no one even felt tired! We pressed onto the summit,  getting a good view of the Fab 4 who went up earlier. They made it up to the saddle in a record 3 hours and had to wait an hour for the sun to rise before going to the summit! Needless to say,  they made it home well before noon. And our group or 4 boys and a dog made it to the summit with lots of compliments on how well they were doing, and back down.  The heat wasn't too bad and knowing Grandma and Grandma were meeting us for the last mile or two down,  gave us something to look forward to!

First peek of light.

First mountain goat sighting.

Can you see the mountain goats here?

Gorgeous view!

Koki and I with the boys.

Dan and Koki with the boys.

When the Fab 4 (Mariah, Natalie, Victoria, and Calvin) realized we were below them.

On their way down, on our way up!

We made it!

Cool at the top!

We beat the heat!

It took about a day to recover,  but everyone did so well and accomplished that amazing feat! We got together with Derek's family on Sunday at Grandma's, after having met President Oaks whose grandson gave his homecoming talk in my mom's ward. He has very sift hands and a powerful voice! We went to Derek and Missy's the next day to swim in their pool and play some more. 

Izaak and Erik in dress ups!

Austin and Kallie

Teen games

More games!

Erik, Nik, and Izaak playing very creatively! This was their pirate ship!

Chicken fights at Derek's pool!

mermaid!

Karina and I

I went to the Draper Temple on Tuesday and ran into my mom's cousin, which was a sweet blessing and miracle that I got in a session.  

Elaine and I

Our final hike was on Wednesday,  while the Utah kids were in school, we went with Grandma and Grandpa to hike to Timpanogos cave. It was raining and there was even a little thunder,  but it was worth it! It was like school for us with all the information we read hiking up the trail and learned in the cave about the changes in the land, levels of rock formation, tectonic plates, ocean levels,  etc. It was very enlightening and another great workout!

Grandma and Grandpa

The heart of Timp!

The next day we got back in the car to make our way towards Las Vegas!