2002

August: Grandma Florer invited Siara to visit with her in Utah and paid for her plane ticket. I went too. It was Siara’s first airplane ride (that she could remember). It was exciting to look out the windows and see the scenery, especially the Utah areas. Grandma flew to Utah from Phoenix where she was living. Uncle Nathan picked us all up at the airport. We met his wonderful girlfriend, Josie. She was from Brazil and a return missionary. She was sweet and funny.

Nathan took us to the Joseph Smith Building to watch the new church movie “The Testaments”. It had some beautiful ancient American sets because some of it was about Jesus and the Americas. Many scenes were recreations of famous New Testament scenes. 

The Mayan

After the movies we continued the theme and went to a restaurant called the Mayan. The eating areas were jungle terraces overlooking a large waterfall. Costumed cliff divers did shows and dove off the waterfall cliffs into the pool below as we ate.

We stayed at mom’s best friend’s house for a couple of days (Suzanne Bagnell) in her upstairs guest rooms.It was fun seeing the old neighborhood. Suzanne had married Denny and they were building a beautiful, big, new house, and we got to see it. After visiting with Suzanne we stayed at a hotel for four nights in Provo that Mom got with her Itex. We took a bus to the Wilkenson Center and explored BYU. Then Nathan took us to see Other Side of Heaven at the dollar theater. We ate at several Itex Italian restaurants on our trip. It was great! I especially liked Schalachkeys deli. 

Siara loves to climb and had wanted to try this place since the last time were in Utah. It was a building filled with huge climbing walls.

 

Ropes and harnesses were for safety. Uncle Nathan took care of her security brake and slack system at the bottom. Siara was strong and flexible, and workers complimented her climbing ability.

There was also a free climbing area where no ropes or harnesses were needed. Siara even defied gravity and climbed upside down.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

Grandma loves gardens and enjoyed this beautiful place. Each section of the gardens had a theme. We saw herb gardens, rose gardens, Grecian gardens, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan let us borrow his car, so we went up American Fork Canyon. I miss the mountains. It was as beautiful as ever. 

An I-40 freeway bridge collapsed in May. A barge pilot fell asleep and ran into the support. People couldn’t see that the bridge was gone, so several cars and trucks went off the edge into the river. Fourteen people died. 

July : Siara took a month’s worth of piano lessons. Her teacher skipped her ahead really fast, and she and learned how to play with two hands. 

August: Fun Primary Water Day at the church: Shoot the ping pongs off the pop bottles with water guns, water balloon toss, slip and slide, tug of war over a kids pool, popsicles, etc.