Memorial Day 2016

My grandma has pictures of herself on Memorial Day at the Murray Cemetery starting from 1933.  It's kind of a Thing in our family.  It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned Memorial Day is about fallen soldiers.  I always thought it was about going to the cemeteries where all your ancestors are buried that just so happen to all be in the same valley.

Tabor and his family stayed with us Sunday night so we were a tad late on Monday morning, but we made it.

Here's the group:

I'm peeking over Tabor's shoulder.  Adam told me to move up and I said, "I'm good."  Also I was wearing heels and standing on a little rise so I could blend in a little with the tall folk.

It was so much fun to see everyone.  I especially enjoyed connecting with my cousin David.  Marianne is the oldest cousin, then me, then Olivia and David.  We grew up together playing Rook and laughing at the crazy competitive firebrands that were Enoch and David's brother Craig.  Marianne and Olivia and I quizzed David a lot about his latest girlfriend.  I think we're the big sisters he's glad he's never had.

This picture isn't so very flattering (why is my head twice as big as Olivia's?  Is that real life?) but here I go anyway.  Because I had that much fun visiting with David.

Also, Olivia is completely on her tip toes.  Who knows why Olivia does things.  (So much for me wearing heels.)

After the Murray cemetery (where I have a lot of kindred dead buried from both sides), we went to the Sandy cemetery.  My great grandma, Arvella Jaynes, is buried there.

We ran into my mom's cousins (from different sides of the family) at each cemetery.  Also in the Murray cemetery, someone came up and talked to Tabor (he swears he has a sign over his head that says Come and Talk to Me) who was also a descendant of Archibald Gardner (who isn't?).  We chatted with their family and realized we're even from the really crazy town part of the Gardner family that doesn't branch.  The part where double cousins married each other.

See?  Don't you just love Memorial Day?

We stopped at the Crescent Cemetery to see where some great great grandparents were buried.  From there we went to Golden Corral (which was a highlight for Mark--teenage boy + buffet = pure bliss).  My grandma had reserved a room to keep us all corralled (see what I did there?) and treated us all to lunch.

After lunch, most of the family dropped out and went on their way but my parents and sisters and we forged on.  We went to the West Jordan cemetery where both sets of my dad's grandparents are buried within 20 feet of each other.  We found a lot of my dad's relations in that cemetery and I said to Adam, "My roots go down really deep in this valley!" All of my parents grandparents lived within miles of each other.

Here are my dad and Hyrum in the West Jordan cemetery, leaning up against one of my dad's Egbert relation's headstone.  I was talking with my sisters about some other ancestors on the other side then turned around and saw them reclining.  I had to snap a picture.

I don't think Samuel would have minded a bit.

Our final cemetery was the Salt Lake cemetery.  We saw the showy gravesite of the prolific Archibald Gardner and we found some ancestors from my mom's side too who had come to Salt Lake at great peril.  Marianne was telling me the story and we both started crying. 

Everything I have and value most can be traced back to decisions made by these people.  I'm grateful to them and grateful for my heritage and for the confidence that wells up in me when I think of my pioneer ancestors.  Their blood is in my veins.  I've got this!

I lifted all these pictures off of Olivia's blog.  She is stellar in so many ways and family history is one of them.