Hyrum, Utah

Friday we drove up to Hyrum and Logan Utah.  Grandma and grandpa Hawkins grew up in Hyrum and we used to go up there for grandma's family reunions. Grandma loved Hyrum and I can only imagine how excited she was that we were all gathering in Hyrum and meeting up with family. Matt drove us girls out there.  He is so nice and always takes such good care of his sisters!

On Friday Ron had arranged for us to go to our cousin's museum in Logan.  Jeff is Karen's (my grandpa's sister) son. He has the most unique and eclectic collections.  He bought an old church and has turned it into a museum that he also lives in.  We weren't really sure what to expect, but it was pretty cool.  It's really hard to put it into words.  He has so many random things and he is so knowledgeable about everything and seemed to enjoy telling us about everything. 

This bathroom was amazing!  It had this mummy thing in the ceiling and the most intricate paintings and drawings all around the walls and ceiling.

He said this is an ancient sarcophagus.  

Here is the garage where he works on things.  He had a dinosaur bone on the table and he was making some sort of octopus.  He had a sample of every element of the periodic table, death masks, lots of art, World War II memorabilia, a Tesla coil and a ton of other things.

It was fun to spend time exploring it with the family.

We had lunch there and had time to visit after looking around. I always love to visit with Dad, he is a great listener and gives great advice.

I also got a lot of time to visit with Pam that day and over the course of the few days that we were together.  I enjoyed that so much. I loved talking to her about Chris and reminiscing.  It felt like a had Chris back for a minute.  I have so many memories with them because Chris and I were always together.  I miss him so much and talking to Pam and Don helped.  Pam texted me and said, "I absolutely LOVED visiting with you. You remind me so much of Chris. It was good for my soul to feel your love for him."  That meant so much to me because I felt the same way.

After that we drove over to the home that my grandpa grew up in.  

Here it was back then.

And here is grandpa and his siblings with his dad in front of the house. 

We gathered by the house and Ron read from grandpa's autobiography about when he helped his dad dig out the basement with a team of horses and a scoop.  

It was really cool to see the house and read that in grandpa's own words.

Here is my mom and her siblings with Jeff in front of the house.  We missed having Sandi there!

After that we went and met Elijah's girlfriend, who seemed very nice.  Elijah goes to Utah State, I'm sure grandma and grandpa Hawkins are very happy about that.  After that we went to the cemetery in Hyrum.  We stopped at the creamery and to get a drink so we were a little bit late and I was so hot that I just stayed in the car.  I seriously can't handle the heat.  Anyway, Tiff found Elizabeth Bradshaw's grave.  We grew up hearing stories about her and her family from grandma. She is mentioned in the Saints book and in the movie 17 Miracles.  Grandma was always very proud of our pioneer heritage and helped us all learn about them. 

After that we went to dinner at my mom's cousin's house on my grandma's side.  Here is a picture of all the Nielson cousins that were there that night.  It was cool to remember being there when I was young.  I loved to go to the parade every year and I remember playing in the yard with my cousins.  It was cool to see both my grandpa's side of the family and my grandma's and see so much of their history.