BYU-Idaho

I am so glad we decided to stop in Rexburg and tour BYU-Idaho.  I had been to Rexburg once before in my life, and that was for EFY when I was 16.  But really, I have very little memories of that week or of the campus.  And Dan hasn’t been back since he went to school there.  Back when it was still Ricks.  So he was excited to see all the new changes!  I have to say, I was very impressed with the campus.  The grounds were beautiful and it was so well taken care of.  Fun to imagine this place crawling with students in just a few weeks, including Dan’s youngest brother, Brian!

We saw the new BYU-Idaho Center, and wow, was it impressive!  It’s a little smaller than the Conference Center, seating 15,000 instead of 21,000, but what an amazing building to have on campus.  I would love going to weekly devotionals there.

Connected to that auditorium is a huge multi-purpose gymnasium.  It was awesome!  It has 10 sports courts and a suspended indoor jogging track.   

It was also fun to see the Manwaring Student Center which has just undergone some major renovations.  We ate lunch at the brand new food court named “The Crossroads.”

And wandered around the new bookstore.

Just a random statue.

We were really glad Scott and Elisha decided to join us.  It was fun spending the morning with them.

Especially since it was Foster’s 4th birthday!!  Happy Birthday cute boy! 

I wanted to take individual pictures of my kids in front of the sign . . . . you know, in case they end up going to school there, I thought it would be cute if they had a picture of themselves there when they were little.

Then we went over to the Rexburg Temple.  Gorgeous. 

We said our goodbyes to Scott and Elisha and kids and then went our separate ways.  We still had 8 more hours to drive home, and this day definitely seemed like the longest day.  I think we were all just done with driving by then.  But we finally made it home, and in the end we are so glad we made the trip!

Cardston Temple

Sunday morning before church we walked around the Cardston Temple.  It is such a beautiful temple!  Announced in 1913 and dedicated in 1923, this is the eighth constructed and sixth operating temple.  And the oldest temple outside of the United States.  We walked all around it and took pictures from every angle:)

The dinner crew after church:

After dinner we took pictures with Dan’s grandparents.

Ken and Naida with 4 of their 5 kids, Jim, Bryce, Janet, and David. 

Four generations of Walton boys:

Happy 65 years Grandpa and Grandma!  We sure are glad we came to see you!!

Then we hit the road around 4:30.  We wanted to make it to Rexburg so we could tour BYU-Idaho the next morning.  This is what our car looked like from like 9:00 to midnight.  Haha!   Hey, whatever makes the drive more fun for them.  I was definitely surprised though when they were all still wide awake when we pulled into the hotel at midnight!

Walton Family Reunion

Saturday was the reunion.  To celebrate Ken and Naida’s (Dan’s grandparents) 65th wedding anniversary.  We started off with games at the park.  Of course there was Bocce.

And a water balloon toss.  Everyone wanted to watch Leah and Molly.

They were doing pretty good! 

And then . . . .                                                                                                                                        

And David brought his bottle launcher.  Always a hit.                                                     

Then Mary armed the kids with spray bottles to attack Grandpa, and of course it turned into a water fight!

Dan’s grandparents were loving it from the sidelines!  But don’t underestimate Grandpa.  See that water bottle in his hands?  He wasn’t afraid to use that thing!

Then we went to the Senior Center for lunch and the program.  Dan’s grandparents rented out the Senior Center for the weekend so we could have a big place for everyone to have meals and play games together.  It was actually a really great place and nice to have it all to ourselves.  The kids could run around and play hide and seek and do whatever they wanted to do without us worrying.  The program started off with Ken and Naida telling the story of how they met.  I always love hearing people’s stories and it was so cute to watch them relive those days 65 years ago.

Scott sang a song that he wrote for their 60th wedding anniversary (the reunion 5 years ago that we didn’t go to).  It was a song about the phrases that Ken and Naida say the most often.  Naida: “I love you 50 bananas!”  And Ken: “I think I’ll stay.”  Scott has a real talent for writing cute and clever songs.

Then Jim, Janet, and Bryce (David’s siblings) sang a song for their parents that Jim wrote for their 50th wedding anniversary.  It was so cute.  It was a song about the story of how they met.

What I loved even more was watching Ken and Naida’s faces as their children sang.  So sweet.  At one point they looked at each other and Naida winked . . . . how cute is that!?

After some slide shows and a video presentation of everyone wishing Ken and Naida a happy 65th wedding anniversary, we had a really yummy catered dinner and then played games.  David was in charge of games and did some fun Minute to Win It games.  The Oreo challenge is always good for some laughs!  

Hitting cans off the table with a rubber band . . . . look at that look of determination!!

Then we went back to the hotel and went swimming in their indoor pool.  We didn’t get any pictures, but this was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for my kids.  Swimming in the hotel pool every night with their cousins.  They loved it.