Memorial Day 2015

My new favorite picture-- cousins George and Emi will turn five at the end of July.

We had our fullest Memorial Day to date.  It was so full, in fact, that we've decided we'd rather not do such full Memorial Days in the future.  As always, we began at 9:00 AM at Wasatch Lawn Memorial.  Poor Georgie was having a sad moment.  He recovered sufficiently to collect pine cones in another area of the cemetery a few minutes later.

The Clark family gathering.

Uncle Lane shares artwork and history from pioneer ancestor, C.C.A. Christensen.  Uncle Lane does a great job of family history tidbits each year.

We made our first stop at the West Jordan cemetery to visit the grave site of Emanuel Holman Richards.  Grandpa Cannon was prepared with a picture and life sketch of his Great Grandfather.  He was quite a handsome man who came here from England.  After being here for a five years, he sent for his sweetheart to join him in Utah.  She arrived at the train station in Ogden and they were married the same day.  We got a kick out of the description of his wife, Mary Catherine Pope Richards-- "Short and pleasantly plump with a crooked nose from being broken in her youth".  I'm sure she was lovely-- and considering that she bore 12 children-- "short and pleasantly plump" is quite a compliment.  Frankly, it's more than can be said of me.

Grandpa Cannon and grandchildren at his parents' grave site.

This sculpture of Brigham Young reading to his children is located downtown in the Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument Park.  We livened it up a bit and added a few great, great, great, great, great grandchildren of the Prophet.

In the same little park is the grave site of Joseph Angell Young-- Brigham Young's oldest son who was one of the rescuers of the Martin and Willie Handcart companies.  With Clark and Bethany preparing for Trek at Martin's Cove this summer, Abe has been sharing his story a lot.

 Teaching children cemetery etiquette is important.  I realized I hadn't done a good job when I caught Cannon climbing onto a very tall gravestone and taking a flying leap off.  Not good.  Not good.

Grandma and Elinor.  Bev is a genealogy guru, and truly appreciates family history.  I appreciate her coming and sharing our Memorial Day traditions, even though she has no ancestors here in Utah to visit.  We are blessed to have her in our family.