Our trip to Utah

We went to Utah for my Grandpa Hansen's funeral the weekend before last. The funeral was very nice. I loved hearing stories about Grandpa's life. He lived a fulfilling life. Here is what was said about him in his Obituary (sent to by my Aunt Karen):

Obituary for Omar Milton Hansen

Omar Hansen, devoted husband, father, former Springville High chemistry and physics teacher and principal, B.Y. High teacher, Art Museum board member, Kiwanis Club member and WWII Navy Officer passed away peacefully, June 1, 2010.

Born in Provo in 1922, Omar married his high school sweetheart, LaVon Gurr in the SLC Temple.

Following 3 years of Navy service in the Pacific, he was awarded the Bronze Star for valor as gunnery officer aboard the USS Brown. Omar and LaVon then settled in Springville.

Omar loved his family, his students and nature. Each day was an adventure: camping, scouting, water skiing, hunting, fishing and snow skiing. He shared his appreciation for the beauty around him by capturing the color, texture and feeling of life in art. He produced over 90 paintings of Utah mountains and other scenery, several winning awards at Art shows.

He is survived by his wife, 4 siblings: June Henrichsen, Victor, Roger, Patrick; seven children: Robert, Judy, Craig, Deanna, Marsha, Gilbert, Spencer; 39 grandchildren; 65 great grandchildren.

Here's a picture from his funeral (they are folding the flag)

Cousins:

On Friday after the funeral we went to my brother Derek's house and hung out to play games and watch a movie (National Treasure) with most of my siblings and their families and my mom. It was fun. Derek and Rachel have a lovely new home.

On Saturday we hung out with Stillman and Michelle's family. We ate at Chuck Arama:

We visited the Clark Planetarium. We went by train (Trax).
Here's Katie and Alex hanging out on Mars:

Walking on the moon:

We also visited one of the visitor centers on Temple Square. I thought this was a really neat picture:

And we watched the Joseph Smith movie at the Legacy Theater. Very good. Very touching. Later that night we watched National Treasure 2 and went swimming at the Condo. It was a very memorable and fun weekend. Thanks so much to Stillman and Michelle for letting us carpool with you. It was fun to ride together.

Some of my memories of Grandpa and Grandma Hansen:

Camping; hiking at Bryce and Zion Canyons; swimming in a creek on one of those outings (we had fun pouring Grandpa's hat full of water onto his head - especially Melissa and Derek had fun with this, we also had lots of fun trying to catch pollywogs); visiting a dinosaur museum and an aircraft museum; Grandpa's hotdog mustard joke; Grandpa's magic tricks with his fingers; Grandpa pretending to be a car - a few of us would hop on his back and he would pretend he was a car driving and then get a flat tire and we would have to get off and fix the tire and blow it up and then get back on and drive some more - we thought that was the funnest game ever; hiking Y mountain (driving to Utah we always watched for Y mountain because we knew we were getting close to Grandpa and Grandma's house); playing on the playground at the park that was just behind their house; the cuckoo clock; I remember fresh air coming in through the open windows; sleeping in the camper in the driveway; the mural painting in their driveway of Lake Powell; bear and deer heads in the den; playing computer games in the den; sitting at the barstools in the kitchen to eat or on the little table and chairs on the back patio - I remember begging Grandma for more sugar on our Cheerios; the marble rolling game; building with Legos; the family reunion at Bear Lake; visiting the art museum; Grandpa and one of my uncles took my wedding pictures; Grandpa asked me what I wanted a painting of and I told him a waterfall, he gave me a painting of Bridal Veil Falls; we visited Bridal Veil Falls twice with Grandpa, Grandma and Mom; family reunions.

Thanks for all the love you showed to us grandkids. I love you Grandpa and Grandma Hansen.