Gary Comes to Town

We had a great time with all the Ockeys including Grandpa Ockey.

On our cross country trip, we planned to stop and see Gary and his family Iowa. As we were staying in Cooperstown, though, he called and said they'd contracted Covid. So, we rerouted our trip home and avoided Iowa altogether. Gary doesn't come into town very often, so we hadn't seen him in a long time. It seems like he never brings his entire family. We were excited when he said that all five of them were coming to Utah for a few days. They were even staying at our house for a few nights.

Our boys are always excited to see their boys, despite the age difference, but they like to spend time with Shelly, too, as she is Dax's age. Of course, Dad likes to chat to his brother, too. The first night we played a little basketball. Everyone played, and Emiko acted as cheerleader. It was fun, and a great way to break the ice for our boys. 

It was fun to watch everyone play basketball together.

They wanted to see the local aquarium the next day, and since we're experts, we went along with them. We spent a few hours walking through with their family and Dad. Afterward, we stopped at a park and shared In-N-Out. 

Gary rode on the zipline at the park!

The biturong at the aquarium was surprisingly active.

The aquarium is one of our favorite places to take out-of-towners.

Seth remembers his time in New Zealand.

Dad doesn't get to spend a lot of time with the men in his family.

It was awesome getting to know these cousins better.

The adults posed with the massive shark fossil, too.

Then we made them go on a hike. We drove the two vans all the way up to Silver Lake at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon. We walked all the way around the lake at a nice slow pace with Grandpa. Emiko wanted a little more hiking, so she took all the "kids" up to a higher lake, while Gary, Grandpa, Dad, and Mom kept up a leisurely pace.

Silver Lake is one of our favorite places during the summer.

Mom and Dad love being in the cool mountains on a hot day.

Natalie was a good guide for Grandpa.

The cousins took the extra hike with Emiko up to Twin Lakes.

We really wanted them to see a moose, since they'd never spotted one before. When we got back to the parking lot, Dad took a short walk out toward the west, where we've seen moose before. Sure enough, he spotted one. Everyone was excited and we all gathered and watched him for a while. Then, we saw two more moose crossing the meadow back toward the lake. We hurried back along the trail and got an up close look at them as they swam across Silver Lake. It was the perfect afternoon. 

We delivered on our promise of spotting some moose!

This couple was almost too close!

These moose are pretty used to people, though.

We spent longer than we planned, but it was a spectacular day!

All too soon, our time was up, but we really liked spending time chatting and being with cousins. Now we just need to see them more.