Dad's Memorial Day

It was a beautiful Memorial Day!

This year for Memorial Day we did a little bit more with a little bit less. Since Grandpa Ockey and the Alders were in Europe, we only had the Schusters and Christensens with us. We decided to go down to Gunnison and find some relatives we'd never met.

First, we stopped in Fayette because John Mellor and Amy Bellamy are buried there. We asked the boys to tell us if they found a Mellor headstone. That was a mistake as at least 60% of the burials were Mellors. Soon they were shouting, "This one's NOT a Mellor!" Anyway, we found them, as well as some other folks that were Duffins or Mellors.

We found the Mellors we were looking for.

We continued on to the Gunnison Cemetery and found our people, Grandma Benson's Great-Grandma and Grandpa, Edward Duffin and his wife Margaret Gledhill. It was fun to learn a little about them. They were true Pioneers who followed the Prophet and helped settle six different townships in Utah. They managed to make the trip from Liverpool to Salt Lake City by ship, steamer, and oxcart in just 9 months!

There were quite a few relatives in the Gunnison Cemetery. 

Dad spoke about Margaret Gledhill and James Duffin who are not buried next to each other!

Dad enjoys doing the research for his presentation.

Here's the gang who made the drive to Gunnison.

After our program, we headed to Salina to try out a restaurant in Sevier County. It was really good, and though Mom and the boys were cold in the shade, they were still having fun. On the way back we stopped in Axtell Cemetery and found some relatives. Then we drove up to Centerfield Cemetery. We were looking for a few people, and we found them both, though they had changed their names on their gravestones. We visited Grandma Benson in the Centerfield cemetery as well.

Mark was freezing after 3 minutes and had to get a sweatshirt.  

Seth and Dax did silly dances while we waited for our food. 

We continued on to Ephraim where we bumped into the Christensens and Schusters again. We had a flower for Grandma Ockey's grave. We made it home by 4:30pm, too.

Dax always loves finding relatives. 

We miss Grandma Benson!

We also miss Grandma Ockey. It was fun to run into Sandy and Amy again at the end of the day!