Strong Family Vacation 2015: St. George

In the middle of June Grandma & Grandpa Strong gathered the family in hot, sunny St. George, UT for the almost annual weeklong Strong Family Vacation.

 

Our week was filled with big & small adventures and of course lots of time in the pool,

many opportunities to play with cousins,

 

 and simply enjoying time together, even if that meant playing sand volleyball in the dark.

 

Our week was filled with many activities that were captured on film to help the memories live on, while many of the most memorable events will have to live on in our hearts & minds as they are the moments not captured on film. 

This Strong family vacation was a little different than most because not only were Paul's parents, sibling & their families present but also his Aunts, Uncles, Cousins (their families) & Grandma. Paul had a nice little visit with his Grandma Sunday evening when he took Elizabeth & Rachel to see her. The girls needed to learn a few things about her parents for our ancestor BINGO game later that night. Paul was also able to visit & catch-up with several of his cousin pool side while the kiddos swam.

Ancestor BINGO turned out to be a lot of fun. I was happy to share my love of family history with everyone by creating and organizing the game for us all to play. The grandkids were able to research & share with everyone a few facts about 24 different ancestors from the Strong and Walker lines. After which they played BINGO, their boards were filled with pictures of these ancestors. I went back & forth on my desire to put this together but finally went ahead with it at the prompting from these ancestors one Sunday during Sacrament meeting. They pleaded with me to not let their stories be forgotten.

Tuesday morning, Paul took Elizabeth on a daddy/daughter date to the St. George Temple to perform baptisms for the dead. Shortly after they returned Sarah became sick with a stomach bug and then Elizabeth, followed by myself in the middle of the night. I feel as if I lost two days of our vacation as I sat in the time share tending to sick ones or being a sick one. Due to the sick germs in the family we never did get down to visit Great Grandma as a family or get a picture with her.

But despite illness we enjoyed ourselves & were grateful for the opportunity to be with family & create some fabulous memories.