Hardy Family Reunion in...Vernal! July 21-23, 2012

Vernal, Utah Temple...beautiful inside and out! My Grandpa Hardy and his father were in charge of taking care of the grounds and inside maintainance during 1920-1930s. At the time it was a Tabernacle and in 1997, the church dedicated the restored building as a Temple! My grandpa loves to tell us the story about when he tore his jeans while working outside at the Tabernacle. His aunt lived across the street and he went over there to have her fix the hole. She told him to take his pants off and for a young man that was frightening, but there wasn't anything to worry about, it was just the phrase "take your pants off" that he loves to tell us and laugh about.

The Tabernacle built in 1907 and dedicated as a Temple in 1997, 90 years later!

I love taking pictures of flowers! These beauties were on the grounds of the Temple.

Tasha enjoying the heat!

Dad laying next to Tasha, what a cute moment of them bonding! :)

Brothers! Uncle Mike and Uncle Jeff!

Bryce & Lara making sassy faces!

Grandpa Hardy in front of the last home his father lived in. My mom and her siblings remember their grandpa howing the garden at age 97 when they'd pull up to visit...97!

Aunt Cheryl, cousin Spencer, Emily, Tasha (yawning, which she does when she's in an awkward situation), Bryce, Dad!

Vernal, view from Rockpoint Cemetery!

Mom and Dad with a Mammoth! We visited the Natural History and Science Fieldhouse Dinosaur Museum! After all, Vernal is Dinosaurland!

Emily and I with our friend, T-Rex!

Another beautiful flower! I love being artistic and catch a flower in a different way than usual!

We drove to the Dinosaur Rock Quarry but no doggies were allowed! Emily took turns with my dad staying outside with the little rascal!

My mom, her dad, and siblings! Uncle Mike, Aunt Cheryl, Grandpa, my mom, and Uncle Jeff! My mom is the baby of the family!

Dinosaur fossils, so cool! I loved the spines sticking out of the rock.

This fossil is cool with the head attached to the spine. It's still crazy to think these things were roaming the earth at one time, good thing for us Heavenly Father knew we couldn't co-exist and so they mysteriously died off! Cause remains unknown...

I think this flower picture is one of my favorites! I hovered over this flower for a few minutes waiting for the right light and for the wind to stop. Walah! A masterpiece!

Check out these cool chicks!

Emily and I finally redeemed a bag full of game tokens at Booondocks I've had for the past 2 years, courtesy of Dave Wilson (thanks)! We had a blast playing skeeball, a game where we had to capture a light within a certain area, and more skeeball! We also took the longest time to decide what our winning prizes should be! We had 263 tickets, 133 for me, 130 for Emily! Our finally decision included 2 cool shades (a little hard to see out of), a whoopee cushion, two fun dip packets, 2 laffy taffy's, and 3 mini erasers! We had a great time! Sister bonding :)

A wildfire burning close to home! Alpine, Quail fire, July 3-8, 2012

About 2pm, July 3rd, it's believed a construction worker controlling a backhow in the fairgrounds of Alpine, Utah started a fire, which grew very close to a few homes, burned down a barn, and all in all burned nearly 2,300 acres.

My parents live a city or two south of this fire, Pleasant Grove. They weren't evacuated, but we took a drive on July 4th to see the extent of it. I was excited about this picture. I wanted to capture the serene horses with the fire in the background!

The helicoptor is flying in to dump water on the fire.

This is how close the fire was to these homes. One homeowner never thought he'd see his house again. His barn burned down, but his house escaped the fire despite a few burned parts of his fence and the siding of a playhouse.

The plane dumping retardant below the fire line. The fire marshall and firefighters were expecting the winds to change that night and possibly bring the fire raging back down the mountain.

The fire at night!

I took this picture 8pm on July 4th, 8 hours later. The fire had moved into the bowl of the mountain. I caught two areas where the fire began burning new areas. It's sad, but interesting to watch.

This picture was taken 2 days later on July 6th, the fire had been contained in this area besides hot spots. It's amazing the difference a few days can make, plus a rain storm helped! Our prayers were answered! It's sad to see the beautiful green mountains replaced with blackened, burned pine trees. I just want to say how grateful I am for all the volunteers, but mostly the firefighters for containing this wildfire so close to what I call HOME!