George and Laura

Little Things That Make Us Smile!

It's surprising how even little things are so enjoyable the older you get! I thought I would just put a few that we enjoyed so much on our trip to Utah.

Watching Hannah ride her bike without training wheels in front of her house.

Helping Kevin mow his lawn. We helped Kyle, too. I should have taken a picture of his front yard. It is on a huge hill and you have to mow it with a hand mower. It is a killer!

Watching Carter and Kade at their football practices. We just sat on lawn chairs and watched the entire time. It was great!

Seeing the children having fun on the playground.

I guess you could say we are just enjoying being grandparents!

We Visit Brigham Young University

One afternoon, Kevin and Angie, Kade, Lauren,Hannah, and George and I took a trip to Provo to look around B.Y.U. Things have changed so much since both George and I graduated from there. We always love to see the changes and reminisce.

This is in the garden area of the wonderful, new Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni House. It is on a hill that overlooks part of the campus below.

We took a tour of the beautiful $35 million facility. It is such a useful facility for alumni gatherings as well as being a fitting tribute to President Hinckley. It was finished in just one year, so President Hinckley was able to enjoy it for a few months prior to his death.

This was President Hinckley's shovel. When they had the groundbreaking ceremony, each of his five children were given golden shovels. President Hinckley chose to use his own with his personal initials written on it.

Kevin and Angie in the family room where people can meet and greet old friends and college colleagues.

In the library, they had a book of the 30,000 donors who totally funded this building. Kevin found his name inside.

Lauren, Hannah, and Kade in front of a backdrop of Provo. You can see the Provo Temple as well as parts of the Brigham Young Campus.

We also made a trip to the bookstore, but we couldn't miss the gigantic indoor football practice area. Go Cougars!!!

The only thing that marred such a perfect day was that someone had hit Kevin's car in the parking lot. So sad!

Grandpa George Meets Baby Mason

Grandpa George was so happy to finally meet Baby Mason. He definitely has the Copeland "chubby" cheeks!

Grandpa George and Grandma Laura with Jaxon, Mason, and Sydney.

We then visited little Avery's grave site. It is in the Orem Cemetery which is basically a small rolling hill. It was so peaceful there.

Sydney and Jaxon think about their baby sister, Avery.

None of us will ever forget the experience of having baby Avery come and go so quickly. But little Mason has certainly helped with the healing process. The most beautiful thought of all is that someday we can all be together again as a family in the hereafter.

What a Fun Day!

On Tuesday, we went to a giant amusement park just north of Salt Lake City which is called Lagoon. There are rides and activities for every age group as you can see in the pictures.

Hannah and Jaxon ride a boat in the same little pond their daddies rode in when they were little. (I think the boats are actually new, but the pond is the same.)

Jaxon and Hannah were riding the little rides at first, but soon were riding the bigger rides with everybody else.

Lauren driving her green convertible.

Connor and Parker are doused after they ride the river raft. But they protected the snakes they won!

Jaxon is so proud of the bear his daddy won him on the basketball shoot. He says he's going to get a Phoenix Suns' uniform so he can match his bear!

Sydney, Lauren, Jaxon, Jenna, Tyson, and Hannah wait to get on the Atlantis ride.

Parker, Connor, Bracken, and Kade loved the miniature golf.

Jaxon loves to golf with his daddy.

Did Bracken just make a hole-in-one?

Whoops! I think Grandpa just missed a putt.

This was one of the scariest rides! It is called "Wicked," and all of the adults (except scardey-cats Grandpa and Grandma) plus the older children rode it! I was so impressed! This is Angie with Connor and Kade.

Sydney wants to make sure her mother is okay after the big ride. Alison was laughing the whole time.

Grandpa gives Kade and Parker a big hug.

After lunch, the kids had to have Dippin' Dots ice cream.

Alison, Anne, John, and Hannah on the Jet Star.

I don't think there was one big ride Parker and Connor missed in the whole park. They were ready to try anything!

This was probably the scariest ride of all--they got inside a huge ball which just basically threw them everywhere. There was a camera inside to see their reaction.

I will only post the "after" picture. It was pretty scary "during" the ride.

Now Grandpa George decided he needed to go on one scary ride today. (I was a little smarter this time! I learned after the adventure at Busch Gardens that I was getting way too old for this!) Anyway, here he joins Christie (Anne's sister), Anne, and Cameron for the Rocket. You get in chairs and drop about 200 feet. They are all smiles here, before the ride.