Cornelius Chronicles

No matter how long we stay in Utah, it never seems like long enough and the trip home to Texas always seems to be longer than the trip out to Utah was in the first place.  This year we took an extra day (4 days) to journey back to the lone star state so we could do a little more sight seeing along the way.  The first order of travel tourism business was spending nearly an entire day at Mesa Verde National Park.  We visited the museum built in the 1930s during the Works Progress era, we saw ancient and awe inspiring cliff dwellings constructed by the ancient Pueblo Peoples, and hiked down to Step House where we could get an up close look at history and the engineering skills of the ancient Native Americans.  What a treat!   That's my family up there and down there!  Owen has the funniest story from our trip to Mesa Verde.  At our first stop inside the Park he wanted to hike down to a cave dwelling that was too far and too steep for us to get to with our young family.  Wel

Trains, Pioneer Houses, River Walks, Aquariums, Cousins, Reunions, Oh My! Owen's preschool summer bucket list included a trip on a real train.  Well, we could make that happen so we got tickets and boarded the Heber Creeper in Heber, Utah for 90 minutes of beautiful scenery, silly dancing, and train riding joy.  Here are some shots of our crazy crew riding this historic train.  Owen is intensely studying his real train ticket.   Grandma's are so silly sometimes  Check it out!  It's a rare Rebekah's sighting.  She doesn't know I got her picture.  He he! Even the Grandma and Grandpa Cornelius and Uncle Jason and Uncle Jared joined us for the awesome train riding experience.  Choo choo! While in Kaysville we visited this beautifully restored pioneer cabin and learned a little about what pioneer life was like when the Saints first came to Utah.  We had fun learning so much about our hardworking, faithful ancestors' way of life.