the Adventures of the Farrell Family of Four: memorial day

From the time we were little, our family always celebrated Memorial Day in a fun way. For years and years, up until all the "kids" of the families had "kids" of their own, we would get together with our family friends, the Pulsiphers, for a delicious breakfast cookout in one of the canyons nearby. Breakfast never tastes as good as when its cooked in the mountains. I remember my mom would always have a big box ready to go filled with everything we needed for pancakes, eggs, bacon, orange juice, and of course, hot chocolate. I can still remember those crisp Monday mornings of waking up early and gathering flowers in our backyard, and then making a visit to the Salt Lake City Cemetary to set the fresh-picked flowers placed in a mason jar on the graves of our grandpa and grandma Dunford. Even though it seemed like a simple tradition to do these things, for some reason, we all just loved it! It was our Memorial Day tradition.

Times have changed over the past few years with the passing of my mom, and though we don't gather with the Pulsiphers anymore, we all still have it in our hearts to make Memorial Day a family favorite holiday! Last year we spent a wonderful weekend in Midway, Utah. And this year we went camping up in Richmond, Utah in our brother, John's, new backyard. What a fun and amazing place... we were all in heaven! While they do have a grassed backyard, there are wonderful, wooden steps that lead from the yard right down into another part of their land... a beautiful wooded forest with a river running right through it. Right next to the river is a huge fire pit surrounded by massive logs used for sitting in front of the fire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, and keeping warm. There is a small pond for canoeing in a meadow nearby, and best of all, there are seven different swings hanging from the trees... from the smallest of small to the biggest of big! What a blast! Everyone in our family was there and we really had a wonderful time together.