Memorial Day Weekend 2009

Vanessa and Jolynn ran away from their families for a few hours. It had been a while since we decorated the graves together, so we escaped with our mums in hand and headed out in to the rainy Saturday.

I'm sure most of us can think back to a Memorial Weekend where we were instructed by Nana to go out in the backyard and cut some roses, lilacs and any other flowery foliage that may be growing out there. She would pack up her assortment of plastic containers (sometimes covered in foil) and off we would go to the cemeteries. She had her route. First Spanish Fork to where her dad (Thomas John Thomas) is buried. Virginia and Barbara beat us to it. We were surprised to see some flowers already there!The next stop was always Riverton Cemetery. Niels Nielsen (Poppop's father) and his first wife Dagmar and his second wife Mima are buried there as well. Along with Poppop's three brothers Milo, Amos and Walter. As well as Walter's son.
Our final stop was to the Salt Lake City Cemetery. We got a little freaked out, because we thought Nana had beat us to the punch with the ice cream bucket filled with roses from her backyard. Come to find out, Virginia and Barbara were ahead of us once again. Nana and Poppop are buried by Nana's grandmother and aunts.
After our trek, we had to stop for dinner, where we reminisced of all things Nielsen and more. We had our own first cousin top secret meeting. (If our parents could do it, so could we, right?)

Sunday brought us all to Spanish Fork where much to my surprise...a plethora of Nielsen's!! Some from Idaho, California, Washington and Oregon. It was great to meet all of these wonderful cousins. So now if we are ever in the grocery store, we will know if we are related.Connie Nielsen Byers (Uncle Conway's daughter), Virginia and Vanessa

Doug & Jennette

Kalen & Kordel (don't ask) Kelli, Jeff & Graham, Heather, Shane & Jolynn

Heather, Kordel & Shane (Corrinne was too busy playing)

Kelli, Graham & Jeff (Jack was with Jennette and too busy at the playground)

Jolynn & Jay sans kids

Barbara and Bill left before I could get a picture. However, Barbara did scold me for not keeping the blog up. I told her I would try to do better.

It was a great day with a lot of information learned about our aunts and uncles and grandparents. If you would like to learn more, click here.