Merry Memorial Day

For Kenneth and I Memorial day has always been an exciting holiday. With Kenneth's family we get together every year and decorate the graves of all of their closest family members and friends. We start at the City Cemetery in downtown Salt Lake City and work our way around the valley. The whole family comes - his parents, all of his brothers and sisters and their families. It is so great to get together and talk about the important people in our lives that have passed away.

My traditions come much more from when my grandparents were still alive. Every memorial day we used to go down to the Lehi Cemetery in Utah County and visit the graves of all of my grandpa's family. It was so much fun - for so many reasons. It was fun because a lot of my ancestors were from Lehi and it was really exciting to go to the cemetery and see so many Smuin's. It might surprise you to know this - but I didn't really run in to a lot of other people with the last name Smuin growing up.

It was also exciting because every year my grandparents would tell me the same awesome stories as we drove through town. We would check out the Lehi Roller Mills and they would point out the retirement home that used to be a dance hall and a roller skating rink. My grandpa would tell me again about working at the Kennecott mines and about walking all the way from Magna to the University of Utah when he went to college because he had a basketball scholarship. They would point out all the old homes in town that all of my relatives used to live in. And they would even tell me every year the same stories about my grandpa's mother who taught my dad how to play poker and who used to eat bacon every day. One year we even stopped to visit one of the really old relatives from Lehi.. This adorable old lady named Gertrude who had lots of stories about my dad as a little boy (that may or may not have been true).
Now that Kenneth and I live in Boston we miss these traditions. There aren't really any graves for us to decorate here. I guess we could go downtown to Paul Revere's grave - or maybe Samuel Adams. But it's not really the same thing... So, we were really excited when Kenneth's brother Steven told us that he has been doing some family history and was hoping that we could visit some old burial grounds and take pictures of the grave stones from some of Kenneth's ancestors that lived here in the 1700's. It was so great! It was like a little adventure.. We had to hike through the hills to find an overgrown cemetery in the middle of the woods, and it took us several tries to actually get there.. but when we did it was so worth it. We also found a little burial ground for the first settlers in Newbury, MA - which was where some of Kenneth's other relatives where buried. Here are some pictures of our adventure:







Even though we aren't able to participate in some of our favorite traditions from home - it is nice to find new ways to celebrate things here.

Also - Coming soon - pictures from our awesome trip to Maine!