This weekend we held our annual Gardner Grand Gathering, when we invite all our grandchildren who are eight years old and older to come spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Gardner. The grandchildren look forward to turning eight and being old enough to attend, and we look forward to spending time with these precious little ones.

This year we stayed at a hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, and the weekend was full of lots of highlights, many of which we captured in a scrapbook. I wondered if the boys would complain, but they loved scrapbooking almost as much as I do! You can see that, although their journaling left a little to be desired—but was probably pretty typical of their age—there is real creative talent among the Gardner Grands!

I’ll share a few highlights from my journaling instead.

• The Denver Nuggets basketball team stayed at the same hotel we did. Although the boys rehearsed what they would say if they saw any of the players, we never did run into any.

• Saturday morning the kids made dozens of love notes for the seniors at a Senior Assisted Living home nearby. We went to the home to hand deliver the handwritten notes. At first everyone was timid about introducing themselves and visiting with the seniors, but the seniors were so welcoming that it didn’t take long to warm up. The seniors Tanner visited with wondered if he’d do a dance for them. (That would have been a sight!) When we got into the car, Cameron asked if we could visit the sweet seniors every year.

• We had lunch at the Sky Box, and the kids had a blast playing arcade games. 

• None of the kids had ever gone ice skating before, so this was a highlight. Sidney and Seth took right to the ice—probably because they had experience on rollerblades. Cameron was quick to follow, and Zach and Tanner soon felt comfortable enough to skate without the help of the bars. Grandpa and Grandma thought this would be an hour-long event, but it turned out to be over two hours of fun on the ice.

• We ate dinner at the Garden Café on the tenth floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City, overlooking the temple all lit up and beautiful.
• We went back to our hotel room and began scrapbooking the entire event, using the Cool Kids Simply Scrappin’ Kit. The kids went to town with buttons and ribbon and brads (and the paper piercing tool!). Grandpa had to remind us of the time or we would have scrapbooked into the wee hours of the morning.
• Sunday morning we went to Temple Square to hear the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform their weekly Music and the Spoken Word radio presentation. Went back to the hotel, finished up the album (each child will get a color copy) and then enjoyed a buffet lunch—the chocolate fountain was a favorite (the chocolate-covered napkins are proof!