Memorial Day weekend

We decided now that Chris was finally going to be the last Ackerman to get married, we should do a little bachelor's party brothers trip. I sort of too the responsibility to plan the outing. Jake agreed to graciously donate his amazing 40 foot RV to housing all of us. I had planned a 4 day 3 night backpacking trip to KOLOB arch in Zions national park, only to learn a valuable lesson that memorial day is literally one of the worst times to try to get a camping permit at Zions. So our plan drastically changed to a road trip to the grand canyon instead... still way sweat. When we arrived it occurred to us how different those conditions are there vs what we were planning on at Zions. We were prepared for weather in the 60-90-s not 20s-40s. It was snowy and cold and foggy there, we could barely see past the rim... HA... but it still was a great time full of laughs. The driving time was filled with naps, some good conversation and naturally a lot of weird conversation too. When we were tired, --we slept, hungry,-- we ate. gassy,-- we'd fart. It was a great way to do a brothers trip. 

At the Grand Canyon we hiked and got to see the beautiful scenery from the rim. Then we also stayed a night at an RV park near hurricane. While there we made a movie, Dave and Joel directed, Matt filmed, and we all acted in it. It was about a guy that recently moved into to an RV community and his eventual acceptance from his co-weirdo neighbors. Of course a great way to pass the time with a lot of laughs. We capped the trip off with a great breakfast at a diner in cedar city. We really all talked about how we need to do things like that a lot more often. 

I feel very grateful to have the brothers that I have. All are great examples and have helped mold me. I think about them and how they are and the standard that they have lived up to collectively as a whole and it makes me want to hold to that standard. We are the Ackerman brothers and I think we all feel a sense of brotherhood and familial pride that few people get to experience as deeply as we do. I look forward to coming years to strengthen that bond even greater. 7 Brothers, 7 missionaries, 7 married in the temple and still have burning testimonies of the gospel. Im proud to be an Ackerman brother.  -Pete


When Pete was gone on his brothers trip, the girls and I had a fun weekend. We were able to visit Carsons grave before going down for a quick trip to Manti. Elizabeth got to go down a day early with her Aunt Karen and Uncle Collin. She thought that was the funnest thing ever- and talked about for months later.

We did graves in Manti as well.  I love this picture I got of my dad spending a moment at his best friend Paul Fore's grave. 

While in Manti, Norah started calling my dad "Bob" after hearing my mom call him that. She kept running around the house yelling "Bob!, Bob!" it was cracking us all up.

We came home from Manti and and spent some time with the sisters- in law while all our hubbies were away.